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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Remi Laurencelle scores four goals as Everett tops Chiefs

The Spokane Chiefs scratched back to take a third-period lead Wednesday night, but the Everett Silvertips scored four more goals to slam the door on a 7-4 victory.

Everett’s Remi Laurencelle scored four goals as the Chiefs played their first game without leading goal scorer Adam Helewka, who was suspended six games by the Western Hockey League this week for a fight after the Chiefs’ 4-3 loss Saturday to Tri-City.

“We just did a really poor job with our mental approach,” Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur said. “We had way too many turnovers. And, we needed a better effort as far as keeping the puck out of the net.”

Spokane (16-13-2-1, 35 points) trails Everett (18-10-0-2) and Seattle, which are tied at the top of the U.S. Division with 38 points.

Spokane’s highlight of the night came early in the third period when the game was tied at 3. Kailer Yamamoto stole the puck, broke free and got the puck past Everett’s Carter Hart to give Spokane a 4-3 lead.

Yamamoto spun in the air and smashed into the glass to celebrate his second goal of the night.

“It’s always good to get on the score sheet again,” said Yamamoto, who added an assist for his team-leading 44 points. “It’s a bit of a letdown when you have a lead and you take a bad penalty and they get back in it.”

To start the game, both teams struggled to find any offense.

The Chiefs got an early power play but didn’t get a single shot on goal.

Then just after 5 minutes into the game, a couple of Silvertips camped out in front of the Spokane net and Laurencelle got a quick shot to go past Chiefs goalie Tyson Verhelst to make it 1-0.

But 16 seconds later, Markson Bechtold got a great pass to an open Hudson Elynuik who slammed it home to tie the game at 1. It was Elynuik’s fifth goal of the season.

“It’s good to get the monkey off my back,” Elynuik said. “It’s been a while. It’s definitely a confidence booster.”

But just more than 3 minutes later, Carson Stadnyk shot a nifty pass to Dawson Leedahl, who beat Verhelst to make it 2-1 Everett.

Almost 12 minutes into the game, the Chiefs only had two shots on goal and one of those scored.

Things got crazy in the second period. Spokane got a power play that lasted all of 7 seconds until Yamamoto was called for high sticking to erase the advantage.

Then at the 14:03 mark of the second period, Riley Whittingham skated free behind the Everett net and raced around to score a wrap-around goal that had to be reviewed. But the goal stood to tie the game at 2.

Then 17 second later, Yamamoto collected a deflection and hammered it past Everett’s Hart to take the lead at 3-2.

But the lead didn’t last long. Less than 90 seconds later, Everett’s Laurencelle raced toward the Spokane net and collected the puck after a Chiefs defender whiffed at it. Laurencelle got it past Verhelst to tie the game at 3, which is how the period ended.

Yamamoto’s dramatic goal gave Spokane the lead, but Curtis Miske was called for a penalty less than a minute later and Carson Stadnyk scored to tie the game at 4.

Everett added goals from Tristen Pfeifer and two empty-netters after Nachbaur pulled Verhelst for the 7-4 final score.

“We’ve got to clean up the mistakes,” Nachbaur said. “We didn’t play the right way. That’s the bottom line.”