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

Prince George hands Spokane Chiefs worst shutout loss of season

Two nights after a shutout victory over Prince George, the Cougars got their revenge on Friday night and handed the Spokane Chiefs their worst shutout loss of the season, 6-0.

The Cougars (33-25-3-1, 70 points) looked well rested and pounced all over early mistakes by the Chiefs to put the game out of reach early.

“Tip your hat to them,” Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur said. “They out skated and out competed us. Those first three goals we had the puck and then turned it over to them. Our goalie had no chance on the first three goals.”

The loss dropped Spokane (29-24-5-3, 66 points) into a tie with Portland for third place in the U.S. Division and only one point ahead of Kamloops for the final playoff spot.

“There is no room for error,” Nachbaur said, “and we just made a huge one.”

Even so, the Chiefs’ defense was effective to start the game. The Cougars didn’t have a shot on goal for almost seven minutes into the contest.

But when Prince George finally did get that shot, it hurt. During a power play, Shane Collins’ shot rebounded off a Spokane player and Prince George’s Brad Morrison found the puck and an empty net to make it 1-0 Cougars.

Then with 13:30 left in the period, Spokane’s Hayden Ostir had a breakaway, only to miss everything wide right on the shot. It was that kind of night for the Chiefs.

Later, just seconds after a power play for Spokane, Prince George got a two-on-one and Jesse Gabrielle got it past Spokane goalie Lasse Petersen to make it 2-0 at the 11:25 mark of the first period.

At that point, Prince George had just four shots and two goals.

Spokane had another power play that was marked by several short-handed scoring opportunities for Prince George. Just seconds after Spokane’s advantage ended, Chase Witala made a steal and got the puck to Jansen Harkins, who scored to make it 3-0 at the 16:22 mark.

The Chiefs ended the first period with four shots on goal. For the night, the Chiefs failed to score on five power play opportunities.

“We could hardly muster up a shot on goal,” Nachbaur said.

The long night continued in the second period as the Chiefs got more shots, but failed to get the puck into the net. The Chiefs ended up winning the battle of shots 35-25, but Prince George backup goalie Ty Edmonds stopped them all.

“We had our opportunities,” Nachbaur said. “But we can’t play like the other team. We were gross, and I’m not exaggerating, for the first two periods.”

It got even worse for Spokane in the third period as Prince George added goals by former Chief Luke Harrison, Brogan O’Brien and Kody McDonald for the final margin.

The Chiefs thought they got on the board with 9:33 remaining when Keanu Yamamoto appeared to have scored, but it was called off after a review.

“I actually don’t know. I thought it hit the back bar. I thought it was a goal,” Yamamoto said. “It was frustrating. We didn’t manage the puck very well. We kind of gave it to them.”

The Chiefs left after the game for Kelowna and only have three more home games next week as the race for the playoffs continues.

“We approached the game like a playoff. We talked before the game about being competitive,” Nachbaur said. “But a lot of guys failed in that.”