Chiefs can’t dig out of early hole in 3-2 loss to Kamloops

The short-handed Spokane Chiefs twice rallied but couldn’t manufacture another goal, falling 3-2 Wednesday night to the Kamloops Blazers.

The Chiefs (30-27-5-4, 69 points) finally got leading scorer Kailer Yamamoto back in the fold after missing 15 games with a head injury. But the Blazers shut down Spokane in the final minutes to secure the victory.

The Blazers (34-25-5-4, 77 points) scored two goals in the first period and the Chiefs chased the rest of the night.

“We gift-wrapped the first two goals. Nobody was anywhere near our net,” coach Don Nachbaur said. “You can’t give teams easy goals this time of year and expect to win.”

Spokane had opportunities all night, but failed to capitalize. The Chiefs got their first power play opportunity 18 seconds into the game but they failed to get a shot on goal.

The Blazers didn’t let their opportunity slip.

Only 14 seconds into their own power play, the puck rebounded to Quinn Benjafield who chipped it past Spokane goalie Tyson Verhelst to make the score 1-0 with 16:13 left in the first period.

The goal was Kamloops’ first shot on goal for the game.

Later in the period, Yamamoto showed off his fresh legs. He got a steal to lead a break and got the puck onto Jaret Anderson-Dolan’s stick in front of the net, but the shot went high.

The Chiefs produced a penalty kill, but Spokane was called a couple minutes later for having too many men. The Blazers again made Spokane pay as Collin Shirley fired in another power-play goal at the 16:35 mark of the first period to make it 2-0 Kamloops.

“They score two power-play goals and we got nothing,” Nachbaur said. “We have no quarterbacks out there. That’s where (Jason) Fram is sorely missed.”

Fram, Evan Fiala, Ethan McIndoe, Wyatt Johnson and Jacob Cardiff all missed the game because of injuries.

The Chiefs started the second period playing like they were down two goals to a superior team, but Anderson-Dolan pumped life back into his team.

After Yamamoto missed a shot, Anderson-Dolan took the puck on the attack and got it past Kamloops’ goalie Connor Ingram to finally get Spokane on the board with 14:24 left in the second period.

“When you are down two-nothing and you half-it, that obviously gives us some confidence,” Anderson-Dolan said. “But once you get in a position to make a comeback, you can’t give up a goal on the next shift.”

Well, that’s just what the Chiefs did. Less than a minute later, the Blazers broke free on a two-on-one and Garrett Pilon found Spencer Bast, who got it past Verhelst to make it 3-1 Kamloops.

Then just over a minute after that, Keanu Yamamoto skated free, put on a fake, got the goalie to shift and backhanded it in to make it 3-2 Kamloops with 12:15 remaining in the period.

“That was a huge goal,” Kailer Yamamoto said of his brother’s score. “He had a terrible angle. I don’t know how he got it in.”

Spokane later got a power play opportunity, but the Chiefs couldn’t even manage a shot-on-goal. Then in the third period, the Chiefs only managed a total of five shots-on-goal even after pulling the goalie with 1:36 to play.

Every time Spokane got the puck into Kamloops’ side of the ice, the Blazers’ defense shut them down.

“We’ve got to be better. That effort is not going to win many games,” Nachbaur said. “We’ve got to be far more desperate than what I saw tonight.”

The Chiefs hold a four-point lead over Tri-City for the final playoff spot, and the Americans come to Spokane on Friday night. The Chiefs then play their final home game Saturday against Kelowna.

“I definitely think we are going to go on a streak here,” Kailer Yamamoto said. “I think we’re going to have a good weekend.”