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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane Chiefs try to climb out of 2-0 hole against Victoria

Lasse Petersen has played well as a backup goalie for the Chiefs, including two shutouts in the regular season. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)

After two close losses, the Spokane Chiefs return to the friendly confines of the Spokane Arena in their struggle to keep their hockey season alive against the surging Victoria Royals.

The Chiefs lost the first-round playoff opener 5-3 on Friday, then dropped a close 4-3 decision on Saturday to the Royals. With the two wins, Victoria has won 15 games in a row and finished with the best record in the Western Hockey League.

“I’m obviously disappointed that we are down two-nothing, but I think our guys have competed hard,” coach Don Nachbaur said. “They are a good team. We give them a lot of respect. But we built a little bit of confidence in Victoria.”

Jacob Cardiff, who scored half of Spokane’s goals during the weekend, said the Chiefs will do everything they can to keep from dropping into a 3-0 hole.

“We played pretty well. We made a few too many mistakes,” Cardiff said. “They are a good team. They take advantage of those mistakes. We’ve got to try to limit those.”

The Chiefs again will go, apparently, without starting goalie Tyson Verhelst, who suffered an upper body injury in the last week of the regular season. However, backup Lasse Petersen has played well, including notching two shutouts, in place of Verhelst.

During the regular season, Spokane split the series 2-2 with the Royals, which caught fire late in the season to win the Western Conference.

The key for the Chiefs will be to stick to its style of hard-working, grind-it-out hockey, Nachbaur said.

“If you play the right way, you get results,” he said. “But the pressure is on us. It’s 0-to-2 and we’ve got to take care of the home-ice advantage.”

Forward Hudson Elynuik, who scored a goal in each of the playoff losses, said the Chiefs “have to keep our foot on the gas pedal.

“We played pretty good while we were in Victoria,” he said. “We are looking forward to getting back to home ice. We are down 2-0, but once we get that first win, we are back in it.”