Kailer Yamamoto scores again but Spokane Chiefs dumped by Tri-City

The Spokane Chiefs are running out of time if they want to climb back into the in Western Hockey League playoff race.

Kailer Yamamoto scored his team-leading 34th goal of the season, but the Tri-City Americans downed the Chiefs 5-1 on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick. The Chiefs are 0-5 against their traditional rival this year and have lost 7 of 9 in the series.

The Chiefs (25-25-6-3, 59 points) remain eight points behind Portland – with 13 games to play – for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Parker AuCoin started the scoring with his 20th goal of the season with just over four minutes left in the first period. Nolan Yaremko made it 2-0 late in the second period with his seventh of the campaign.

Kailer Yamamoto got the Chiefs on the board a little over four minutes into the third period, assisted by Jaret Anderson-Dolan.

But Tri-City (35-23-3-0, 71 points) answered back five minutes later, with Juuso Valimaki potting his 18th of the year on a power play. The Americans added late insurance goals on Tyler Sandhu’s 17th and Brett Larson’s sixth of the season, both on power plays.

The Chiefs are off until February 25 when they host Tri-City at the Arena at 7:05 p.m.