Chiefs win thriller
Kyle Beach poked in a loose puck with 48 seconds left in overtime to give the Spokane Chiefs a wild 4-3 win over the Tri-Cities Americans Saturday night.
Just a wonderful way to come back from furlough, although the overtime and my rustiness wiped out deadlines. Below is a very fast, unedited story.
Back Monday - after the 3 p.m. President's Day showdown with Everett.
By Dave Trimmer
davet@spokesman.com; (509) 927-2154
The Western Hockey League playoffs may not start for a month but you won’t convince the sellout crowd of 10,530 at the Arena they saw anything less than a playoff game Saturday night.
Kyle Beach completed his hat trick by poking the puck across the goal line with 48.2 seconds left in overtime to lift the Spokane Chiefs to a wild 4-3 win over the Tri-City Americans.
That came after Tri-City’s Johnny Lazo tied the game with three seconds left in regulation, which came after time was put back on the clock twice in the final minute and an icing call that out-raged the Chiefs’ bench.
“We’re a confident bunch,” Beach said. “We felt we kind of got ourselves in trouble there, we thought there was possibly a missed call on the icing. But anytime you give up a goal with 3 seconds left it’s a heartbreaker.
“But the guys were confident, they were happy. We came out on that first shift and had a glorious opportunity. Obviously it was an unbelievable save by (Drew) Owsley. If anything that brought our spirits down more than them scoring in the last few seconds. But we got our chance and finished them off. It’s a great feeling.”
There was playoff intensity from the start, although the play was more free-wheeling than a playoff game as the Chiefs took a 2-1 lead. Both teams tightened things up in the second period, swapping power play goals. And things were really buttoned up in the third, until the frantic ending.
The Americans (29-15-1-2, 81 points) were buzzing Chiefs goalie James Reid, who finished with 43, and that was before pulling Owsley for the final minute.
There was an icing call on the Chiefs with just under 40 seconds left but with the crowd going crazy the clock stopped a little late so referee Derek Herman put a half-second back on the ice.
Neal Prokop won the draw and the Americans first a shot at the net that Reid had but after a scrum it clearly trickled across the line.
“Any time a defenseman pinches on the wall, the icing is supposed to be waved off,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “I have no problem putting time on the clock, if that’s the right time, that’s the right time. Those two seconds cost us a goal, too. … I don’t have a problem with them checking time, but I am a little bewildered over the icing call.”
Several Chiefs said they thought it was a slow whistle that allowed the puck to get across the line, but they regrouped.
“It was kind of draining,”
It was Wahl to basically got the game winner during four-on-four overtime play, taking the puck down the right side and cutting into the crease against Owsley, who 33 saves in relief of Alexander Pechurskiy.
“It’s just sitting there waiting,” Beach, who now has a nine-game point streak with 11 goals and sevens, said of his 40th goal. “Wally insists it was in and I don’t disagree with him but I wasn’t going to take a chance.”
Tri-City coach Jim Hiller was disappointed but not unhappy his team couldn’t capitalize on the late goal.
“It was entertaining,” he said. “I think that’s what people come pay their money to watch. It was 20 young guys on both sides going at it with everything they had.
“I don’t know when we had the momentum. I was disappointed how it ended, but I don’t think I was surprised.”
Sauter was equally pleased.
“I thought we played extremely well,” he said. “I thought our power play was good, I thought our penalty killing was fair enough, I thought our guys play hard for the most part and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction as far as consistency and intensity each and every shift.”
He’s also pleased the way they responded under playoff intensity.
“We were having a tendency of taking shifts and periods off and you can’t,” he said. “If you do you lose, it’s that simple. We’re at the point of the season where team is playing well and they’re playing hard. It’s going to be tough every night and we’re OK with that.”
Tyler Johnson got the Chiefs off to a quick start, firing a wrist shot from the left circle to the far upper corner for his career-high 27th goal just 48 seconds into the game.
After that the Americans took over, firing shot after shot at Reid, who was helped twice by the post. Finally, on the shot that gave TC a 10-1 advantage, Mason Wilgosh shooting from the right circle with the puck going off Reid’s glove and dribbling into the net at 5:23.
That seemed to wake up the Chiefs, who missed a great opportunity when Wahl swooped in on goal but couldn’t coax the puck past Pechurskiy. However, the loose puck went to Kyle Beach at the right well and he just fired it back toward goal, deflecting it off Pechurskiy’s chest, bringing on Owsley.
Beach made it 3-1 with a power play goal at 2:57 of the second period, taking a pass from Johnson and rifling in a big-league wrist shot from the left circle. The Americans got that back with a power play goal at 14:14 when Sergei Drozd, crossing in front of the net, took Brooks Macek’s pass from the left point and whipped the puck past Reid.