Season ends for Chiefs with OT loss
Stick around sports long enough and you see something new - and it's not Portland's Riley Boychuk going over Spokane goalie James Reid in the Colin Mulvany photo above.
This time it's a seven game playoff series in hockey where the visiting team wins every game.
So the Western Hockey League season ends for the Spokane Chiefs, who were home Wednesday night, which obviously means they lost. 5-4 in overtime.
The unedited game story for Thursday's paper is below. Just in and give an opinion on what happened. Not sure how long it will take to get a sitdown with the Chiefs to sort through the rubble, but we will be back with the season analysis.
Of course I'll return in a few minutes to post John Blanchette's column.
By
davet@spokesman.com; (509) 927-2154
It couldn’t have played out any other way.
With
If there was one advantage it belonged to
And they did it again Wednesday night at the Arena, silencing a spirited crowd of 6,048.
Defenseman Taylor Aronson made a strong rush into the Chiefs in and put the puck on the stick of unmarked rookie Ty Rattie, who got his first playoff goal 17:29 into overtime to give the Winterhawks a 5-4 win.
“I don’t know,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said about the inability to win at home. “I think a combination of some bad bounces, some bad breaks. Tonight I thought they scored a couple of not-great goals. If you give up a bad goal in a close series like this it’s usually going to bite you.
“It’s just too bad. As a group I thought we played well enough to win tonight and didn’t get the result we wanted.”
More maddening – the Chiefs had a 3-0 lead in the opening minutes of the second period and a 4-2 lead with just over 10 minutes left in regulation.
“Quite honestly it’s a heart-wrenching ending, one we didn’t expect, don’t like and really don’t want,” Sauter said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a harder day, I think. The disappointment of the game hits you tonight. Tomorrow it’s the disappointment of losing some guys.”
By winning the series 4-3,
The Chiefs got out to a quick lead, something they failed to do in previous home games.
Brady Brassart fed Tyler Johnson for his third playoff goal just 3:36 in. Then Mitch Wahl got his third at 11:03. The Winterhawks seemed flustered and when Wahl connected again just 3:31 into the second period it appeared an inexplicable season-long jinx –
“When we got down our frustration came through,”
“In Game 7’s, kids with no experience, they just reacted the wrong way. Once we got that goal we started to settle into our game again.”
The goal came from Nino Niederreiter at 7:03 after a nifty drop pass by Brad Ross. Next came a goal credited to Ryan Johansen at 17:07.
Kyle Beach’s playoff-best seventh goal, on a feed from Wahl restored the two-goal lead at 6:50 of the third period. Shortly after that Wahl sent one off the crossbar.
“At 2-0, we thought that’s the start we needed,” Sauter said. “Even at 3-1 we felt we were still in good shape and had the game under control. We scored to make it 4-2 and have a pretty good hold on things.
“Their third goal, James has it, he has it covered, gets bumped, it spits out and they shoot it into an empty net. From that point I really think the momentum swayed in their favor and we really couldn’t get it back.”
That goal went to Riley Boychuck at 9:45 and Luke Walker scored at 13:24 to force the overtime.
“I think we were trying to rely too much on our defense,” Johnson said. “We weren’t really pushing the play like we usually do. I think that cost us. When you’re sitting back on your heels, that’s when they can attack you and they did, they played well.”
The Winterhawks out-shot the Chiefs 14-6 in the third period and 12-5 in overtime.
“I really thought we had a little longer bench than they did,”
“They went to Wahl’s line early and they controlled the whole first period. They’re one of the best lines in the league. … I thought their line fatigued as the game went on.”
Sauter said, “We just matched nine forwards to their nine forwards. We spotted in a couple of guys here and there. That’s how we were successful in