Depleted Chiefs Tumble In Homestretch Loss To Seattle Leaves Spokane Empty-Handed For 13th Time In 18 Games

The Spokane Chiefs ran out of gas Wednesday night before they ran out of heart.

Their numbers depleted by illness and injury, the Chiefs were down to 14 skaters and two goaltenders, four under the Western Hockey League allowable of 20 players. Still, they came back from a two-goal deficit to fight the Seattle Thunderbirds to a standstill in the Arena.

It took a goal with 1:39 to go to beat them 4-3 in front of 5,057.

It came when Tyler Willis nudged the puck by goaltender Marc Magliarditi on a play set up by Seattle’s Torrey DiRoberto, who, with his great speed, got a half-step on the retreating defense and laid it back for Willis.

Willis fought through a stick check to score his first game-winner in a season that is turning as bright as a string of Christmas lights for the Thunderbirds, who beat the Chiefs for the fourth straight time.

“If you look at the heart and soul of our team, at what makes us pump, it’s Willis,” Seattle coach Don Nachbaur said. “He hasn’t put up a lot of numbers, but he’s consistently our hardest-working guy. He gets a ton of chances. A lot of those he doesn’t convert. He picked a good time to convert.”

The loss - Spokane’s 13th in the last 18 games - was one of the harder ones to accept. The Chiefs did just about everything they could with Ty Jones down with the flu, Greg Leeb leaving with a pulled muscle in the first period and Derek Schutz gamely going through the motions even though he has the bug that’s going through the Chiefs’ locker room.

Not suited were Trent Whitfield, Kris Graf, Chris Lane, Marc Brown and Jay Bertsch. All are sick or hurt, Graf the most seriously. His broken hand is expected to keep him out 6-8 weeks.

Still, Spokane (15-18-3) pushed Seattle all the way.

“I have a lot of respect for their guys because of their work ethic,” Nachbaur said.

“We accomplished a lot with the lineup we had tonight,” said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, who leaves today for Kitchener, Ontario. Brett Cox will coach the team for four games while Babcock coaches the Canadian entry in the World Junior Tournament. “It’s just hard to look at the positives when you’re not winning.”

The 5-foot-8 Willis was the hero.

“I thought DiRo (DiRoberto) was going to break away there,” Willis said of the game-winning play. “I followed up in behind (and) yelled at him - saw him look at me - and he got it back to me.

“Someone had a stick on me, too, I think. I didn’t get much on it, but he (Magliarditi) was leaning a little bit and I just got it over the pad. I don’t think it even hit the back of the net, but she got over the line.”

It left Seattle eight points up on the Chiefs, who cling to third in the WHL West despite their longest dry spell in two years.

After Seattle scored on two of its first four shots on Spokane goalie Aren Miller, Magliarditi came on in relief to keep the Chiefs in it.

“Little things,” Babcock said. “All we had to do was get the puck deep and they don’t score that last goal. We played like a team that’s lost as many as we have, without a lot of polish or poise.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON DECK The Chiefs face Prince Albert at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Arena.