Triumphant Chiefs Return To Top Of West Smyth Rediscovers Net In 5-4 Win Over Kelowna

It took four lead changes, one bizarre goal and the game-winner from a left winger who hadn’t found the back of the net since opening night, but the Spokane Chiefs woke up this morning in first place in the Western Hockey League West.

They beat the Kelowna Rockets 5-4 to take the division lead by two points with only six games remaining before the holiday break.

Spokane left wing Jared Smyth stuck a setup pass from Kris Graf past goaltender Jordan Watt with 4:27 left for his first goal since Sept. 27.

With it, the Chiefs improved to 21-8-1 - two points up on the Portland Winter Hawks and Prince George Cougars heading into Friday night’s Spokane-Portland game here.

“I’m just excited I scored - I haven’t scored in a while,” Smyth said. “I finally buried one. We struggled but battled back. That’s what this team’s all about.”

The puck was in the corner with “two of our guys on it,” Smyth recounted. “Graf made a great pass out to me in the slot.”

Smyth got the shot off just before he was taken out by Kelowna’s Ryan Wade.

“When you score you don’t feel those things,” Smyth said. “It’s when you don’t score you feel it. I’ve had lots of opportunities. Hopefully, this will get things rolling for me.”

The Chiefs came back from 1-0 and 4-3 deficits without top guns Marian Cisar (shoulder) and Trent Whitfield (bruised kidney). Both are expected to return Friday night.

Greg Leeb and Derek Schutz filled the void - Leeb with a pair of goals and an assist, Schutz with a goal of his own and another credited to him on a shot that bounced high off Watt and was batted into the net by Kelowna defenseman Kris Mallette.

The hockey version of a slam dunk in the wrong goal was pivotal in Spokane’s fifth straight win at home, and only its third victory against six losses and a tie when they trail after two periods.

The Mallette goal wasn’t as weird as it might have looked to 5,207 in the building.

“It’s a tough play for a D-man,” said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, a defenseman in his junior hockey days. “The puck’s in the air, you can’t go by it, yet you’ve got to grab it, you’ve got to try to throw it past the net. I’ve seen it lots. You’ve got to remember, they’re right on your butt, chasing you while you’re trying to bat it over the top of the net. It hit him wrong.”

“A tough play,” Rockets coach Peter Anholt concurred. “Trying to bat it away and it goes off his arm into the net. That happens. It was a bad break.”

The Rockets took their season-long unpredictability to a higher level in the second and third periods. One moment they were scoring for the opposition. The next it was almost Curtin time for the Chiefs.

With two second-period goals - one with his team short-handed, the hardest kind for the opposition to swallow - Luke Curtin gave Kelowna a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes. The Chiefs were up 3-1 when Curtin scored twice and Todd Fedoruk added another.

Spokane answered in the third period on a Schutz snap shot that finished off a play set up by Ty Jones. Jones forced a Kelowna turnover at the blue line and fed the puck to Schutz. That tied it at 4 midway in the third.

The Rockets had a one-goal lead early when Kevin Korol found an opening to the short side of Chiefs goaltender Aren Miller, but the Chiefs took the lead 2-1 after the first 20 minutes when Leeb scored his 16th and 17th goals of the season, the second with the Chiefs on a 5-on-3 power play.

, DataTimes