Something Special About Win For Chiefs

It wasn’t the same, but something about the Arena - and everything about the Portland Winter Hawks - turned a November win into something special for the Spokane Chiefs.

In Spokane for the first time since last May, when they won the Memorial Cup, the Winter Hawks came out smokin’ Friday night, but wound up going down the same way.

Brandin Cote - his bothersome ankle still no more than 90 percent of what it was last season - scored the game-winner in the Chiefs’ 5-3 Western Hockey League victory over the defending champion Winter Hawks.

Although both teams are retooling, and many of the main characters of last year are gone, the win represented a small measure of payback to the Chiefs, who put up a strong-but-losing front against the Winter Hawks throughout last season.

“It was nice,” Cote said. “They beat us in the playoffs, and the Memorial Cup, too. Even though it’s pretty much a different Portland team from last year, it’s still nice to get back at them.”

After a flat start, the Chiefs scored twice on the power play against the league’s top penalty-killing unit. Five goals from five different Spokane players represents the most scoring Portland’s Jason LaBarbera has allowed in 14 starts. And the win - only the seventh of the year but fourth this month - put the Chiefs above .500 for November at 4-3-1 heading into Wednesday’s home date with Regina.

“We’re very capable of being very good,” coach Mike Babcock said. “We had good goaltending and contributions from four lines. It’s good to see Cote play well. And Curtis Suter had a real good game (on a line) with Dan Bohac and Jared Smyth.”

Goaltender David Haun gave the Chiefs the chance to improve to 7-13-4. Portland fell to 8-10-5.

“We came out strong in the first period,” Portland coach Harold Snepsts said. “We had some glorious chances and Haun made some unbelievable stops.”

The Chiefs salvaged a flat first period on the power play when Ty Jones deflected Brad Ference’s snap shot from the blue line. Held without a shot the first 6:52, Spokane was badly outchanced the first 20 minutes, but only Scott Botterill scored on Haun, that 4:14 into the game on the power play. The Chiefs took the lead 3:52 into the second period when Bohac finished a 2-on-1 rush with his team-high 12th goal of the season. Vandermeer’s slap shot from the left circle made it 3-1.

With the game tied at 3 midway through the final period, Cote won a faceoff, went into the corner to pick up the puck, walked into the slot and slid a shot home.

The Chiefs traded right wing Josh Maser Friday to Swift Current for future Bantam draft considerations.