Spokane Power Play Iced Penalty Kill Ignites Kootenay; Teams Meet Tonight In Arena

The penalty kill has been a Spokane staple. Friday night, the Chiefs were stapled by it. Folded, spindled and mutilated, too.

The Kootenay Ice, buoyed by killing off 3 minutes, 20 seconds of a two-man Spokane advantage early in the second period, surged from a two-goal deficit to a 6-2 Western Hockey League victory to snap a four-game Chiefs’ win streak.

Spokane came out of the first period nursing a 2-1 lead. Scott Roles, a former player for the Ice, connected on a power play on a blast from the point. Less than 6 minutes later, Tim Smith, who set up Roles, knocked in a Lynn Loyns rebound.

Zdenek Blatny got the first of his two goals - his 32nd and 33rd of the year - on a rebound at 16:44.

And when the Ice chilled the Chiefs’ two-man advantage, the handwriting was on the wall.

Matt Walker, who played with Spokane goalie Jason LaBarbera in Portland and was traded to Kootenay when LaBarbera went to Spokane, beat his buddy with a deflected shot on a power play at 11:23 to draw the Ice even. It snapped a streak of 23 straight penalty kills for Spokane.

The Ice scored on four rebounds, including Mike Green’s winner.

Chiefs box score/C4