Chiefs Rally, But Fall Flat In Overtime

The Spokane Chiefs came out with Act Two of their bad imitation of the Los Angeles Clippers Saturday night in the Arena. Like an NBA team, they hohummed it for 43 minutes, dazzled the crowd for 16 seconds late and fell flat in overtime.

Unlike Friday night, when they salvaged an overtime tie, the Chiefs’ lethargic start cost them a 3-2 overtime loss to the last-place Prince George Cougars before 9,013.

Prince George’s Dan Hamhuis completed a 3-point night with a shot from the bottom of the left circle 1:01 into sudden-death 4-on4 overtime. The Cougars won for only the fifth time to knock the Chiefs out of a share of first place in the tight Western Hockey League West.

The Chiefs settled for a single point in the standings and with the OT loss tumbled into third behind co-leaders Seattle and Kamloops. As in their 2-2 tie with Portland 24 hours before, the Chiefs unleashed a two-goal third period to force overtime. Roman Tvrdon and Mason Wallin scored 16 seconds apart to wipe out a 2-0 deficit.

But this time, after rallying to tie, the Chiefs got caught with their first four out on the ice longer than they wanted. Defenseman Kurt Sauer, going end-to-end, was just about out of steam when he completed a check behind the Chiefs’ net on Prince George’s Brett Allan.

“Usually a check like that will separate the man from the puck,” Chiefs coach Perry Ganchar said. “Unfortunately, Kurt went down, Allan kept his feet and had time to find the D man open for the shot.”

Allan said, “Sometimes, you hit a guy up along the boards and you get the worst of it. That bought me a lot of time to find Hammy sneaking in from the point.”

The win, the Cougars’ fifth against 13 losses, “was huge,” Allan said.

“We’re a pretty fragile team right now that hasn’t had a lot of success here lately.”

The Chiefs in a flat first period could have inspired the next great Walt Disney promotion.

Zombies on Ice.

They were perfect as 18 guys stumbling around in a fog, when the Cougars out-shot them 16-6 and led 1-0.

From there, Prince George survived a mild Spokane second-period flurry of shots and held on in the third, when the Chiefs dominated.

“The first period hasn’t been a strong point for us,” Allan said. “We’re not that familiar with early leads. Going into the third period they really caught a spark from their crowd after that first goal.”

That was Tvrdon’s sixth of the year with the Chiefs on the power play. Wallin, sliding on his belly, scored his fourth of the season to tie it.

But Cougars coach Ed Dempsey called time out and settled his club. The Chiefs could do nothing more with Prince George goaltender Billy Thompson.

The Chiefs fell to a sub-average 5-8-1 against the West and a lukewarm 5-5-1 at home heading into tonight’s game - their fourth in five nights - in Seattle.

“We’re making it difficult on ourselves early,” Ganchar said. “We weren’t doing anything that worked in the first period. We didn’t establish a forecheck. We couldn’t get it deep. We turned it over. We played into their hands.”