New Coach Lands First Win Chiefs Offset Opening Loss

It was Perry Ganchar’s moment, but it was best captured by his assistant, Bill Peters.

“It wasn’t exactly golden,” Peters said after the Spokane Chiefs held off the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 Friday night in the Arena.

“But we’ll take it.”

After a 9-3 loss on opening night? No doubt.

Tim Krymusa’s hard-angle shot from the left side just above the goal line 96 seconds into the game staked the Chiefs to a lead they never surrendered before 5,632 fans.

It helped square their Western Hockey League record at 1-1 and was part of a quantum leap in efficiency from last week’s opening night, six-goal loss to the Tri-City Americans in the Arena.

Krymusa and Jeff Lucky had two-point nights in Ganchar’s first win as a WHL coach.

“It feels really nice to get on the board against a pretty good hockey team,” said Ganchar, who took over from Mike Babcock, after Babcock spent six seasons behind the Chiefs’ bench. “The guys made a commitment to get to the things we have to do to win.

“There’s room for improvement, certainly, but we’re on the board, and that’s what counts.”

Krymusa ran through the steps leading to his first goal of the young season.

“`Lucks’ gave me a great pass. It was a tough angle, but you’ve go to shoot to score, and luckily I got a good bounce.”

Krymusa went short side with a shot that seemed to surprise Seattle goaltender Nick Pannoni. “That gave us a little momentum and we were able to take it to them from there,” Krymusa said.

Take it to them for 2-1/2 periods, actually, until the T-Birds stepped it up late. Spokane’s Tyler MacKay stopped 10 of 11 third-period shots on his way to a 22-save night after getting bombed in the opener.

“Tyler rebounded with some big stops in the third when we got a little panicky,” said Ganchar, who spent the last five seasons in pro hockey with the International League Cleveland Lumberjacks.

Gerard Dicaire tied it for Seattle in the first period on a 2-on-1 break on the power play. Shane Endicott’s feed from the left wall found Dicaire alone in the middle for the clear shot.

Krymusa, Lucky and Roman Tvrdon got that back before the first intermission, Krymusa working low with Tvrdon at the top of the crease. Tvrdon’s strike lifted the Chiefs into a 2-1 lead.

Brad Schell’s nose for the puck led to what became the winning goal in the second period. Seattle’s Mathew Spiller sent a pass out of the corner of his team’s defensive zone that sailed through the slot. Schell picked up the puck, and though he couldn’t put anything on a shot, managed to steer it past Pannoni.

Darren McLachlan’s goal with 3:32 left made it tense down the stretch.

Seattle coach Dean Chynoweth, also in his first season, saw his team remain winless after three games.

Asked to grade his club’s effort and execution, Chynoweth said, “I’d give us a B. You can’t take off part of the second period and expect to win. The second period killed us in our first two as well. We’ve got some work ahead of us.”

The T-Birds lost 20-year-old right wing Bret DeCecco in the second period to a shoulder injury.

Chynoweth said he’s been impressed with Spokane all through preseason.

“They work very hard,” the Seattle coach said. “You can tell they have a lot of leadership. A lot of the stuff Mike Babcock instilled in them is still here. I look at that - what he did - and that’s what we have to do in Seattle.”