Chiefs’ workman-like play a winning plan

It may be “boring,” but maybe this hockey thing isn’t as hard as it seems: hard work pays dividends.

That might be a conclusion that could be drawn from the Spokane Chiefs’ 3-0 shutout win over Tri-City on Saturday at the Arena in Western Hockey League play.

Spokane (2-3-0), which hosts Lethbridge (3-4-2) in the Arena tonight at 7 p.m., remains unbeaten in two home games after the win over the highly touted Americans. The Chiefs hit on all cylinders against Tri-City and are looking for more of the same tonight.

Coach Al Conroy admits his team’s workman-like approach to the game may be “boring,” but has stresses that’s what wins games. Despite the fact that he’s been proven right at least once, he’s not ready to crow too much.

“I don’t think this three-nothing hockey game means that we’re going to go 50 games in a row without a loss,” Conroy deadpanned after the game. “At the same time, I think with that kind of effort and teamwork, it’s going to be tremendous.”

Spokane has spent training camp, the exhibition season, and the early part of the regular season melding together a group of rookies and returning veterans, most of whom haven’t ever played next to each other.

So, Conroy and assistant coaches Rikard Gronborg and Kevin Sawyer have been doing those “boring” things day-in and day-out at practice.

And a sampling of the players’ perspectives shows they are seeing the benefits of playing within the system:

–”The first four games, we played well enough to win, but the bounces didn’t go our way,” said 20-year-old defenseman Scott Lynch, who has a team-high seven points.

–”It was a total team effort,” said younger brother Jeff Lynch, a forward who had a goal and an assist Saturday. “We all played well tonight, so I was totally happy with the outcome.”

–”If we keep playing like this, we’re going to be unstoppable,” added goaltender Jim Watt, who posted his first shutout of the season and lowered his goals against average to 2.71.

–”It means a lot, it shows that our team has some skill and also hard grit to put those (50) shots on the net and get to the net,” said Ned Lukacevic, who has five points playing alongside Chad Klassen (six points). “It just came down to hard work tonight and we just wanted it more than them.”

For the coaches, the approach is about being disciplined and consistent and not the daily game results.

That means they are looking for well-rounded efforts from all the players that dress, like in Saturday’s game.