Spokane peppers Wheat Kings with offensive burst

Confidence is a relative thing.

The Spokane Chiefs have a lot of it after a 6-3 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings in a Western Hockey League game on Wednesday night at the Arena before an appreciative crowd of 3,308.

One question remains: Were they that good or was Brandon that bad? It’s a fair inquiry.

After all, the Wheat Kings (4-10-1-0) entered the game as the WHL’s lowest-ranked team in the weekly poll of league writers. They also had allowed 62 goals in 14 games (4.5 goals per game). But this night the Chiefs got six goals, and that’s all that mattered.

Spokane’s barrage came in large part to the efforts of Chris Bruton. He had two goals in rapid-fire succession to start the second period and propel the Chiefs (5-6-0-0) into a second-place tie with Portland, a team they visit Friday.

Getting the win in net for Spokane was Thomas Stehr, making his first career start. He finished with 33 saves.

Stehr had some help as the Chiefs staked their rookie goaltender to a 3-0 lead after one period, on goals by Michael Grabner (his first of the season), and Drayson Bowman and Adam Hobson (their third each). Two of the three goals were assisted by Derek Ryan.

“That really helped,” Stehr said of the early lead. “It allowed me to relax.”

Grabner got things going just 3 minutes, 23 seconds into the game when he took a pass from J.P. Szaskiewicz and beat Brandon starting goaltender Tyler Plante high, to the glove side, from the slot.

On the second goal of the game, the Chiefs ended a power-play dry streak with their first extra-man goal in their last 35 attempts. Rookie Bowman whipped in a wrist shot from the center of the right circle to make it 2-0 at the 13:30 mark of the first.

Spokane made it 3-0 on a goal by Hobson at the 16:41 mark of the first. Hobson took a thread-the-needle feed from Ryan at full speed and converted from the right slot to beat Plante, last season’s WHL rookie of the year.

The Chiefs blew open the game within the first minute of the second period. Bruton scored on goals just 23 seconds apart – his fourth and fifth of the season – to knock the life out of the Wheat Kings.

Bruton’s first goal came off the opening face-off, just 9 seconds into the period, as he shot it over Plante high stick side. Brandon pulled Plante in favor of Kurt Jory, who was in the line of fire on the next shift.

That’s when Bruton banged home a short rebound of a Grabner shot at the 32-second mark of the second period.

Leading 5-0, the Chiefs largely skated out the rest of the period but dominated play when they wanted.

In the third period, Stehr lost his bid for a shutout when Brandon captain Teegan Moore buried a 2-on-1 chance on a feed from Derek LeBlanc at the 4:42 mark. Brandon made things interesting with two more goals in the next 7-plus minutes, just 30 seconds apart.

At the 11:29 mark, Stephane Lenoski scored on a power-play goal by redirecting a shot past Stehr. Then, at the 11:59 mark, Mark Derlago found the back of the net to allow the Wheat Kings to close within two goals with 8:01 remaining in the game.

Spokane redoubled its efforts to retake control of the game. Captain Jeff Lynch put the capper on the night, getting his second goal of the season with 2:13 remaining in the game.

Chiefs 6, Wheat Kings 3

First Period—1, Spokane, Grabner 1 (Szaskiewicz), 3:23. 2, Spokane, Bowman 3 (Ryan, Mercer), 13:30 (pp). 3, Spokane, Hobson 3 (Ryan, Bowman), 16:41. Second Period—4, Spokane, Bruton 4 (Zimmerman), :09. 5, Spokane, Bruton 5 (Grabner), :32. Third Period—6, Brandon, Moore 6 (LeBlanc), 4:42. 7, Brandon, Lenoski 2 (Cann, Derlago), 11:29. 8, Brandon, Derlago 4 (Reaves), 11:59. 9, Spokane, Je.Lynch 2 (Salmonsson, Klassen), 17:47.

Power-play Opp.—Brandon 0 of 6; Spokane 1 of 5. Saves—Brandon, Plante (L, 4-9-0-0) 9-0-x-x—9, Jory x-11-15—26. Spokane, Stehr (W, 1-0-0-0) 8-8-17—33. A—3,308.