Youngsters see prime time for Chiefs
With a week to go before the start of the Western Hockey League season, Spokane Chiefs coach Bill Peters wanted to give some of his youngsters a chance to play in situations they are not likely to see once the games count.
With the Tri-City Americans collecting 67 minutes in penalties, Peters wanted the youngsters to see some action on the power play.
The Chiefs came away with a 4-1 victory over the Ams at Eagles Ice-A-Rena on Friday night for their fifth win in six exhibition outings.
“Any time you win, it’s a good win,” Peters said. “But I think we need to do some work on some of the penalties we took and some of the power plays we skated.
“I think we’re in pretty good shape to start the season. I’ve said for a long time that I’m really pleased with our goaltending. I think Kevin Armstrong and Dustin Tokarski will give this club quality goaltending for the next several years.”
The net-minding pair shared the victory. Armstrong blanked the Ams in the first period as Spokane outshot Tri-City 20-8.
Tokarski played the final 40 minutes, allowing a goal early in the second period by Daniel Bartek, but stopped a third-period penalty shot by Cody Wutzke.
“It was pretty routine,” Tokarski said. “He really didn’t do anything fancy and I just played it off my pads.”
Spokane was just one of three with a two-man advantage, however – coming up empty in significant 5-on-3 situations in both the first and third period.
“It’s frustrating to come up empty in those situations, but to be fair, we had guys skating in those situations that will never see that situation once the regular season starts,” Peters said. “I wanted to see what they could do. One of the things you do in games like this is have guys skate in different situations. You want to give them the chance to see that kind of action and you want to see how they react.”
Where Spokane was successful was in front of the net – forcing the Americans to attack from the wings.
“I think our defense did a nice job clearing things in front of me,” Tokarski said. “I had a good look at every puck …”
The 17-year-old from Watson, Saskatchewan, was impressed with the packed crowd at the Ice-A-Rena.
Judd Blackwater, a 19-year-old from Lethbridge, Alberta, scored a pair of goals and Ondrey Roman, a 17-year-old from Ostrava-Poruba, Czechoslovakia, added a goal and an assist to lead the Spokane effort. Dan Mercer and Derek Ryan both collected a pair of assists.
Spokane is 2-0 against Tri-City in exhibition games going into tonight’s game in Kennewick.