Chiefs’ camp concludes

At the conclusion of Spokane Chiefs’ training camp, it was mostly the veteran players who stole the show.

The Red team dominated, defeating the White team 10-5 in front of a record scrimmage-crowd of 1,637 at the Arena to mark the conclusion of training camp.

One newcomer looks to have a bright future for the franchise, should he make the final cut next week.

Whether or not he officially makes this year’s Chiefs’ roster, one thing was clear after Sunday’s Red-White scrimmage: Tyler Johnson plays bigger than his size would suggest.

A Spokane native drafted by the Chiefs in 2005, Johnson’s 5-foot-7, 170-pound stature was a non-issue as the Central Valley senior scored once and added two assists for the White team.

“I just hope my chances are good, I played pretty well this summer and I thought I played well during camp, so hopefully it pays off for me,” Johnson said.

Though Chiefs coach Bill Peters couldn’t say if Johnson would make the final cut, he was impressed with Johnson’s performance at camp.

“It’s early for Tyler, but he’s been very impressive at camp and he was solid again today in the game … he does compete hard for an undersized guy,” Peters said.

With the White team leading 3-2 after the first period, veteran Chris Bruton scored once and assisted two goals in the second period and the Red team outscored the White team 6-1 to take a commanding lead that White could not recover from.

Bruton, who will attend the St. Louis Blues Rookie Camp this fall, has played more career games (191) than any other current Chief after Spokane drafted him in the 2002 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft.

Another veteran, 20-year-old Judd Blackwater, scored twice and assisted on two goals for the Red team.

Five players had multiple points for Red, including Jared Cowen (two assists), Bruton, David Rutherford (one goal, two assists), Ondrej Roman (two goals, one assist), Blackwater and Seth Compton (two goals, one assist).

Baxter Niziol and Steven Kuhn, both 16-year-olds, also scored goals.

At the conclusion of camp, Peters spoke optimistically of moving forward into preseason play.

“It’s exciting, there’s obviously a lot of athletes, and now you kind of cut it in half and as coaches we finally get on the ice and get to teach,” Peters said.

“It’s another step. You go from camp to the preseason portion, and as the preseason goes along you lose some veteran guys to pro, and that’s an opportunity for younger guys to step up, then you get your veterans back and take another step. We’re basically entering the second stage of training camp.”