Chiefs stand tall after half
If you said you saw this coming, you’d be lying. Not to take anything away from the Spokane Chiefs, but this was somewhat unexpected.
It was also three years in the making.
With mostly ups, and a couple of downs, the Chiefs finished the first half of the Western Hockey League season last Saturday as the top team in the league and the second-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.
Before making the playoffs last year, the Chiefs missed the postseason the two seasons prior and finished with a league-low 58 points both times. With all the heat that general manager Tim Speltz and third-year coach Bill Peters took, it’s only right that the club gets some credit for an impeccable start to the most promising season in years.
“We knew we were going to work hard and knew the character of this team,” said Peters, “so that part isn’t a surprise. The key is to come back and do that again and we’re going to play the guys who are getting the job done.”
So what can the Chiefs’ 26-6-1-2 record and league-best 55 points be attributed to? It’s a pretty obvious formula.
They are deep on offense. More important, the Chiefs, a defense-first team, have used a mix of veteran and rookie defensemen combined with stellar goaltending to allow a league-low 69 goals.
“The guys came in this summer in great shape and really made the commitment in the off-season,” said Peters. “They had a taste of what the playoffs are about and that whetted their appetite.”
That said, Peters and the Chiefs aren’t getting ahead of themselves. A team can eliminate itself from the playoffs in November, but can’t make it there with just a strong first half.
“When we start the second half, we’re right back at square one,” Peters said. “We have to re-establish everything and come back as if we haven’t accomplished anything, which truly we haven’t, so it’s going to come back to playing innocent and hard-working hockey.”
If sniper Drayson Bowman stays on pace, he’s on his way to a 113-point season. The first-line left-winger’s 52 points are third in the league, and his linemates Chris Bruton and Mitch Wahl aren’t shy on numbers either. Bruton has 18 goals and 22 assists, while 33 of Wahl’s 44 points are helpers.
Chiefs netminders Dustin Tokarski and Kevin Armstrong continue to split time. Tokarski leads the league with a 1.69 goals-against average and Armstrong is tied with several players for the third-best GAA (2.11).
The young defense can take a lot of credit for the 26 wins to date.
Veterans Jared Spurgeon and Justin Falk, a Minnesota Wild prospect, and second-year defenseman Mike Reddington have combined with rookies Jared Cowen, Jace Coyle, Brett Bartman and Stefan Ulmer to establish the identity of this team – a stubborn group that doesn’t give up much.
The Chiefs have allowed fewer than 30 shots in all but seven games and are 1-5 when being outshot. Their plus/minus numbers can attest to not only putting pucks in the net, but keeping them out of theirs.
Bruton leads with plus-29, while Bowman and Wahl are plus-27. Those numbers are good for 1-2-3 in the league. Spurgeon is fourth in the league with plus-20 and Cowen is sixth and first among rookies with plus-20. Falk (plus-17), forward Ondrej Roman (plus-15) and Reddington (plus-11) are also making an impact.
The Chiefs will reunite in Cranbrook, British Columbia, on Wednesday, practice the following day, and open a home-and-home series with the Kootenay Ice on Dec. 28. They host the Ice the following night at the Arena.
Something to keep in mind is the looming Jan. 10 trade deadline. Nothing specific has been leaked, but around the WHL people are always talking.
“Speltz will be the busy man right now, and he does a great job of letting me know who is on the wire,” said Peters. “There are no significant names that are an upgrade for us short- or long-term right now.
“If we can improve ourselves in some way, obviously we would do that.”