Bowman collects first ‘hat’
Outside the locker room, injured Spokane Chiefs forward David Rutherford passed by teammate Drayson Bowman and jokingly yelled back, “First of your career, Bow?” presumably to remind Bowman that he’s already been there, and done that.
Bowman’s pure scoring ability came in handy at exactly the right time Tuesday night as the 18-year-old forward scored his first career hat trick and assisted on a Mitch Wahl goal in the Chiefs’ 4-1 Western Hockey League victory over the injury-bitten Prince George Cougars – losers of five straight – in front of 3,511 Arena fans.
The four-point performance was Bowman’s third of the season and came on a night in which the Chiefs started slowly and progressively gained momentum.
“We didn’t come out with our best game, but we finished it up in the second and third and found a way to get the win,” said Bowman.
“That’s going to happen in a long, 72-game season where you’re just not going to come out as strong as you want to, but the important thing is we found a way to get back to our game and beat them.”
Bowman, a Carolina Hurricanes third-round pick in the 2007 NHL draft, scored in the opening period for the Chiefs on a feed from behind the net from playmaker Ondrej Roman.
Seth Compton stole the puck at the back of the left face-off zone, dished the puck to Roman, who found Bowman positioned on the left side for a 1-0 lead at 7 minutes, 13 seconds.
“That was a great pass,” said Bowman, “(Roman) just seems to find your stick easy. He went behind the net and the goalie thought he was going around the other side so he just threw it back. … It was an easy tap in.”
The Cougars (9-14-0-0), tied with Kamloops for last place in the B.C. Division, evened the score 2:26 into the middle period when Marcus Watson got lucky on a broken play and sent a shot beyond Chiefs goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who improved to 8-1-0-1 on the season and finished with 16 saves.
Bowman’s second goal came at 11:30 in the second on the Chiefs second power-play opportunity on assists from defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Stefan Ulmer. Spurgeon – along with Chiefs captain Chris Bruton – also assisted on Bowman’s team-leading 15th goal late in the third on a long feed to the right side of the net.
Mitch Wahl scored 5 minutes earlier, at 10:02, to give the Chiefs a 3-1 lead.
The first line of Bruton, Bowman and Wahl continues to pilot the U.S. Division-leading Chiefs’ aggressive offense as Spokane outshot PG 36-17.
“On the power play (Bowman) made some good decisions once we got out of that first period,” Chiefs coach Bill Peters said. “All those guys (Bowman, Wahl and Bruton), when they’re in harmony and they’re in sync and everyone’s providing their component to what they have to do to make the power play work, it’s very successful.
“We need Bruton’s grit and battle level in front, causing havoc and screening the goalie, and when they share the puck and make the plays, good things happen.”
The Chiefs return to the ice Friday and Saturday nights to close out a six-game homestand. They host the Regina Pats on Friday and welcome back the Cougars on Saturday.
At 15-3-1-2, the Chiefs have a five-point lead over the Tri-City Americans in the division. The Chiefs and Americans will square off Nov. 24 in Kennewick for the first time since Spokane dropped overtime and shootout decisions in a home-and-home series at the beginning of October.
Notes
Chiefs forward Curtis Kelner served the second of a two-game suspension he received for checking from behind and a game misconduct last Friday against Kamloops. Kelner was originally given a match penalty, but after the league reviewed the play it was changed to a major penalty. … Forwards Dustin Donaghy (hand) and David Rutherford (groin) were scratched from Tuesday night’s game. Donaghy is expected to be out for one to two weeks while Rutherford is listed as week to week.