Roman’s two power-play goals spark Spokane

There was no shortage of story lines at the Arena on Saturday night.

Spokane Chiefs leading scorer Drayson Bowman up against Kelowna Rockets rookie defenseman Collin Bowman in a matchup of brothers.

Minnesota Wild 2007 draft picks Justin Falk against fellow Wild pick and Kelowna forward Cody Almond.

Spokane’s Ondrej Roman, a Dallas Stars selection this year, against Kelowna’s Jamie Benn, also a Stars’ pick in the 2007 NHL draft.

Story lines aside – given the power, it was Roman and the Chiefs who made the plays.

Roman netted two power-play goals as the Chiefs laid a three-game Rockets’ win streak to rest with a 2-1 Western Hockey League victory before 5,442 fans in a Western Conference matchup.

Spokane quickly went to work in the first.

Kelowna’s Tyler Myers was called for elbowing and James McEwan for tripping to set up the Chiefs’ 5-on-3 power play.

The Chiefs’ Mitch Wahl popped the puck out to Judd Blackwater, who dished a short pass to an open Roman on the right side of the net. Roman slapped it in quickly to put Spokane on the board first at 2 minutes, 5 seconds.

“We’ve been telling Ondrej to shoot a lot more,” Chiefs captain Chris Bruton said. “He’s got such a great shot and we’ve been pushing all week in practice for him to do so.”

The Rockets (4-4-1-0) blasted back in the second when Colin Long’s shot tipped of a Chiefs’ stick and slid past goalie Dustin Tokarski, who finished with 23 saves after a lackluster performance in the Chiefs’ loss at Chilliwack on Monday.

“(Tokarski) had a great bounce-back effort,” Chiefs coach Bill Peters said. “There was never any doubt in our minds that he would do that. He’s got mental toughness, he knew he wasn’t happy with his game in Chilliwack and he rebounded in fine fashion.

“They got a lucky goal on the power play off one of our guys’ sticks and there’s nothing you can do about that. He made some big saves at key times for us and I think we’re going to have solid goaltending all year.”

With 5 minutes remaining in regulation and a 1-1 tie in place, Roman scored the game-winner from just inside the blue line, placing the puck inside the right of the net against the odds.

“There were four guys in front of the net,” Roman said. “I was surprised so I just fell to my knees. In a 1-1 game, it was perfect, it felt really great.”

The Chiefs (5-2-1-1, 12 points), who improved over the weekend on offense and defense, look back on track. After an unbeaten preseason and a 3-0 start to the regular season, the Chiefs fell into a four-game slump.

Back-to-back home wins this weekend, including Friday night’s 5-2 victory over the Portland Winter Hawks, came from solid goaltending, improvement on the power play and success on the penalty kill.

The Chiefs, who are creeping up on first-place Tri-City (14 points) in the U.S. Division, were 2 for 5 on the power play, while holding the Rockets 1 for 6.

“We put a lot of time into the power play,” Bruton said. “We worked the puck around, we put our systems through and we really just worked on it so much we got comfortable and this weekend it definitely came together for us.”

In Peters’ eyes, the Chiefs took a step toward finding their niche as a team.

“Right now everyone is trying to form an identity throughout the league,” he said. “You think you know what you’re all about, but I think tonight our team took a step as far as revealing some character.

“We always talk about what defines us as a team and tonight we were gritty, we were a very competitive and hard-working group and we had a lot of individual sacrifices that created good things for the whole.”

The Chiefs’ three-game homestand continues Friday when Spokane hosts Saskatoon at the Arena.