Bring on Tri-City
Had there been a script, it couldn’t have been written much better.
Of course, business is far from finished for the Spokane Chiefs. But that didn’t make the act of knocking off the defending Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants en route to a showdown with their longstanding rivals any less special Monday night.
Ondrej Roman buried the game-winning goal and netminder Dustin Tokarski turned aside 16 shots as the Chiefs eliminated the Giants from the Western Hockey League playoffs with a 3-1 victory in front of an Arena crowd of 4,816, giving Spokane a 4-2 win in the hard-fought, best-of-7 Western Conference semifinal series.
“It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in hockey,” said Chiefs captain Chris Bruton. “I think we have a quiet confidence about us. We’re a humble enough team that we know that anything can happen on any given night, but when we’re going and using our speed, shooting pucks on net, we feel like we take control of the game.”
The win advanced the Chiefs to the Western Conference final for the first time since 2001, when they were eliminated in five games by the Portland Winter Hawks.
This time, the conference final will pit the Chiefs against the U.S. Division rival Tri-City Americans. The last time the teams met was in Game 71 of the regular season. The Americans beat the Chiefs 2-1 in Kennewick in a winner-take-all scenario for the U.S. Division title.
The Americans earned the top seed in the league and the Scotty Munro Trophy for the best regular-season record in the WHL. The Chiefs finished one point back in the standings with 107, which dropped them to the No. 3 seed for the playoffs, despite the fact they had the second best record in the league.
Vancouver, which had 106 points, was seeded second because it won the B.C. Division.
“There’s a lot of hate built up – there’s the revenge factor,” said Chiefs defenseman Justin Falk. “We want to have a good showing and I think we will. We’ll come in there hungry.”
The Chiefs were hungrier from the get-go Monday, holding the Giants to a season-low three shots in the opening period and taking a 1-0 lead when rookie defenseman Jared Cowen buried a wrist shot from the slot for his first career playoff goal 18 minutes, 10 seconds into the game.
Vancouver leveled the score in the middle period, catching a juicy bounce off the left board that Mario Bliznak slapped in at 18:51.
Bliznak’s goal was the only one Tokarski and the Chiefs’ smothering defense allowed in the last two games of the series.
“We’re one bounce away from back-to-back shutouts,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “Anytime you can close out a series and give up one goal in 120 minutes, you’ll take that.”
Neither team generated much offense in the third, so when Roman fired in a shot from the top of the right circle that flew over Giants goalie Tyson Sexsmith’s left shoulder at 14:53 to break the 1-1 tie, there was a sense the show was over. When Bruton pushed in an empty-net goal at 18:32, it was over.
Earlier in the period, a Lance Bouma goal, which would have given Vancouver a 2-1 lead, was waved off because the net was off its pegs.
Vancouver didn’t record its first official shot of the game until 12:15 into the first period. The Chiefs held the Giants to a season-low 17 shots overall, one less than their previous low of 18, which was against Spokane on Oct. 21 in Vancouver.
“We tried to limit their shots,” said Trevor Glass, who has been a stalwart defenseman for Spokane throughout the playoffs. “When we went into Vancouver (last week for Games 3, 4 and 5 of the series), they bombarded us with a whole bunch of shots and we wanted to change that.”
Mission accomplished.