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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Chiefs skate past Ice

In this case, fans throwing objects onto the ice was considered a good thing.

Mitch Wahl scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal 3 minutes, 52 seconds into the opening period on Saturday night, sending the signal for the 7,554 Arena fans to chuck their teddy bears onto the ice for the annual charity event, and the Spokane Chiefs went on to a 6-2 Western Hockey League victory over the Kootenay Ice.

Almost as quickly as Wahl forced a turnover inside the Chiefs offensive zone, the teddy bears poured onto the ice.

“Getting it early was nice,” Wahl said. “The guys kind of talk about in the locker room, who will get the goal and it’s just a nice little competition. It’s a good event for the kids, so I think it’s neat that we do that.”

The Chiefs got off to a strong start in the first period – which featured a fight, four even-strength goals and a power-play goal, all of which came from four different players.

After defenseman Brett Bartman and Kootenay’s Matt Fraser squared off 2 minutes into the game, Wahl put the Chiefs on the board with his 16th goal of the season.

Rookie Steve Kuhn added to the lead when he scored off a rebound at 7:47.

The Chiefs took a 3-0 lead when Drayson Bowman sent a cross-ice pass to Stefan Ulmer, who carried the puck to the bottom of the left circle before crossing the puck over to Jared Spurgeon, who buried the puck from in front of the right post. Bowman scored the final two goals for Spokane in the period and finished with three assists for a five-point performance.

“All of those guys – Bowman on turning back and waiting for the guys to fill in the zone, (Ulmer) staying wide when he came out of the (penalty) box and Spurgeon going to the net to create the opportunity – it was just a really nice goal, obviously,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said.

Bowman added to the lead, scoring a power-play goal with a slapshot from the top of the left circle. After Michael Stickland scored for the Ice, Bowman scored again with 32 seconds remaining in the period when he took possession of the puck on the left board in the neutral zone, went 1-on-1 with Nathan Lieuwen and went forehand to backhand before lifting the puck past Lieuwen.

“(Bowman) has been fighting a little bit lately, but he had a real good game against Calgary and that carried over into tonight,” Sauter said. “He’s got a good nose for the puck and we just know that with Drayson we’ll get a lot more good nights from him than bad nights.”

Bartman picked up his second assist of the night late in the second period when he quickly got a puck to Dustin Donaghy, who took the puck in and scored a 1-on-1 goal against Lieuwen – the only goalie dressed for the Ice after their usual starter, Thomas Heemskerk, quit the team earlier in the week.

The Chiefs remain seven points behind the Tri-City Americans for the U.S. Division lead after Tri-City defeated the Calgary Hitmen 3-1 on Saturday night in Kennewick.

Ice chips

A record number of 4,067 teddy bears were collected and donated to The Spokesman-Review Christmas Fund. … Chiefs defenseman Mike Reddington (groin), who scored last year’s Teddy Bear Goal, was scratched again from the lineup and is listed as week-to-week. … Bowman missed a penalty shot midway through the second period.