Chances gone awry

They’ll just have to chalk it up to a missed opportunity – or rather, several missed opportunities.

The Spokane Chiefs – just three points behind the Tri-City Americans at the beginning of the night for first place in the U.S. Division standings – couldn’t use a big advantage on the shot clock and fell short in a 3-1 Western Hockey League loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Arena.

Despite outshooting Seattle 36-16, Spokane (20-10-0-3) picked up just its fourth loss of the season on home ice. They did manage to stay three points behind the Americans, though, thanks to the Vancouver Giants. The Giants picked up a 3-1 victory over Tri-City in Kennewick on Saturday night.

“Lack of goals is all,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “We’re not scoring any goals. You’re not going to win a whole bunch of games if you can’t score more than one. We had a handful of guys that didn’t play great.

“Offensively we’ve got to find a way to create chances and ultimately create some goals.”

The Thunderbirds (14-17-1-2) were able to make the most of their chances.

Greg Scott got one past Chiefs goalie James Reid 6 minutes and 16 seconds into the first period and Seattle took a 2-0 lead when Jim O’Brien scored a short-handed goal two minutes before the period ended.

“Definitely breakdowns on our part to let those go in,” Sauter said. “And also James wasn’t very sharp on those first two goals.”

The Chiefs did pull within one goal in the second period when Trevor Glass scored on a power play midway through the period.

Forward Mitch Wahl – who leaves Monday with teammates Drayson Bowman and Tyler Johnson to play for the United States at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa – passed to Glass from the left board and Glass one-timed a shot from the point past Seattle goalie Calvin Pickard, who finished with 35 saves.

Glass also got a shot past Pickard as time expired in the second, but the puck crossed the goal line after the buzzer went off and the goal was waved off.

“At that point we thought ‘We’re two seconds away from scoring – if we keep doing what we’re doing it’s going to go in,’ ” Sauter said.

But there would be more missed chances to come for the Chiefs in the third period.

“In the third period most everybody played ok, but by then I think our defensemen were out of gas and it seemed like it was a little bit tougher getting the puck out of our own end,” Sauter said. “Five minutes into the third Wahl and Bowman had a 2-on-1 – Bow gets a real good look and it just touches the end of his glove – and then with 1:47 left we have two face-offs where we get two great chances and then nothing to show for it.

“It was just one of those nights where it didn’t happen for us.”

It happened for Seattle once more before the game ended as the Thunderbirds took a 3-1 lead on Jeremy Schappert’s goal from the blue line.

“Ultimately it was just a shot from the blue line that went through about three guys,” Sauter said. “It could’ve hit someone but it didn’t, so what are you going to do?”

Spokane’s next game is Tuesday night when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers – the Chiefs’ last game before the holiday break. After Tuesday’s game, the Chiefs don’t play until Dec. 27th when they host the Tri-City Americans.