Thunderbirds keep Spokane sliding
The Spokane Chiefs have entered the twilight zone and seemingly put their opposition on one perpetual power play. Their armor in the last three games has not only been chinked, their poise has seemingly been dented.
Bud Holloway finished with a hat trick and Jeremy Boyer added two second-period goals as the Seattle Thunderbirds slapped a 9-7 loss on the Chiefs, their third straight, in Western Hockey League action on Monday night in front of an announced crowd of 5,581 at the Arena.
If the 7-2 whooping the Tri-City Americans handed the Chiefs on Saturday wasn’t enough, two straight losses to Seattle hopefully will be. The Chiefs were shut out 2-0 on Sunday in Seattle and are now on their longest losing streak of the season – all within the U.S. Division – since going 0-2-1-1 in early October.
“At the beginning of the year I think it was surreal, and we were winning and nothing mattered but that and guys put everything aside – nothing personal – and it comes down to each individual to put the team’s success ahead of their own,” Chiefs captain Chris Bruton said. “Right now we’re not doing that.”
Seattle’s Prab Rai opened a five-goal first period for the Thunderbirds, who have won five straight, with a shorthanded goal 4 minutes and 8 seconds in, burying a beauty of a feed from Jim O’Brien that gave him a wide-open look, stick side on Spokane goalie Kevin Armstrong. Holloway scored twice within two minutes as the Thunderbirds took a 3-0 lead at 7:22.
Jared Spurgeon scored at 7:46 and Mitch Wahl at 10:23 to bring the Chiefs within one goal, but O’Brien netted a power-play goal and Lindsay Nielsen struck at 18:40 to send the Thunderbirds into the locker room with a 5-2 lead after the first 20 minutes.
The Chiefs came into the night having allowed a league-low 122 goals.
“We’re usually so solid on defense and we don’t get scored on a lot, but we’re getting away from that, and as soon as that happens, the flood gates kind of open,” Bruton said. “It’s something we definitely need to work on, and we’ll get back at it this week at practice and put this behind us.”
The second period wasn’t much better for Spokane.
Armstrong was pulled after making 10 saves and allowing five goals in the first and Dustin Tokarski started the middle period for Spokane.
Boyer scored back-to-back goals to open the period, the first at 2:48 and again at 8:00 on Seattle’s fourth power play of the night, a shot that bounced off Tokarski’s stick and landed top shelf.
Drayson Bowman scored his team-leading 34th goal of the season – a backhanded wrist shot at 10:11 – and added another off a Mike Reddington rebound at 18:48. He finished with five points, adding three assists to his two goals.
Jeremy Schappert’s first goal of the season at 16:23, though, allowed Seattle to take a four-goal lead into the third.
Bruton, Judd Blackwater and Stefan Ulmer – whose three-point night was a career-high – scored in the third, but an empty-net goal gave Holloway his hat trick and the three-goal period proved insignificant for the Chiefs, who trail Tri-City by four points in the Western Conference and U.S. Division standings. Tri-City is the top-ranked team in the WHL writers’ poll, though Spokane is top-ranked in the CHL poll for the first time this season.
“We’ve lost focus a little bit on what allowed us to be successful earlier,” Chiefs coach Bill Peters said. “We need to get regrouped and bring a better attitude to the rink. You’re going to have some bumps in the road at some point and its how you deal with it.”
Peters hopes the skid ends Friday, when the Chiefs travel to Everett to take on the Silvertips.