Chiefs trample Tri-City before huge crowd

Finally, the Spokane Chiefs were hungry enough.

Finally, they played desperate enough.

And finally, the Chiefs gave their home crowd what they’ve been waiting for all season – a home win against their long-standing rivals.

David Rutherford scored two goals and Dustin Tokarski turned away 29 shots and notched an assist as the Chiefs topped the Tri-City Americans 6-3 at the Arena on Saturday.

“I think last time we played them here we got destroyed, didn’t we?” said Rutherford, referring to the Chiefs’ 7-2 loss two weeks ago at the Arena, to which the Chiefs responded to with a 3-1 victory over the Ams in Kennewick on Feb. 16.

“We knew coming in it was going to be a battle,” added Rutherford, who has 11 goals and 16 points in his last 18 games. “We got a good jump, had good goaltending, and if you look at players like (Mitch) Wahl using great speed, I think that really helped.”

Wahl, whose empty-net goal with 7 seconds remaining in the game drew a standing ovation from Spokane’s crowd of 10,366, finished with a goal and two assists, as his line was responsible for six of Spokane’s 16 points. Captain Chris Bruton had a goal and an assist and sniper Drayson Bowman scored his 37th goal of the season.

Playing on pink ice for Breast Cancer Awareness night, the Chiefs (43-14-1-5) handed the Americans (44-14-2-2) – who have one game in hand over Spokane – their third straight loss to lock up the U.S. Division standings at 92 points.

For Spokane, a four-goal first period proved to be enough for the win.

The Chiefs took a 1-0 lead at the 2-minute mark when Richland native Seth Compton netted his 12th goal of the season. Rutherford went top shelf at 8:14 on a spectacular feed from Judd Blackwater for a two-goal lead.

The Chiefs added insurance goals after capitalizing on a couple of odd-man rushes. Wahl fed Bowman at 11:37 on a 2-on-1 rush and connected on the same play with Bruton at 17:31.

Had it not been for solid backstopping from Tokarski, though, the first period could have easily swung the other way.

“I’ll tell you what – you play that period again 100 times and it won’t be 4-0,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters. “I thought Dustin Tokarski was excellent. I thought we were stuck in the 80s again. I thought it would be a 12-8 hockey game the way both teams were playing – tons of offense, tons of odd-man rushes – and I knew we had to get better than that.”

The Chiefs played better in the second, but the scoreboard didn’t reflect it.

Shaun Vey scored 30 seconds into the middle period and Adam Hughesman netted a power-play goal at 7:15 to pull the Ams within two goals after the second.

Rutherford scored his second goal 2:43 into the third, Kruise Reddick fed Taylor Procyshen for a Tri-City goal at 5:45 and Wahl rounded out the scoring with his empty-net goal.

“This shows we can compete at home,” said Rutherford. “I guess against them we’ve been soft at home, you could say, but we took advantage of them tonight. They weren’t ready and it was a big win for us.

“Every game means something right now.”

The Chiefs wrap up their four-game season series with the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday when they travel to Kelowna.

Ice chips

Chiefs forward Justin McCrae was sidelined for the second straight night with a knee injury. Rookie defensemen Stefan Ulmer and Jace Coyle were healthy scratches. … Vancouver has a one-point lead atop the Western Conference standings after defeating Kelowna on Saturday night, leaving Spokane and Tri-City tied for the second seed.