Power-play outage
It’s not as bad as you think it might be. It’s certainly not as bad as it could be. But the Spokane Chiefs’ power play is costing them games lately.
They paid the price of failing to convert on seven advantages in Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Tri-City and again on Wednesday night as the Everett Silvertips stopped eight Spokane power plays, including two 5-on-3s, en route to a 2-1 victory over the Chiefs in front of 4,062 dumbfounded fans.
The question of what to do about the power play even has Spokane coach Bill Peters a little mystified.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Peters said after the game’s dramatic finish. “Obviously, it’s something that hurt us here tonight and hurt us in the last game also, so we’ve got to get it going in the right direction.”
As time in regulation expired, Everett’s Kyle Beach gave Spokane forward Mitch Wahl a couple of shoves before Chiefs captain Chris Bruton stepped in to defend Wahl. According to Bruton, Beach threw the first punch before Bruton one-punched him, which laid Beach out on the ice for several minutes.
There are different versions of what happened depending on whose camp you talk to, but both Peters and Bruton, who was playing in his first game since a three-game suspension, seemed more than confident that the incident was provoked and should go unpunished.
“I saw two punches – one punch with a glove on and (another) punch with a glove on,” said Peters. “I’d be shocked if there’s (a suspension on Bruton) from that – absolutely shocked. Let’s not kid ourselves, you talk about Acting 101.
“You get knocked down, you get up. That’s hockey.”
After Everett (25-20-0-2) took a 1-0 lead in the first period courtesy of a Zach Hamill goal, Chiefs sniper Drayson Bowman tied the score 5 minutes and 25 second into the third.
Lukas Vartovnik scored the final goal of the night late in the third to give the Silvertips the victory.
Despite their recent performance on the power play, the Chiefs (31-9-1-3) still rank eighth in the league when skating with an advantage.
“I just think some of the guys are trying to be too cute,” said Bruton. “Whether they’re just warming up for that big shot or whatnot, that’s not always what counts. What counts is getting in on the net and getting rebounds and opportunities, and we’re not getting them through right now.”
The Chiefs hit the road for their next three games, beginning with Seattle on Friday. They face Everett again on Saturday and will play in Portland on Monday before returning to the Arena ice to take on Seattle on Jan. 25.
Notes
Spokane netminder Dustin Tokarski stopped 20 shots while Everett goalie Leland Irving turned away 39 of 40 shots. … Spokane remained one point behind Vancouver, which fell 2-1 to Saskatoon, for first in the Western Conference standings. The Chiefs are one point ahead of Tri-City, which did not play.