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

Chiefs discount talk of slump

So the Spokane Chiefs have lost four of their last 10 games. This may have some of you panicked. It might have some of you wondering if this team is for real.

Calm down. This is probably a premature reaction.

Yes, the Chiefs are 6-3-0-1 in their last 10 games, but so are the Vancouver Giants, with whom the Chiefs remain in a two-way tie atop the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference. The Eastern Conference-leading Calgary Hitmen joined the Chiefs and Giants this week as the only teams in the league with 70 points.

“There is a lot of hockey left,” said Chiefs coach Bill Peters, whose team still has the league’s highest winning percentage (.745) and had allowed a league-low 98 goals to be scored against them.

“Vancouver is a very good team, and they have the same record as we do in the last 10 games, and there are teams playing well right now – Kelowna and Everett are on a roll – and I don’t see it changing much through the finish here.”

The primary concern for Peters, which isn’t to say he’s losing sleep over the Chiefs’ recent stagger, is how it’s happening.

“Some of the games (we’ve lost), we make it harder than it needs to be,” Peters said, adding that the penalty kill has struggled in some key losses – a 4-3 decision to Medicine Hat in early December, in which the Chiefs allowed four power-play goals and took 11 penalties, and most recently a 4-2 loss to Everett, in which the Chiefs allowed the Silvertips to score on four of 10 power-play opportunities.

“You’re not going to go on road and win when you’re taking unnecessary penalties,” Peters said. “That’s something we should have figured out by now, and that we will if we are as smart as I think we are.”

Peters hopes his team can get back on track with its trio of games this weekend, beginning tonight at the Arena with the familiar Seattle Thunderbirds.

Wahl returns

Chiefs forward Mitch Wahl scored a goal and helped Team White to an 8-4 win over Team Red at the CHL-NHL Top Prospects game on Wednesday night in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Top Prospects game is the annual showcase game that pulls the top 40 North American prospects – 14 of which were WHL players this year – for the NHL Entry Draft. It drew 13,596 fans, scouts and NHL general managers this year. The players were selected by a voting process among the 30 NHL teams.

“The choices came from the NHL teams,” said E.J. McGuire, Director of NHL Central Scouting. “Because of that, these guys should be honored and maybe even confident that one of the 30 teams is going to take each and every one of these guys.”

“It was a lot of fun. I think it went real well,” said Wahl, who got one hour of sleep before practicing on Thursday. “I thought I played a good game. I finished hits, shot the puck, and overall I think it was a successful trip.”

Ice chips

Chiefs leading scorer Drayson Bowman is “very doubtful through the weekend,” said Peters. Bowman, who injured his shoulder in a 5-4 shootout victory over Seattle last Friday, tried to practice on Thursday but didn’t make it through. Peters said the team won’t rush his return. … Chiefs goalies Dustin Tokarski and Kevin Armstrong are second and third in the league, respectively, in goals-against average. Tokarski has a 1.98 GAA with Armstrong right on his heels with a 2.02 GAA.