Thunderbirds dispatch Chiefs in shootout

SEATTLE – Jeremy Boyer scored in the fourth round of a shootout Saturday night in front of a KeyArena crowd of 4,277, leading the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 3-2 Western Hockey League win over the Spokane Chiefs.

The win was the first of the year for the Thunderbirds (1-5).

Boyer was the fourth shooter for the T-Birds, who elected to go first in the shootout and beat Spokane goaltender Dustin Tokarski on the glove side after Seattle’s first three shooters had all been denied.

Spokane (4-1-0-2) spotted Seattle an early lead on Boyer’s first goal of the game, but tied the game at 1 when Drayson Bowman scored late in the first period on an assist from Jared Spurgeon.

Bowman scored again on a power play 7 minutes into the second period to put the Chiefs up 2-1, but the Thunderbirds took advantage of a Spokane turnover early in the third period and tied the game at 2 when Lindsay Nielsen knocked the puck past Tokarski from the low slot.

Nielsen’s goal came after Boyer intercepted a pass behind the Spokane net and quickly centered the puck to Nielsen, who then scored over Tokarski’s glove at 8:35 of the period.

Following Boyer’s shootout goal, Spokane’s Stefan Ulmer was denied on his attempt to answer by Seattle goaltender Jacob DeSerres, who finished with 30 saves and also turned back shots by the Chiefs’ Levko Koper, Brett Bartman and Steve Kuhn in the shootout.

Tokarski turned away 25 shots for Spokane.

The Chiefs, who have a four-point lead over the Tri-City Americans in the U.S. Division of the WHL, will be back in action on Friday night at 7:30, when they play the Portland Winter Hawks in Portland.

The Winter Hawks lost to Vancouver 7-1 on Saturday.

Spokane’s next home game is Saturday against Everett.