Chiefs discover alternate scoring options
A goalie like Dustin Tokarski is expected to keep the lamp from being lit up.
The defensemen in front of him are expected to help keep the puck away from their netminder.
And players like Drayson Bowman, Mitch Wahl, Levko Koper and Tyler Johnson are expected to score. For the Spokane Chiefs to maintain long-term success, however, it’s a good sign those guys aren’t the only players showing up on the scoresheet.
Sixteen players have combined for the Chiefs’ 34 goals this season and 19 players have registered a point. In Spokane’s 5-1 victory Saturday night against Everett, five players scored goals for Spokane (6-1-0-2, 14 points).
Rookies Mike Betz and David Conrad scored their first career Western Hockey League goals, while two-year Chiefs veteran Ryan Letts potted three goals (two Friday and another Saturday) for his first goals in a Spokane sweater. Two-year forward Dustin Donaghy, who scored one goal in 38 games last season, scored his second goal of the season Saturday.
The Chiefs will look to keep that going during their three-games-in-four-nights stretch this week, beginning tonight when they host the Portland Winter Hawks at the Arena.
“Now that everybody’s kind of got that chip off their shoulder, hopefully we can continue to score a lot of goals and spread the scoring throughout the lineup,” said Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter after Saturday night’s win. “We’re starting to see that more and more, which is great.
“I think it’s a combination of the young guys feeling comfortable and the old guys a little bit more including them in what’s going on. Real good combination of things going on right now and hopefully we continue to grow and mature as a group.”
Spokane will host the Kamloops Blazers on Friday night before hitting the road to take on the U.S. Division rival Tri-City Americans (6-3-0-0), who trail the Chiefs by two points in the division standings.
Wahl, who finished serving his three-game league-imposed suspension Saturday, will be back in the lineup tonight. The Calgary Flames prospect is tied for the team lead in scoring with Koper. Wahl has five goals and five assists, while Koper has recorded four goals and six assists.
Bowman (five goals, three assists), Johnson (two goals, six assists) and defenseman Stefan Ulmer (two goals, six assists) all have eight points apiece. Even Tokarski – who has a league-leading 1.24 goals-against average – has two assists, leaving just four players who have yet to score this season.
“You need that,” Sauter said. “If you’re relying on Bowman, or Johnson, or those guys to score all the time, eventually teams are just going to shut them down and you’ll have nothing. But now younger guys are putting the puck in the net and doing it effectively, and it’s giving us real success as of right now.”
Ice chips
Koper is tied for the league’s longest point-scoring streak at nine games. The 18-year-old has points in all nine games this year for Spokane. Three of his assists have come on the power play and he is also plus-8. … In their last four games, the Chiefs are 7 for 25 (28 percent) on the power play. Spokane has not allowed a power-play goal at home, going 17 for 17 in three games. Spokane has allowed seven power-play goals in 51 chances (86.3 percent) overall.