Chiefs drop Game 2

When the Spokane Chiefs head west early next week to play the third and fourth games of their Western Hockey League playoff series with the Seattle Thunderbirds, they hoped they’d be carrying a two-game lead with them.

The Thunderbirds had something else in mind though.

Goalie Calvin Pickard stopped 33 shots and Thomas Hickey and Sena Acolatse each scored as the Thunderbirds defeated the Chiefs 2-1 to even the Western Conference quarterfinal series 1-1 in front of 5,902 fans Saturday night at the Arena.

“We came out flat, yeah,” said Chiefs forward Drayson Bowman, who has scored all three of Spokane’s goals in the first two games of the series.

“They picked up their game tonight,” Bowman added. “They played well.”

After a scoreless first period – in which the Chiefs had a handful of quality scoring chances – Hickey was able to sneak in a shot from the left point thanks to a lucky bounce off a Chiefs defenseman’s skate that deflected the puck past Spokane goalie Dustin Tokarski 15 minutes, 37 seconds into the second period.

Seattle increased its lead at the 5:11 mark in the third period when Acolatse popped in a short rebound off of Luke Lockhart’s shot from the left board.

“The first one was a lucky bounce – a shot rebounds off our guy’s foot. It was just too bad – that’s all,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “The second one was a nice play. They went into (the zone) and shot the puck, and the rebound popped out front and their guy happens to bang it into the net. We knew that’s what they were going to do … that’s kind of their M.O. as far as offense goes.

“Tonight it just seemed like those bounces didn’t go our way.”

It was also another rough night on the power play for Spokane, which is 0 for 7 on power-play opportunities in the series so far, after finishing as the fourth best power-play unit in the league through the regular season. The Chiefs whiffed on four tries against Seattle.

“Tonight was better (than Friday),” Sauter said. “We had a few good looks. (Mitch) Wahl’s stick broke once on a wide-open net, and maybe even on the second one. I think we’re close on the power play, but obviously we need to see some results soon.”

The Chiefs did manage to spoil Pickard’s shutout bid with time winding down in the third period. Bowman, who scored twice on Friday, got possession of the puck inside the Chiefs’ offensive blue line and sailed down the left lane before burying a shot past Pickard’s glove side.

Spokane didn’t have many chances inside.

“They did a real good job of keeping our shooters to the outside,” Sauter said. “We couldn’t seem to find any of those pucks in front and quite honestly their goalie is playing pretty good so if you’re on the outside and you’re not getting any rebounds, you’re not going to score many goals.”

Ice chips

Tokarski made 26 saves in net for Spokane. … Ryan Letts served the final game of his 10-game suspension. The 19-year-old Chiefs forward was suspended after he was called for a charging major during Spokane’s Feb. 28 home game against the Tri-City Americans. … Chiefs defenseman Trevor Glass, who has been sidelined with a nagging upper body injury, should be ready to play on Tuesday. Defenseman Mike Reddington, who has been out with the flu, might play Tuesday.