Chiefs back in sync for postseason

Following the Spokane Chiefs’ road victory Wednesday night over the Seattle Thunderbirds, goalie Dustin Tokarski said what fans on this side of the state have wanted to hear.

“It does feel the same (as last year), because last year in the playoffs we were able to win on the road,” Tokarski told reporters in an interview at the ShoWare Center in Kent. “We showed that we can do it again when we are playing our ‘A’ game by taking two games here in Kent.

“Now we’re back to playing Chiefs hockey,” added Tokarski, who has been his usual solid self in net, posting the second-best goals-against average (1.55) in the league.

The Chiefs are also back home, hoping to wrap up their best-of-7 Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Thunderbirds tonight on Arena ice. With a pair of road wins Tuesday and Wednesday, the Chiefs took a 3-1 lead in the series and put the Thunderbirds in survival mode.

“You always want to win, but now we have to win,” Seattle coach Rob Sumner told the Seattle Times. “It’s win or go home.”

For Spokane it’s win and go on – to the top-seeded Vancouver Giants, who swept former Chiefs goalie Kevin Armstrong and the Prince George Cougars in their first-round series.

The defending Western Hockey League and Memorial Cup champion Chiefs faced the Giants last season in the second round of the WHL playoffs – under different circumstances, of course.

The Giants – who won the Memorial Cup in 2007 – finished with 119 points in the standings this season, which surprisingly was only good enough for second in the league thanks to the Eastern Conference Calgary Hitmen’s 122 points.

Last season when the teams met Vancouver was the second seed in the West and Spokane was third, which was a little bit deceiving. Because the division winners automatically receive the top two seeds, Spokane wound up the third seed when it failed to defeat the Tri-City Americans in Game 71 of the regular season – though the Chiefs still finished with the second-best record in the league and with a better record than Vancouver.

Either way, the Chiefs still have unfinished business before they can begin making plans for a battle with the Giants. If they take care of business tonight the way they did in Games 3 and 4, they can start making those plans.

In the first two games of the series the Chiefs struggled to find the back of the net on the power play, going 0 for 7 when skating with an advantage. That all turned around in the third and fourth games, as the Chiefs were 3 for 7 on the power play.

The Chiefs penalty-kill unit was even more impressive – stopping all nine Seattle power-play opportunities (six on Tuesday and three on Wednesday) and scoring two short-handed goals in Tuesday night’s 5-1 victory.

If the Chiefs don’t wrap up the series tonight, they’ll hit the road again for a sixth game – which would be played Sunday night game in Kent.

Ice chips

Former Chiefs captain Chris Bruton, who helped lead Spokane to their WHL and Memorial Cup titles last spring, was named to the Atlantic University Sport Hockey Conference All-Rookie team. Bruton, who played for the Acadia Axemen this year, finished second on the team in scoring with 29 points – 15 goals and 14 assists – and 20th overall in the conference. … Tickets are still available for tonight’s game, which starts at 7. Tickets can be purchased by calling 535-PUCK or at the Arena box office.