Chiefs’ chances fall short
Third-period lead holds up for Kootenay
CRANBROOK, British Columbia – Hayden Rintoul’s power-play goal at 9:41 of the third period lifted Kootenay to a 4-3 win over Spokane on Friday at the Cranbrook Recreation Center.
The Chiefs will get a chance to even the score against Kootenay tonight at 7 in the Arena.
The Chiefs outshot the Ice 38-30 and missed some opportunities to tie the game in the third.
“I would say that this is one of those games we will look back on and be disappointed that we did not win,” Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter said. “I liked the fact that we had lots of chances to tie at the end.”
Kootenay’s Max Reinhart scored a short-handed goal to open the scoring 13:56 into the first period.
The Chiefs’ Kenton Miller countered with a short-handed goal at 14:29. Miller’s first goal of the season was assisted by Steve Kuhn.
Mitch Holmberg also scored his first goal for the Chiefs and gave the visitors a 2-1 lead at the 16:09 mark of the period. T.C. Cratsenberg took an Anthony Bardaro pass on the right wing and found a wide-open Holmberg by the left post.
Despite being outshot 18-9 in the first period, Kootenay managed to tie things up with a Dustin Sylvester goal at the 17:12 mark.
Brayden McNabb’s slap shot at 8:11 of the second period gave the Ice a 3-2 lead, but Jared Cowen tied things up with his third goal of the season with less than a minute left in the period.
Stephan Ulmer and Mitch Wahl each had an assist, their team-leading seventh of the season.