Chiefs lose in OT
Koper’s 4th goal of year not enough
PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia – What a difference a day made for the Spokane Chiefs.
After almost scoring at will in the season opener, the Chiefs found goals quite a bit harder to come by and the end result was a 2-1 overtime defeat at the hands of the Prince George Cougars in Western Hockey League play Saturday night.
Alex Rodgers scored the winner 2 minutes, 32 seconds into overtime and Prince George turned the tables on the Chiefs, who posted a 6-3 win over the Cougars on Friday night.
“We didn’t have the same jump tonight,” Chiefs head coach Hardy Sauter said. “So the execution offensively was not as good as we needed.”
The Cougars took a 1-0 lead 7:01 into the match on a goal by Marek Viedensky. For most of the night, it appeared that would be enough.
But the Chiefs’ Levko Koper, who netted a hat trick on opening night, continued his hot start with a goal at the 12:24 mark of the third period.
Mitch Wahl picked up an assist on Koper’s fourth tally of the young season.
It was the only blemish on a stellar effort by Cougars goalie James Priestner, who stopped 35 of 36 shots on goal.
Chiefs goalie James Reid turned back 25 of the 27 shots he faced.
Prince George had a miserable night on the power play – failing to score in all seven of its opportunities. Spokane was 0 for 2.
“Our penalty kill was very good again tonight, and I liked the way we continued to battle to tie the game and get one point in the standings,” Sauter said.