Chiefs close with win, await playoffs

With more reasons to lose than win, the Spokane Chiefs would have none of it, smothering the Everett Silvertips 3-2 Sunday night to close out the Western Hockey League regular season.

The Chiefs, who now play Portland in the first round of the playoffs, handed the top-seed to Tri-City and assured themselves they will play Everett in the second round if the playoffs hold to form. Everett was 6-4 against the Chiefs this year, Tri-City 4-8.

The unedited game story is below.

Even though Spokane has home-ice over Portland, the Winterhawks get to start at home because of the NCAA basketball tournament. The schedule is:

Saturday-Sunday at Portland; Wednesday-Friday-Saturday (if necessary) in Spokane; Monday (if necessary) at Portland; Wednesday (if necessary) in Spokane.

The Chiefs handed out the following awards before the game:

Player of the Year, Mitch Wahl

Players’ Player, Jared Spurgeon

John “Himan Hern” Defenseman of the Year, Jared Cowen

Most Sportsmanlike, Jared Spurgeon

Humanitarian of the Year, Tyler Johnson

Rookie of the Year, Brady Brassart

Scholastic Player of the Year, Brady Brassart

By Dave Trimmer

davet@spokesman.com ; (509) 927-2154

Pride trumps probability, or at least animosity.

The Spokane Chiefs proved that to 9,204 fans at the Arena Sunday night by closing out the Western Hockey League regular season by smothering the Everett Silvertips 3-2 when in the long run a loss might have been more beneficial in the playoffs.

“As a group we talked, we believe that the game is fair,” Spokane coach Hardy Sauter said. “If you self-sabotage or you don’t put your best effort forward, at some point it’s going to come back and bite you.

“Ultimately if you take someone for granted or don’t give someone the respect they deserve, you don’t feel good about yourself. So you sacrifice a lot of things just to have a good effort.”

It was an impressive performance considering the strange scenario.

With the win, Spokane ’s biggest rival, Tri-City, is U.S. Division champion and the top seed in the Western Conference when the playoffs begin next weekend.

A loss, or at least Everett getting to overtime, would have given the Silvertips the top seed.

Another twist was the Chiefs’ playoff fate was sealed on Friday and they’ll have home-ice advantage against fifth-seeded Portland , although the first two games are in Portland because of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament here next weekend.

However, if the playoffs hold to form, Spokane is going to face Everett , which won the season series, 6-3-1, instead of the Americans, which lost eight of 12 to the Chiefs, including six of the last seven.

Obviously they played for pride and playoff momentum.

“Coming into Friday we needed a win but after we lost that game (to Tri-City) we said to ourselves, we’re going into playoffs, let’s keep playing, keep good habits and might as well spoil the weekend for Tri-City and Everett if we could,” said Chiefs forward Mitch Wahl, given the team Player of the Year award before the game. “We just came out with the attitude to win two games.

Defenseman Jared Spurgeon, honored as the Players’ Player and the Ken Rabel Sportsmanlike Player of the Year, said, “We just wanted to go into the playoffs with a win. When you’re on a streak you have more confidence in yourself.”

Although it took the Chiefs 10 minutes to get their first shot they grabbed a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 12:20. Tyler Johnson deflected a Brady Brassart shot for his 36 ^th , the 10 ^th time he has scored the first goal of the game.

“I think we played a good defensive game,” Spurgeon said. “After the first 10 minutes we settled down, made simple plays, chipped pucks out and didn’t give them many opportunities.”

The Silvertips tied it in the second with Kellan Tochkin getting his 28 ^th at 6:08 just after a Chiefs’ penalty expired, and Tyler Maxwell notching his 33 ^rd on a short breakaway at 16:55.

In-between Spokane added it’s second power play goal when Spurgeon had a wide-open net for his eighth after a Johnson shot missed the net and banked straight to his teammate.

Mitch Holmberg got the winner midway through the second period.

“They came out hard but for the most part I don’t think they played with the fire we thought they would for what they were playing for,” Wahl said. “But at the same time we came right back at them. We played a hard game. Two good teams going at it, it could have gone either way, but we played a real good third period.”

The Chiefs ended up with a 26-21 shot advantage.

“Normally if you don’t have an advantage to gain you don’t play your goalie three in three, you might sit some of your key guys,” Sauter said. “The lesson we learned was two years ago in the Memorial Cup.

“We had Game Three in the round robin that didn’t mean anything for us. We played our full team and people thought we were rewarded for the professionalism, the respect for the game and your opponent. … I’m very pleased.”

ICE CHIPS

The Chiefs were 3-5 against Portland , including 0-4 at home, but only one of those games was played in 2010. The Chiefs won 4-0 in Portland March 5. … Spokane goalie James Reid finished with the most wins, xx, in the league. … Spokane forward Kyle Beach, who sat out with a leg injury, led the league with 52 goals, the first time a Chief led the league in goals. Beach took a knee-to-knee hit Saturday in Tri-City and will be re-evaluated on Wednesday. … Forward Ryan Letts left the game midway through the second period after a knee-to-knee and will be examined today. … Brett Bartman, Steve Kuhn and Mitch Wahl are the only three Chiefs to appear in every game and its the second consecutive year for Bartman and Kuhn. … Wahl finished led the Chiefs in points with 30 goals and 65 assists.

Calgary finished with the best overall record, 52-17-1-2, and 107 points, three ahead of Brandon , and Brandon Kozun stole the scoring title from Regina ’s Jordan Eberle with four assists in an 8-2 romp over Red Deer on Sunday. Kozun finished with 32 goals and 75 assists for 107 points, Eberle was 50-56-106.