Chiefs continue road woes, fall to Portland
Winterhawks tie it late, prevail in a shootout
PORTLAND – Spokane’s attempt at its first road win of the season failed again Friday night.
Portland’s Brad Ross tied the game with 40 seconds left and the Winterhawks went on to 6-5 Western Hockey League victory in a shootout.
The Winterhawks had four goals in the shootout and Spokane managed three.
The loss dropped Spokane’s road record to 0-3-0-2. The Chiefs are 9-4-0-2 overall, eight points out of first in the Western Conference’s U.S. Division.
Spokane came out strongly in the first period. Chiefs’ center Mike Aviani scored his fourth goal in the last three games at 3:11 of the first period. After a Portland goal, Marek Kalus scored at 13:36 to put Spokane ahead 2-1.
Portland and Spokane traded goals the entire game. Steven Kuhn and Darren Kramer scored for Spokane in the second period.
With the score tied, Spokane’s Connor Chartier, who scored his first career goal at Portland last March, scored at 10:36 in the third to put the Chiefs ahead 5-4, but Ross’ goal late in the period sent the game into a scoreless overtime and an eventual shootout.
The Chiefs play eight of their next 12 matches away from Spokane, beginning tonight in a rematch at Portland.