Ice send Chiefs to fourth straight loss

As Sam Reinhart watched Kootenay’s progress from afar earlier this season, he still had confidence in the Ice’s chances.

Those chances improved when Reinhart returned to Kootenay after a nine-game stint with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.

Reinhart set up the first goal and scored the second – both in the first 3 ½ minutes Saturday – as Kootenay (15-15-0-0) won for the 12th time in 14 games by holding off the Spokane Chiefs 3-2 in Western Hockey League play at the Arena.

“The first little bit when I came back, I was looking around the room to see what was up and the attitude and the team morale,” said Reinhart, the second overall pick of the 2014 NHL draft. “It was very positive and we knew we had a good group in here.”

Reinhart has eight goals and 18 assists in the 13 games he’s played since returning.

“I knew the group of guys I was coming back to, for the most part, and it was pretty comfortable coming back in,” Reinhart said. “I knew it was just a matter of time before things turned around. I think it was a bit of luck that I came at the right time.”

“They’re a good team,” Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur said. “They have five guys who were drafted and one kid just played in the NHL this year. We have to play at our best to beat teams like that. That’s where we’re at right now.”

The Chiefs (14-11-3-0) dropped their fourth consecutive game after ending November with a five-game winning streak. Spokane is 1-2-1-0 against the Ice this season, with every game decided by one goal.

Saturday’s game got off to a rocky start as Chiefs starting goalie Garret Hughson allowed goals on the first two shots he faced, by Montreal Canadiens draftee Tim Bozon at 33 seconds and Reinhart at 3:34.

Nachbaur immediately replaced Hughson with Tyson Verhelst, who stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced and allowed the Chiefs to rally.

“If you’re sharp, you’re sharp,” Nachbaur said of Hughson. “I didn’t see sharpness there. We needed a save there. … We needed to make a change and I felt very comfortable making that change that Tyson was going to do a good job and he did.”

Chiefs captain Jason Fram scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season to ignite the comeback. Fram scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 14:11 of the first period to cut the Ice’s lead in half, and tied the game with 11 seconds left in the second period after a nifty pass from Calder Brooks.

Kootenay’s Levi Cable scored the winner with 13:23 left, much to the chagrin of Nachbaur and the fans, by knocking the puck out of the air in front of the net and beating Verhelst.

“I thought that our goalie was interfered,” Nachbaur said. “Their guy had a skate in the paint and you can’t be in the crease area. That’s the way I saw it. … It starts with the contact in the paint. It could have been blown down, it could have been waved off, but it wasn’t, and so we live with it.”