Rockets still have Chiefs’ number

Earlier Tuesday, Kelowna’s Rourke Chartier was named Western Hockey League Player of the Week.

Tuesday night, Chartier put his name forward as a candidate for next week’s award.

Chartier scored his league-leading 19th and 20th goals to guide the Rockets (18-1-1-0), the WHL’s premier team, to a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Chiefs before an Arena crowd of 3,608.

“It’s nice, but at the same time, one week doesn’t really define a season,” Chartier said of the award. “I just hope to keep things going here.”

The 18-year-old Chartier, drafted in the fifth round this year by the San Jose Sharks, had 24 goals in 72 games last year.

“I played behind a couple of older guys last year,” Chartier said. “They were our top players. But I’m just a little more confident this year, and I’m obviously playing with great players in Nick (Merkley) and Tyrell (Goulbourne), and I guess I’ve been fortunate so far in that (the shots have) been going in.”

The Chiefs (8-6-3-0) dropped to 0-3 against Kelowna this season, but each game has been decided by two goals or less. Nine of Kelowna’s victories have been by four goals or more.

Still, that wasn’t enough to impress Chiefs coach Don Nachbaur, given the 45-minute scoreless streak Spokane had after Riley Whittingham’s goal in the opening minute.

“At the 10-minute mark (of the third period), we started to play Chiefs hockey and we had chances … but it was far too late,” Nachbaur said. “We weren’t nearly as competitive through the first two periods. To me, it was an easy game we were looking for. We didn’t check guys, we didn’t more our feet to any pucks. We were slow and we got what we deserved.”

On the positive side, Spokane held the Rockets’ league-leading power play (30.9 percent) to a 0-for-5 night. But the Chiefs gave up a pair of second-period goals as power plays were expiring. Goulbourne scored his fourth goal in the last two games at 7:26, 6 seconds after a Chiefs power play ended, and Chartier gave the Rockets a 3-1 lead at 17:35 right as a Kelowna power play ended.

“It was just poorly executed from a defensive standpoint from our team,” Nachbaur said. “We missed assignments and we had guys who skated around us. Give them credit, they have a lot of skill and they showed it. They picked us apart on their goals.”

Whittingham, who hadn’t scored since Oct. 14, added his second goal of the night on a power play with 13:51 left to cut the Rockets’ lead to 3-2. Chartier’s second goal of the evening came a little more than 3 minutes later, boosting the lead back to two goals.

The Chiefs pulled goaltender Garret Hughson with about 4 minutes left. Adam Helewka scored his team-leading 11th goal with 1:46 left on a 6-on-5 play, but Nachbaur said he felt the situation on the ice made it too risky to pull Hughson again until 45 seconds were left.

“It wasn’t nearly good enough from my perspective to beat that team,” Nachbaur said. “They had a shortened lineup with guys at the Subway Series and it was an opportunity that we blew. It’s that simple.”

Jason Fram assisted on Helewka’s goal, giving him a point in 10 consecutive games.