Clock strikes zero as Chiefs fall to Everett in Game 6

The Spokane Chiefs’ good fortunes finally ran out as the clock approached midnight. Brayden Low gobbled up a Chiefs turnover and scored 3 minutes, 43 seconds into the third overtime Tuesday as the Everett Silvertips ended Spokane’s season with a 2-1 win at the Arena. Everett won the Western Hockey League first-round series 4-2 – with three games going into OT – to advance to the second round for the first time since 2007. The Silvertips will host Portland in Game 1 on Friday. “No regrets,” Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur said. “We tried our best. We did our best. We made a lot of mistakes in the overtime and the game’s about mistakes. “But our effort was there. We just played the team that won the conference and played possibly one of the top teams in the Western Hockey League. We went nose-to-nose with these guys. A break here, a break there, we win the game, and I can say that about other games in this series, too.” Spokane’s season was all but finished when the Chiefs, unable to get anything past Everett goalie Carter Hart for the first 59:55 of regulation, produced the shocking tying goal. After a Chiefs timeout with 14.3 seconds left, Adam Helewka secured the puck near the Chiefs bench, drove toward the goal and fired a shot. Kailer Yamamoto, standing out front, sent the puck under Hart with 5.4 seconds left. Everett appeared to have ended the night 1:11 into the second overtime, but after a long video review Remi Laurencelle’s goal was disallowed for having contacted the puck with his stick too high. The Silvertips also hit the post at 6:30. Chiefs goalie Garret Hughson made a good stop at 18:45 to set up the third OT. The Chiefs outshot Everett 12-9 in the first OT and nearly ended matters when Keanu Yamamoto hit the post with about 4 minutes left. Everett soon took a timeout as Spokane put constant pressure on Hart. During regulation, Spokane outshot Everett 12-9 in the first period, but the Silvertips entered the intermission with a 1-0 lead thanks to Kohl Bauml’s power-play goal at 10:11, assisted by Patrick Bajkov. Markson Bechtold’s delay-of-game penalty had given Everett the first of its five power-play chances during regulation. Spokane killed the other four Silvertips chances. The Chiefs were 0 for 1 on power plays during regulation. Hughson made three superb stops in the first period, including a stop of Bauml’s breakaway with 30 seconds left. The Chiefs outshot Everett 9-8 in the second period and had their best chance near the midway point on Liam Stewart’s 2-on-1 play with Riley Whittingham. Hart made the save to preserve the 1-0 lead. “To go into three periods of overtime, we went to the well,” Nachbaur said. “We looked really, really exhausted and the end result is we made a huge mistake at the end of the game.”