Yamamoto, Chiefs cruise past Kelowna

KELOWNA, British Columbia – Keanu Yamamoto showed off his long-range accuracy on Friday night and helped lead the Spokane Chiefs to a 6-3 win over the Kelowna Rockets in Western Hockey League play.

Yamamoto’s first goal was a shot from center ice that deflected off a Kelowna defender and floated into the net. His second goal was from the blue line.

The Chiefs grabbed control from the outset with three first-period goals and built an insurmountable lead with three more in the second period. Back-to-back power-play goals from Dominic Zwerger and Jaret Anderson-Dolan midway through the second period made it 6-0.

Ethan McIndoe and Jacob Cardiff also scored for the Chiefs, who have won the first three games of their four-game road trip. Spokane goalkeeper Lasse Petersen stopped 21 of 24 shots.

Spokane won 4-3 against Kelowna in Spokane on Nov. 14. Kelowna has now dropped three of their last four following a five-game win streak.

The teams will play again Feb. 27 in Kelowna.

With the win, Spokane improved to 26-20-2-1 and it moved the Chiefs to within two points of second-place Seattle in the WHL’s U.S. Division. The Rockets fell to 35-14-3-0.

KIJHL

Mason Jones, Elliot Plourde and Jason Hambelton scored third-period goals and the Spokane Braves edged the Columbia Valley Rockies 6-5 in a Kootenay International Junior Hockey League game at Eagles Ice-A-Rena in Spokane.

Garrett Graham, Paxton Malone and Kurtis Redding also scored for the Braves (7-35-0-0-4), who never trailed despite being outshot 56-45. Columbia Valley fell to 26-20-0-0-0.

Spokane hosts the Nelson Leafs on Saturday.