Chiefs claim back-to-back wins over Ice

A night after surrendering a two-goal lead and holding on in overtime in Cranbrook, British Columbia, the Spokane Chiefs returned home and made sure a similar rally didn’t happen again.

The Chiefs withstood a third-period push by the Kootenay Ice and prevailed 3-1 in front of 6,735 fans in attendance. Goalie Tyson Verhelst stopped 21 of 22 shots.

“Our guys went to the well. We competed hard,” Chiefs head coach Don Nachbaur said, acknowledging his team’s recent travel schedule that saw the team bus to Lethbridge, Alberta, and then to Cranbrook on Friday, only to return to Spokane in the early hours of Saturday.

“I liked our effort and I’m not going to complain about a victory.”

The Chiefs opened the scoring 2 minutes, 51 seconds into the game when rookie Jaret Anderson-Dolan found the net. Keanu Yamamoto and Nik Andersen provided the helpers.

Not four minutes later, Presten Kopeck put home a rebound from a Kailer Yamamoto shot to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead.

It seemed like it would be a repeat of Friday’s 7-6 offensive outburst in Cranbrook, but a scoreless second period helped keep Kootenay close.

Although there was no scoring, the second period wasn’t without entertainment.

Kootenay’s Troy Murray caught Spokane’s Wyatt Johnson with a check to the head, leaving Johnson down on the ice. Evan Fiala made sure Murray paid for his penalty, and the two fought.

Murray was ejected for the remainder of the game in addition to a 5-minute major for fighting and a 5-minute major for the check to the head. Fiala was given 2 minutes for instigating a fight, 5 for fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct. The 17 minutes he sat out forced Spokane to juggle its defensive line combinations.

Johnson returned to the ice soon after but quickly took a penalty.

“(Jason Fram) had to play a lot tonight because of that,” Nachbaur said. “We lost Johnson, too, and that didn’t help us for the third period because guys were fatigued.”

Kootenay found some life in the third period and outshot the Chiefs 10-7. The Ice got within one goal after Jared Legien got behind Fram and scored on a short breakaway.

The Chiefs suddenly found themselves in a familiar setting: holding onto a lead late in the game.

Unlike Friday night, the Chiefs got some insurance in regulation when Curtis Miske took a feed in front of the net from Markson Bechtold to give the Chiefs the 3-1 lead.

“Today we really stuck to our game plan in the third and stuck to our structure,” Kailer Yamamoto said. “We really clamped down on (Kootenay).”

Yamamoto finished with an assist and leads the team with 60 points.

The win gives Nachbaur 223 wins behind the Spokane bench. That mark ties Mike Babcock for the all-time team record.

“It’s just part of the job,” Nachbaur said. “You try to do the best job you can and and I think our guys deserve all the credit for winning games. I’d like to see us win more though, but it’s a nice feather in your cap.”

The win allowed the Chiefs to keep pace with the Portland Winterhawks in the U.S. Division. The Winterhawks remain one point ahead of the Chiefs after they defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds.