Spokane Chiefs give up two late goals and fall 4-3 in overtime to Everett

Spokane lost 4-3 in overtime Friday night to the Everett Silvertips after the Chiefs game up two power-play goals in the last six minutes of a game they controlled from the beginning.

Markson Bechtold scored a short-handed goal with 1:08 to play to tie the game at 3-3, but Everett’s Patrick Bajkov scored the game-winner 24 seconds into overtime.

“We played way better tonight,” Spokane coach Don Nachbaur said. “Good teams find a way to win. We’ve got to keep the puck out of the net when we are short-handed.”

The Chiefs had taken a 2-1 lead half way through the third period when Kailer Yamamoto found a free puck in front of the Everett net and powered it home for his second goal of the night.

But Spokane got into trouble when Hudson Elynuik was called for a major charging penalty that gave Everett a 5-minute power play with about 6 minutes to play.

Bajkov scored his first goal 53 seconds into the power play to tie the game at 2-2. Ten seconds later, Noah Juulsen got the puck past Spokane goalie Jayden Sittler to take a 3-2 lead with 5:51 to play.

Then with 1:08 left, on yet another Everett power play, Bechtold scored a short-handed goal that sent the game to overtime.

“That was a great goal under tough conditions,” Nachbaur said. “He returned and really gave us a boost tonight.”

Early in the game, Spokane (2-4-0-1, 5 points) came out with crisp passing to continually put pressure on the Everett Silvertips, (6-1-1-1, 15 points).

The Chiefs continually found ways to get the puck to the Everett net, only to get denied or they failed to finish.

Early in the game, the Chiefs raced forward on a 3-on-2 advantage only to have Jaret Anderson-Dolan turn the puck over in front of the Everett net.

A couple minutes later, Pavel Kousal missed an open Bechtold on a pass to kill a scoring opportunity.

But the Chiefs continued to get sharper. Elynuik fired a nifty pass to Bechtold, but he couldn’t get his shot past Everett goalie Mario Petit.

The Chiefs stayed on the attack in the second period and finally got a power play, a rare four-on-three after Spokane’s Riley McKay and Everett’s Sean Richards were both called for unsportsmanlike minors.

During the power play, Ty Smith missed a smash of a shot. The Chiefs got the puck back, Smith fired a pass to a waiting Yamamoto, who fired it past Petit to tie the game at 1-1 at the 16:02 mark of the second period.

Anderson-Dolan also was awarded an assist on the play. The Chiefs had a 18-10 advantage in shots-on-goal to end the period.

The Chiefs continued their stellar play into the third period. Defenders continually stole pucks and shut down the offensive threats by the Silvertips.

Then halfway through the third period, the puck came free three times in front of the Everett net until Yamamoto was there to slam it home for his second goal.

Yamamoto jumped so hard in celebration that he fell onto the ice as his was mobbed by his teammates. But the goal was spoiled by the late Everett scores.

“We can’t take penalties at the end of the game,” Yamamoto said. “Those small mistakes ended up costing us. It’s definitely a little frustrating when you can’t get the win. It will come. We just have to keep pushing.”

The Chiefs play again Saturday at 7:05 p.m. as they host the Portland Winterhawks at the Spokane Arena.