Spokane Chiefs outlast Victoria in overtime 6-5

After one period Tuesday night against the Victoria Royals, it looked like the Spokane Chiefs would cruise to victory. Spokane got four goals from four different players to take a 4-1 lead into intermission.

But the next 40 minutes were much more of a roller coaster. Victoria erased that 4-1 lead and then tied the game at five and forced overtime. The Chiefs survived, though, thanks to a Blake Swetlikoff goal 2:35 into the extra frame to preserve the 6-5 win.

Spokane head coach Adam Maglio pointed out that his team hadn’t played with a lead much this season, and certainly not a lead that big, and the unfamiliarity may have played a role in the up and down performance.

“We’ve been in such tight hockey games in our last eight to ten games and it was almost like we forgot how to play with a lead tonight,” he said. “Certainly, we saw a whole bunch of different types of different goals, shorthanded, power play goals. We have to understand there’s a right way to play a game with that lead, but in saying that, at the end of the day we found a way to get it done and that’s what really matters.”

The Chiefs will take the two points in the standings, which count the same in blowouts as they do in close wins. The Chiefs got the win despite allowing Victoria’s Tarun Fizer to score a hat trick, with two of those goals coming on nearly identical shorthanded breakaways.

Bear Hughes led the way for Spokane, scoring a goal and assisting on two others. His linemates Jack Finley and Yannick Proske also each had a goal. Proske added an assist. Luke Toporowksi and Swetlikoff each had a goal and an assist.

It looked like the Chiefs would easily spoil the homecoming of their former teammate Campbell Arnold, who now tends net for Victoria. In a dominant first period, the Chiefs scored in bunches.

Proske scored his fourth of the season eight minutes into the game to break the ice. Victoria tied it when Luke Shipley scored at 13:30 of the first, but it was all Spokane the remainder of the period.

Spokane scored three goals in a span of just a little more than two minutes. Hughes scored from in front at 14:29, and Carter Streek scored on a one-timer on the power play at 15:56.

Just 38 seconds later, Toporowski got one past Arnold to give Spokane a 4-1 lead.

The Chiefs couldn’t find the same success in the second period. Victoria scored twice to cut Spokane’s lead to one, first when Fizer scored his first shorthanded breakaway goal. Then Brayden Schuurman scored on the power play at 12:39.

Fizer scored his second shorthanded breakaway goal at 6:48 of the third. The goal came seven seconds into a four-minute Spokane power play. But Jack Finley saved Spokane and scored on a 5-on-3 power play a minute later to give Spokane a 5-4 lead.

Fizer got the hat trick at 14:04 of the third.

Special teams were both a blessing and a curse for Spokane, as they got two power play goals but also allowed the two shorthanded tallies.

“On the power play we were all on our toes and thinking offense, basically,” Hughes said. “We weren’t thinking of what happens when they win the face off, and that cost us on the shorthanded goals. But we’re developing some chemistry on the power play, which is helping us too.”

That chemistry is also apparent in the top line of Hughes, Finley and Proske, which combined for six points against Victoria. Hughes and Finley are veterans of the Western Hockey League, while Proske is a rookie import from Germany.

“The most important thing is we like playing with each other,” Hughes said. “When I’m out there with them I know they’re both going to work as hard as they can. I just have to do my job and I know they’ll do theirs. I think it’s the same for them, we all just trust each other.”

The Chiefs will hop on a bus and head to Everett to face the Silvertips on Wednesday.