Chiefs score three goals in third period to pull away from Giants
The Spokane Chiefs used a three-goal third period to dispatch the Vancouver Giants Wednesday at the Arena, moving into a tie for seventh in the Western Conference and two points behind sixth place as the playoff push gets into high gear.
Blake Swetlikoff had a goal and two assists to lead Spokane to its 5-2 victory. Ty Chevledayoff added a goal and an assist, while Mason Beaupit made 25 saves in the win.
The big output in the third followed two sloppy periods. The Giants were icing just 10 forwards and started a goalie who is still seven months shy of his 16th birthday.
“Going into the third it was a tie game and up for grabs and I thought we started to skate a little bit more and move our legs,” Spokane head coach Ryan Smith said.
The Chiefs are now tied with Prince George for seventh in the West, and now trail Vancouver by two points for the sixth spot. With just 13 games remaining, every point in the standings matter. The Chiefs are playing their best hockey of the season and are 6-4-1 in their last 11 games.
“I think we’re just starting to click,” Swetlikoff said. “We know what’s at stake. We know where we’re at in the standings and where we want to be. We know there’s not a lot of games left so we have to keep pushing. We have a really good group that believes in itself.”
Vancouver broke the ice just 37 seconds into the game when Ethan Semenuik went five-hole on Beaupit to score on the game’s first shot. Reed Jacobson tied it at 2:36 with his second goal of the season when he took a nice feed from Cheveldayoff and got one past Hutchison.
Swetlikoff scored 1:39 into the second when he found some room above Hutchison’s shoulder to score from a low angle. It was Swetlikoff’s ninth goal of the season.
“We had a game plan to get lots of shots on net and I had some ice so I thought I’d shoot it,” Swetlikoff said. “It ended up working.”
Zack Ostaphcuk tied it for Vancouver on a 2-on-1 at 18:15 of the second.
Yannick Proske gave Spokane a 3-2 lead 5:14 into the third when he roofed one past Vancouver goaltender Matthew Hutchison for his eighth goal of the season.
Rookie Jake Gudelj added insurance when he scored his third goal of the season at 11:21 of the third. Ty Cheveldayoff added an empty netter with 3:37 to go to make it 5-2.
“We really dialed in on what we needed to do in that period,” Swetlikoff said of the team’s final frame. “We all believed we could win and knew we had to outcompete them, and we did. We limited our mistakes and got behind their defensemen.”
The Chiefs only iced 11 forwards themselves due to various injuries that continue to burden the team. Those injuries, coupled with some tinkering to try and get things going, have forced Smith to juggle the lines a bit in recent weeks.
“You never know when you’re going to have injuries,” Smith said. “You have to learn how to play with everybody. If we have some chemistry with a line, we’re going to keep it together. But if we don’t, we’ll mix it up. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, sometimes you’re just looking for a spark in a game or a period.”
The Chiefs hit the road for a game at Everett Friday are back at the Arena Saturday when they welcome the Tri-City Americans.