Spokane stays in control to beat Everett 3-2
The Spokane Chiefs might not have any playoff hockey to look forward to as the season winds down, but they’re not going out quietly.
Chase Bertholet scored twice in the first, and Berkly Catton’s highlight-reel goal in the third proved to be the game-winner as the Chiefs clamped down on defense to hold on to a 3-2 win over the Everett Silvertips in front of 5,051 fans at the Arena Sunday evening.
Dawson Cowan made 32 saves in net for Spokane, including some clutch stops in the third. The win caps off a weekend where Spokane played three games in three nights, losing two and winning one. The win is especially sweet coming off Saturday’s 8-2 drubbing at Tri-City.
“(Saturday) was not a good outing for us and we didn’t have a lot of effort. Tonight we challenged our group to come out and play the right way, and I think we did,” Spokane head coach Ryan Smith said. “It’s never easy. It’s a hard league.”
Bertholet scored his first goal on a 2-on-1 thanks to a nifty pass from Tommy De Luca at 3:55 of the first. His second came at 9:37 to give Spokane an early 2-0 lead that the teams would take into the intermission.
Bertholet skated on a line with Catton and De Luca, who finished with two assists. The line combined for five points on the night.
“We came out fast tonight and my linemates are unreal. They made my job easy,” Bertholet said.
Both Spokane and Everett had their chances in the second but couldn’t find the net. Everett got on the board when Jackson Berezowski took advantage of a Chiefs turnover in the Spokane end. Berezowski was all alone in front and put one past Cowan at 2:22 of the third.
Everett provided the pressure after the Berezowski goal, but Spokane got insurance when Catton scored his goal at 5:45 of the third. Catton picked up a loose puck and entered the zone one on four and beat all of them when he put a backhand shot past Everett goaltender Tim Metzger.
But Raphael Pelltier took advantage of another Spokane turnover in the Chiefs defensive end to cut Spokane’s lead to 3-2 at 14:02 of the third.
Everett continued to pressure, but the Spokane defense and Cowan came up big.
“We gave them those two goals but (Everett) works hard and they have guys who aren’t going to miss those opportunities,” Smith said. “We’ve got to learn from that to make it a little less hard on ourselves, but I thought we defended well in the last few minutes and kept them to the outside and Dawson was good in net.”
Cowan faced 13 shots in the third and, as he’s shown in the latter half of this season, can come up big when his team needs him.
“(Cowan’s) been great the whole time he’s been with us,” Bertholet said. “He’s incredibly talented and just a good guy overall.”
Neither team could find the net on the power play, as Everett went scoreless on three power play opportunities and Spokane struck out on its two chances.
But the way Spokane got out to an early lead and was able to hold on might not mean much in the short term, but Smith thinks it’ll come in handy as the team develops next year.
“It was a good win. We need to learn how to win these games going forward and into the future,” he said.
The Chiefs wrap up the season with back-to-back games Friday and Saturday against the Tri-City Americans. Friday’s game is in Kennewick, and the season finale is Saturday at the Arena.