Hayden Paupanekis scores go-ahead on power play, Spokane Chiefs win eighth in a row on Teddy Bear Toss night

The annual Teddy Bear Toss game is a highlight of the schedule, and with a hot team and a packed house, expectations were high Saturday night at the Arena.

While there was plenty of pageantry on display, there’s was still the matter of a hockey game to decide.

Hayden Paupanekis scored a power-play goal early in the third period, and the Spokane Chiefs beat the Wenatchee Wild 3-2 in a Western Hockey League game.

The Chiefs (20-9-0-0), second in the U.S. Division and third in the Western Conference, have won eight in a row and nine of their past 10 games. Three of their next four games, and six of the next nine to end the calendar year, are on the road.

Wenatchee, last in the U.S. Division, fell to 9-14-3-1.

Despite the win and streak, Chiefs coach Brad Lauer wasn’t thrilled with the effort.

“I didn’t think our team game was very good tonight,” he said. “(Wenatchee) is a team that works hard. They’re going to compete. They don’t care about who is in our jersey. They’re gonna come at us. I thought we kind of backed off a little bit and (the Wild) were dictating the game a little bit.”

After killing an extended penalty on Rasmus Ekstrom for slew-footing early in the third, Paupanekis put the Chiefs up 5:47 into the period with a snap shot from the inside of the right-wing circle off a pass from below the goal line by Sam Oremba.

Both of the Chiefs’ power play goals came from the second unit.

“We got that game-winning goal, which is huge for us. Really helps build momentum,” Paupanekis said. “I’m usually net-front, but off the face-off the quickest play was for me to go to the bumper. And yeah, Oremba hit me right in the slot.”

It was Paupanekis’ seventh goal of the season.

“He’s on the second unit. They don’t get the minutes like the first unit gets, for sure,” Lauer said. “They’ve been working hard, been doing a lot of good things. It was nice to see them rewarded. It means it’s going in the right direction.”

The big entertainment of the evening came less than halfway through the first period.

Chiefs captain Berkly Catton was taken down on a kneeing penalty at 11:54 of the first.

Chase Harrington found Oremba alone in the slot and his snap shot beat Wenatchee goalie Zach Zahara, setting off a cascade of teddy bears that took 15 minutes to clear from the ice.

The total of tossed teddy bears was 8,222.

Oremba came to the Chiefs via trade earlier this season and has chipped in with eight goals so far this season.

“He plays the game the right way,” Lauer said. He’s a great skater, he can think the game.”

It stayed 1-0 until 9:17 of the second period, when Wenatchee tied it up on a power play on Kenta Isogai’s 11th goal of the season.

The Wild took the lead with just more than 6 minutes left in the second when Zane Saab converted a pass from Maddix McCagherty on the rush for his sixth goal of the season.

Catton tied the game with less than 3 minutes to go in the second, completing a give-and-go on the rush with Shea Van Olm for his 14th of the campaign.

The Chiefs came away with the win to keep their streak alive, and all of the stuffed animals went to support The Spokesman-Review Christmas Bureau.

“They were excited about it,” Lauer said. “These nights are fun. It’s a great event. It’s great for our team, for the fans; it’s great for the community, the charity, all that stuff. I know our guys were excited about it and everybody wants to score the teddy bear goal.”