Defenseman Brayden Crampton scores twice, Spokane Chiefs hold off Kelowna 6-5

When the Spokane Chiefs and Kelowna Rockets meet, there’s plenty of firepower, with 10 NHL draft picks between the two clubs. 

After a slow start on Tuesday, that firepower showed up. And whoa, did it.

Defenseman Brayden Crampton scored two goals, Berkly Catton had a goal and three assists and the Spokane Chiefs outlasted the Kelowna Rockets 6-5 in a Western Hockey League game at the Arena. 

Kelowna forward, and Washington Capitals second-round draft pick Andrew Cristall, had two goals and two assists for the Rockets.

Chiefs (11-7-0-0) had lost three of their previous four games.

Shea Van Olm scored an empty-net goal with 1 minute remaining in the third to give Spokane a two-goal lead. It’s a good thing, because with 10 seconds left Cristall managed to slip a shot past Chiefs goalie Dawson Cowan to again make it a one-goal game. 

Catton won the faceoff at center ice and the Chiefs held on – barely.

“I thought we did some good things, and I thought we did some really dumb things,” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said. “But in saying that, I mean, we still found a way to win the game. But I think we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Lauer talked about how it’s not “early” anymore.

“I thought we gave them the opportunity to get back in the game with some of our puck decisions and some of the way we were playing,” he said. “We’re 20 games into the season. Some of our guys have got to start understanding how to play, and how to play the right way during certain parts of our game. And some guys aren’t understanding that.”

“It was such an up and down game, and it felt like we had full control sometimes,” Catton said. “Then 2 minutes later, it was a whole different ball game. But we got it done, which is the biggest thing. But we’ve got to work on being more consistent throughout the entire game.”

A scoreless first period saw Kelowna (5-7-0-1) with the better of play, hitting the post at least twice. 

“(Kelowna) hadn’t played for 10 days, and our message to our guys was, ‘Let’s get on them early,’ because they haven’t played,” Lauer said. “I didn’t think we responded very well to that. I think we were kind of just a little bit flat and kind of just feeling out the contest.”

The Chiefs game out of the intermission with a jump, and scored 1 minute, 9 seconds into the second as they forced a turnover in the Kelowna end and Crampton skated down the slot to beat Rockets goalie Jake Pilon for his first goal of the season.  

Just 21 seconds later they made it 2-0 when Smyth Rebman swept in a blocked shot from a bad angle for his sixth goal of the season. 

“We came out there, got two early ones,” Catton said. “That’s the type of team we are – if we have a rough period, we come out and play great after.”

“We knew (Kelowna) was going to come out hard,” Crampton said. “But we just knew that if we came out in the second and did our thing, stuck to the structure, things were going to work out for us.”

Kelowna halved its deficit 7 /12 minutes into the period, converting a two-on-one with New Jersey Devils fifth-round draft pick Max Graham picking up his sixth goal of the season. 

They tied it up 2 minutes later, with Kayden Longley and Jakub Stancil connecting on a give-and-go. 

But the Chiefs were granted a power play just a bit after Longley’s goal, and Crampton hit on his second of the night, a long wrist shot from center point that got through a maze of traffic in front of the net. 

“I’ve been kind of working on deception a little bit, trying to get pucks through a bit more,” Crampton said. “And obviously it worked out tonight. But that second one, it was just a great screen. I saw open lane. I just took the shot and went in.”

Moments after killing a Catton minor holding penalty, the Chiefs were awarded their second power play of the period. It didn’t take long for Catton, the No. 8 overall pick of the Seattle Kraken in last summer’s draft, to make up for his earlier transgression, beating Pilon top shelf from the left wing circle for his sixth goal of the season and a 4-2 lead. 

Cristall made it a one-goal game early in the third period, with assists by Utah Hockey Club’s first-round pick Tij Iginla and Graham. 

But the Chiefs bounced right back, as Rasmus Ekström sent a pass from the half wall to defenseman Will McIsaac, who had pinched in and was alone in the slot. McIsaac, a St. Louis Blues fifth-round pick, buried the feed for his first goal of the season and a 5-3 lead with just more than 13 minutes remaining.

“That’s big part of hockey nowadays is getting contributions from your defense and getting them involved in the offense part of the game,” Lauer said.

Sticking with the theme, the Rockets answered, as Marek Rocak deked a defender and sent a wrister past Cowan to make it 5-4. Kelowna had a golden opportunity to tie a minute later, as Cowan got tied up in the crease out of position, but a shot deflected off his backside.