Spokane Chiefs blow two-goal third period lead in 3-2 loss to Medicine Hat

For much of Friday’s game, the Spokane Chiefs defense – and notably goaltender Dawson Cowan – had one of their better performances of the season.
That all came crashing down over a 5-minute span in the third period.
Jonas Woo scored the go-ahead goal, the last of three consecutive goals for the visitors, with just less than five minutes to go and the Spokane Chiefs blew a two-goal third period lead, losing to the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2 in a Western Hockey League game at the Arena.
“That’s a pretty tough one, for sure,” defenseman Will McIsaac said. “Hate to see that one slip away from us there.”
Spokane fell 11 points behind first-place Everett, which picked up a point in a 3-2 overtime loss in Wenatchee. The Chiefs are 2-2 on this season-long five game homestand – all against first- or second-place teams, with Friday’s game against Victoria the finale before heading out on the road for three games within the U.S. Division.
Chiefs associate coach Brian Pellerin spoke after the game. Head coach Brad Lauer missed the game due to personal reasons.
“It’s disappointing,” Pellerin said. “We had the lead going into third, and we’re playing one of the best teams in the league. And unfortunately, yeah, we didn’t come out on top.”
“I don’t really know exactly what was going on there,” McIsaac said about allowing three goals in 5 minutes. “It felt pretty good the first two periods, and then it kind of just kind of slipped out of our hands.”
Cowan made 27 saves, many from in close or rebound opportunities.
“He was on it,” Pellerin said. “I thought both goaltenders were pretty good. But (Cowan) kept us in there, he made a lot of really 10-bell saves and he was he was really good.”
The Chiefs’ (30-16-0-0) top line took matters into their hands early, scoring 31 seconds into the game. Andrew Cristall collected a puck at center ice, side-stepped a defender and handed off to Berkly Catton at the blue line.
Catton gave it right back and Cristall made a spinning, backhanded pass to Shea Van Olm on the right wing, who dropped to a knee to fire it past Medicine Hat goalie Harrison Meneghin for his league-leading 34th goal of the season.
Midway through the second period, Medicine Hat (29-15-2-0) gained some momentum and Cowan had to turn into the Chiefs’ best player on the ice. He made a terrific sliding save after a bad turnover, then the Tigers hit the post on a breakaway attempt.
A little later, the Coco Armstrong line got caught in the defensive end, and Cowan was forced to make several more saves.
Assanali Sarkenov was hauled down trying to convert at 2-on-1 with 1:27 left in the period, but the Chiefs couldn’t take advantage before the horn.
It stayed 1-0 until 5:17 of the third. Rasmus Ekström created a turnover at the half wall as Medicine Hat was trying to exit its zone, and he fed Sarkenov alone in the slot, who lifted it over Meneghin for his eighth goal of the season to make it 2-0.
Just a minute later, Cowan made another acrobatic save to retain the two-goal lead.
“Without him, I don’t know what the score would have been,” McIsaac said of Cowan. “Just an amazing game. I mean, he’s got us every night, so we’re happy to have him.”
But Medicine Hat continued to put pressure on, and several whacks at it on an extended offensive zone possession put Cowan out of position and the puck found defenseman Josh Van Mulligen alone at the top of the right-wing circle. He dumped it into an open net for just his second goal of the season to make it 2-1 with 10 minutes left.
Three minutes later, Saige Weinstein was whistled for a cross-check and the Tigers made it count, tying the game late in the power play on Gavin McKenna’s 21st goal of the season with just under seven minutes to go.
The Chiefs broke down on defense again, and a failed clearing attempt ended on the stick of Woo, who sent a wrister past a helpless Cowan for his eighth goal of the season to give Medicine Hat its first lead of the game.
The Chiefs pulled Cowan with 93 seconds left, but despite several good opportunities they could not find the equalizer.
“If you’re off your game a little bit, good teams are going to expose you,” Pellerin said. “I thought we did a lot of really good things. Dawson was really good for us and kept us in there for a bit. But, yeah, it’s just disappointing that we couldn’t pull it out.”