Spokane Chiefs power play drought continues; Kelowna wins at Arena for second time in a week

Everyone associated with the Spokane Chiefs has been frustrated with the team’s lack of power on the power play this season. That frustration boiled over in the second period of a 4-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday.

It was the team’s second home loss in the past week to the Rockets.

The Chiefs went 0 for 5 overall on the power play and the Western Hockey League’s worst unit with the advantage fell to 7 for 94 (7.4%) for the season. The next worst team is at 17.8% and only four teams out of 23 are below 20%.

“The power play is no good,” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said bluntly. “It shouldn’t be like this. We’ve got the personnel that’s been on there (all year). We should be executing it. We haven’t changed anything from last year, except for some guys that aren’t here. It’s the same power play; it’s the same message. It comes down to making sure we were ready to do it and execute it.”

The Chiefs were down 2-0 late in the second period, but received a golden opportunity to get back into the game with 1 minute, 31 seconds of 5-on-3 time. Cohen Harris appeared to have scored before contacting Kelowna goalie Harrison Boettiger, but the goal was immediately waived off. After lengthy video review, the call on the ice of “no goal” was confirmed, and the large Saturday evening crowd erupted.

Lauer came to the bench door for an explanation and was animatedly angry with the call and the explanation, slamming the bench door several times. Lauer earned a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“They just said it was goalie interference. I didn’t see it that way, and I still don’t see it that way,” Lauer said. “But I guess that’s irrelevant. You make your breaks. I guess you earn them. Things haven’t quite gone our way, but we’ve just got to just keep working.”

The end of the power play was unsuccessful, and minutes after resuming at full-strength Brody Gillespie was denied by Boettiger on a penalty shot.

The Chiefs received another power play opportunity early in the third period but again went unsuccessful. Just a couple of minutes later Tomas Poletin scored his 14th goal of the season to make it a three-goal game.

Spokane finally got on the board at 9:05 of the third just moments after their fifth power play of the game expired. Will McIsaac’s blast from the right point was deflected by Ethan Hughes past Boettiger for his fourth goal of the season.

The Chiefs pulled goalie Carter Esler with 2:20 left in the game in favor of an extra skater, but Kelowna added an empty net goal with 1:38 to go – Carson Wetsch’s second of the game.

“It seems like, you know, we play OK, and then we have a breakdown and it goes in our net,” Lauer said. “This is just a part of adversity and character check that our group is going through right now, and how we handle these situations is going to, you know, kind of show us what type of team we have.”

The Chiefs had won four out of five but have now dropped three in a row.

“With so much parity in the league, that’s how fast it changes, you know?” Lauer said. “You’ve got to stay with it. You’ve got to understand what gave you that success, and you’ve got to do it game-in and game-out. … You’ve got to stick to our identity, our systems.”

As with Wednesday’s loss to Kelowna, the Chiefs (12-13-0-0) played even with the Rockets through the early part of the first period. But with 5 1/2 minutes left in the frame Wetsch took a long pass on the right wing from defenseman Rowen Guest and entered the Chiefs zone with speed.

Chiefs defenseman Rhett Sather forced Wetsch to the outside, and the Rockets’ winger sent a seemingly innocent shot toward the Chiefs’ goal. Esler went to the butterfly, but the shot trickled under and through the goalie for the game’s first goal and Wetsch’s sixth of the season.

Just 59 seconds later Hiroki Gojsic beat Esler on the rush for his ninth goal of the campaign, which gave Kelowna (12-8-3-1) a 2-0 lead. Gojsic took a hard check from Mathis Preston just after the shot.

The players came together and after things got sorted out Preston was assessed a double-minor for roughing and both players received 10-minute misconduct penalties.

Milestone: Rockets forward, Montreal Canadiens prospect and former Chiefs player Hayden Paupanekis played in his 150th career WHL game and picked up an assist on Kelowna’s second goal.