Carter Esler records second shutout of young season, Spokane Chiefs drop Wenatchee 4-0

The Spokane Chiefs are still trying to forge their identity early in the 2025-26 season. They entered play Friday at the Arena with a 2-3 record, seven points behind U.S. Division leader Everett.

There’s no reason to panic after five games, of course. But with a season-long six-game road trip through Seattle and Alberta province starting Saturday, the matchup against winless Wenatchee almost felt like an early must-win for the home team.

The Chiefs responded by putting together one of their most complete performances of the season, a 4-0 win over the Wild, to head out on the road trip on the good foot.

“We wanted to play them right and do things right,” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said. “I thought, for the most part, we played our type of game that we wanted to play. But it’s still early in the year. There’s still things we got to clean up and be better at.”

Will McIsaac, Assanali Sarkenov, Mathis Preston and Caden Campion scored goals; goalie Carter Esler made 24 saves for his second shutout of the young season.

“I’m just kind of trusting in my teammates and just doing my role, and they do the rest,” Esler said.

“(Esler) has made some big saves,” Lauer said. “Their power play did have some looks, and I thought he made the saves that needed to be made for us. We’re doing a really good job in front of both goalies.”

“Our home (rink) has got to be a place where teams are uncomfortable coming into it,” McIsaac said. “I think we did a good job of playing our game for a full 60 (minutes) tonight and showed why this is our home rink. And I thought we did a good job of playing our game.”

About the only thing that did not go right for the Chiefs was their power play, which went 0 for 6 – and now stands 2 for 26 (7.6%) for the season, last in the Western Hockey League.

“They know what the plan is,” Lauer said of the struggling power play. “You know, we’ll go with it for a little bit longer then we’ll just make some changes on it if we have to.”

An unlikely culprit scored the Chiefs (3-3-0-0) first goal in an unlikely scenario when forward Sam Oremba sprung defenseman Will McIsaac on a shorthanded breakaway at 11:30 of the first period.

“When you get a pass like that, you’ve got to score that or else you’re going to be in trouble from the coaches,” McIsaac said.

“You need your ‘D’ in the rush,” Lauer said. “You need your ‘D’ involved in the offensive zone. It was a good read. We won the puck battle at the blue line and it was a foot race.”

“We lost guys from last year, like (Brayden Crampton), who would do that quite often,” McIsaac said. “I think we’re integrating it a little bit more into our team.

The Chiefs made it 2-0 a few minutes later as Assanali Sarkenov completed a 2-on-1 pass from Owen Martin, flicking the puck past Wenatchee goalie Cal Conway on the rush.

It stayed that way until midway through the second when McIsaac sent a pass through the slot and off the far wall, where Mathis Preston recovered it and sent a one-timer past Conway for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

The Wild (0-4-1-1) incurred their sixth minor penalty of the game early in the third but despite some good looks the Chiefs could not get one to go.

The Chiefs dominated long stretches of the third and with 11 minutes left entered the Wild zone on a 4-on-2 rush. Brody Gillespie found defenseman Campion on the wing, and he beat Conway glove side for his first WHL goal.

A little later, the Chiefs were whistled for concurrent minor penalties to go shorthanded but killed off the ensuing power play.

“I thought our kill has been, for the most part, really good this year,” Lauer said. “It’s important that when we do end up taking a penalty the guys have the conference to kill it off.”

“It’s good to get back in the win column before we head out,” Esler said. “But it’s early in the season and I’ve got trust in our team.”