Goalie Linus Vieillard makes three saves in shootout, Spokane Chiefs edge Lethbridge 3-2
LETHBRIDGE, Alberta – The Spokane Chiefs took a tough one-goal loss on Tuesday in their first return to Medicine Hat since the Western Hockey League championship series in May.
It did not get any easier on Wednesday as they made their way across the Alberta prairie.
Import goalie Linus Vieillard stopped each of the three shots he faced in a shootout and the Chiefs beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
Mathis Preston scored in the shootout for Spokane.
Vieillard made 30 saves to earn his first WHL win in his third game. The Chiefs (5-4-0-0) went 3 for 4 on the penalty kill, but 0 for 3 on the power play and are the league’s worst with the extra man at 3 for 36 for the season.
Midway through the third period, Brody Gillespie and Sam Oremba’s forecheck forced a turnover. Gillespie gathered the puck in the slot and snapped it past Lethbridge goalie Koen Cleaver to give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead.
But Spokane forward Cohen Harris took a boarding penalty with 2:49 left in the game, and Lethbridge (2-8-0-1) pulled Cleaver with an offensive zone face-off.
Vieillard made a glove save through traffic with 1:39 left, but Shane Smith’s shot with 42 seconds remaining – just after the power play expired – deflected high off a body, bounced off Vieillard’s back and in for the tying goal.
After a brief review, the goal stood for Smith’s seventh of the season and the teams headed to overtime.
Smyth Rebman had a first period goal for Spokane, his second of the season. Lethbridge’s Luke Cozens tied it with his fourth of the campaign 31 seconds into the third. The Chiefs play the fourth of their season-long road trip on Saturday at Red Deer.