Owen Martin nets game-winner in overtime, Spokane Chiefs edge East-leading Saskatoon 2-1

The schedule makers didn’t do the Spokane Chiefs any favors in the early going of the 2025-26 season. It’s not quite Halloween yet and the Chiefs have already competed a 10-day, six-game road trip and faced the points leaders of two of the four divisions. 

Make that three now, as the East Division-leading Saskatoon Blades visited the Arena on Wednesday. 

It was a tough defensive battle the entire game and wasn’t settled until overtime when a struggling forward hit paydirt – with hopes it will jumpstart his offensive production.

Owen Martin scored on a 2-on-1 early in the extra session off a nifty feed from Mathis Preston, Linus Vieillard made 29 saves and the Chiefs edged the Blades 2-1.

It was just Martin’s second goal of the season, after scoring 13 in the regular season last year and six more in 20 playoff games. 

“It was kind of fluky,” Martin said. “The D-zone were just man-on-man, and the puck popped out to Presto, and that kid can fly. So, it was nice. We got a little 2-on-1, he made a nice move and a backhand pass to me, and I tucked it up under the bar.”

“He’s a big part of our team,” Lauer said of Martin. “We need a lot more from him right now, you know, than what we had the first 12 games. …he’s also reliable defensively on the penalty kill and doing those little things that we need him to do, night in and night out.”

“I feel like I just haven’t really gotten the bounces this year. But hopefully this goal has started something,” Martin said. “Getting this one’s definitely big for me. Sometimes it just takes one.”

Vieillard has wins in three of his last four games and sports 2.62 goals against average and 89.9 save percentage.

“The last three games he’s played, he’s played very well for us which is nice to see,” Lauer said. “Both kids (with goalie Carter Esler) are playing extremely well for us in front of the net. So, it’s nice to have that problem right now.”

After record-setting production last season, the Chiefs are fifth from the bottom of the WHL in scoring so far this season.

“We’re 13, 14 games into our season, and evaluating our group and our team, we seem to be having tough time scoring goals,” Lauer said. “We have to understand how to play (defensive) games, and we’ve got to be prepared to play a lot more of those games.

“We’ve shown that we can do the job, and we’ve got to be committed to it as a group. We all love to score goals and want to play offense, but we’ve got to be responsible defensively.”

“We don’t have quite that firepower we did last year,” Martin said. “I think that’s kind of the style we need to play this year. We’re more of a defensive team, and I think we showed that we can win any kind of game.”

After two scoreless periods, the Chiefs (8-6-0-0) went down 1-0 less than a minute into the third. They found momentum, though, and a few minutes later put together their best offensive shift of the game.

A 40-second possession culminated when Rhett Sather’s blast from the point went wide but Elias Pul gathered it in the corner, walked it down the goal line and chipped it past Saskatoon goalie Evan Gardner for his second goal of the season to tie it with 14 minutes left in the game.

With 3:21 to go, Chiefs defenseman Owen Schoettler was called for slashing, putting Saskatoon on the power play, but the Chiefs killed it off and it went to overtime.

“I thought we matched them, as far as being responsible with the puck and being a good position,” Lauer said. “They’re going to have to start realizing that these are the type of games we’ve got to be ready to play, and it’s going to be night in and night out, whoever we’re playing.”

Saskatoon (10-5-1-0) got the game’s first power play midway through the first period when Chiefs forward Tristen Buckley was called for tripping in the offensive zone. The Blades had several good looks, but Vieillard make two solid saves to keep the game scoreless. 

The Chiefs got their first man-advantage with 2:14 left in the period when Cooper Williams was sent off for high-sticking. But the league’s lowest-ranked power play didn’t record a shot on goal and the first ended in a scoreless tie. 

Coincidental minor roughing penalties 7 1/2 minutes into the second prompted 4-on-4 hockey for two minutes but nothing came of it. 

Chiefs forward Coco Armstrong was sent off for tripping during a long defensive shift with 3:19 left in the period, but the Chiefs sixth-ranked penalty kill (83.3%) got the job done.

The Chiefs went short-handed again seconds later, though, when Chase Harrington was whistled for goaltender interference with 26 seconds left, and it remained 0-0 entering the third. 

It only took 26 seconds for Saskatoon to make good once play started again, with Dominik Petr beating Vieillard with a one-timer from the point for his seventh goal of the season.

The Chiefs got a much-needed power play opportunity just a few moments later when Saskatoon’s Derek Thurston send off for tripping Armstrong, but they came up empty.