In midst of critical stretch, Spokane Chiefs cough up three third period goals in home loss to Seattle | WHL hockey

The Spokane Chiefs are clinging to the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, with a one-point advantage over the Victoria Royals. At the start of an 11-game stretch against teams either below them in the standings or immediately above, there’s no time like the present for the Chiefs to solidify that playoff spot and maybe creep up on Portland and Tri-City, tied for sixth and seventh places three points better than Spokane. 

But after Tuesday’s loss in the third game of that 11-game stretch, the Chiefs have gone 1-2 in that critical section of the schedule. 

Cameron Schmidt scored two goals – the first and last – and assisted on another and the Seattle Thunderbirds snapped a four-game losing streak, beating the Chiefs 3-1 in a Western Hockey League game at the Arena on Tuesday. 

Spokane has a “three-in-three” this weekend with road games against Portland and Wenatchee on Friday and Sunday sandwiching a Saturday night home game with the Wild.

Chief coach Brad Lauer said it’s “disrespectful” to look at the schedule and envision making up ground. 

“I don’t think, where we are in the standings, we’ve been inconsistent this year,” he added. “Anyone that’s underneath us they’re still pretty good teams. It’s a pretty tight bunch in that area and we have to respect everybody. It’s not about what the other teams are or where they are, it’s about what we’ve got to do to give ourselves a chance to win. And I didn’t think tonight we did that.”

The Chiefs (25-25-1-0) scored the game’s first goal, but it took until there was 5 minutes, 28 seconds gone in the second period as the teams combined for 16 shots in the first period. 

“It was one of those games where there wasn’t much going on in the first period,” Lauer said. “I didn’t think we had a lot of energy. For what reason, I don’t know. That’s up to us. That’s our responsibility as a team, to be ready to go. We got a big win the other night to get ourselves back into the thick of things, but I wasn’t happy with the performance (against Seattle). I didn’t really like our ‘compete’ in those areas where we needed it.” 

Seattle forward Noah Kosick was sent off for hooking and with 18 second lefts on the infraction Tyus Sparks banged home a long rebound of a shot by Dominik Petr for his team-leading 23rd goal of the season. Sparks has scored in four straight contests. 

Seattle (19-23-4-3) tied it 33 seconds into the third period, when Schmidt’s high knuckling shot went through Carter Esler’s catching glove and into the net for his 35th goal of the season. Seattle scored again less than a minute later, but the officials waved it off after review due to goaltender interference. 

“We weren’t ready to start (the period),” Lauer said. “(Seattle) scored a big goal right away to tie it and all the sudden we sat back on our heels and they got a little bit of momentum.”

The Chiefs put together a sustained offensive possession a bit later and were awarded a power play at the 14:16 mark of the third when Kosick was sent off for tripping, but the league’s lowest-rated power play unit (12.3%) came up empty. 

Chiefs forward Gavin Burcar was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking, giving Seattle a four-minute power play. The Thunderbirds made good on the first half, with Brock England converting a cross-ice pass from Schmidt 36 seconds into the first two minute advantage. 

During the second penalty, Simon Lovsin broke in alone and was hauled down from behind by defenseman Marek Howell, resulting in a 35-second 5-on-3. The Chiefs killed that off, then the rest of Howell’s infraction to limit the damage. 

But Spokane couldn’t find an offensive response after being stuck on defense for so much of the period, and Schmidt added an empty-net goal with 1:29 left in the game. 

“We got lazy. We started chasing (play),” Lauer said of the string of penalties in the third. “(Seattle) played harder. We didn’t move our feet and when you don’t move your feet you get standing around and get into penalty trouble.”