SPOKANE, Wash. — The holiday Christmas break always marks the halfway point of the Western Hockey League season, even if you haven't played half of your 68 regular season games by then. For the Chiefs, they would only reach the 30 game mark by the time they would head home for the holidays. Spokane knew they would be in last place in the U.S. Division hitting the break, but there was a possibility to move out of last in the Western Conference with a strong finish over the final four games of the first half. The Chiefs had started their 6 game Eastern Division road trip the weekend before with a pair of tough luck losses at Winnipeg and Brandon. Spokane had entered the third period tied in each of those contests, only to fall short. The Chiefs were on a 4 game losing streak and had fallen 12 points back of Kelowna for the final playoff spot in the West.
Spokane would start the week with a trip to the third place team in the East, the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Warriors had played well of late, winning 7 of their last 10, although they had dropped their last game at Medicine Hat. The Chiefs had won 6 of the last 7 against Moose Jaw, but had lost the last time they had played in Moose Jaw four years ago by a 4-3 score. Coming off a stellar performance in Brandon, Dawson Cowan got the start in goal for the Chiefs. The game marked the first time Cade Hayes would face his former club since being acquired from Moose Jaw in the Cordel Larson trade the year before. Hayes would figure in the scoring early in the first as his assist set up Carter Streek for the first goal of the game 5:51 in to give Spokane a 1-0 lead. The Chiefs would extend the margin to 2-0 on Chase Bertholet's 10th of the season at 13:50 to give Spokane their first multi-goal lead since their last victory, a 2-1 win over Kelowna on December 2nd.
Cowan would keep the Chiefs in control in the second as he turned aside all 15 Moose Jaw shots in the middle frame. Spokane would take a 3-0 lead on Tomasso DeLuca's 3rd goal of the road trip 5:27 into the period. DeLuca was back at it at 10:39 as his shot from the point would give him his second goal of the night and 4th in 3 games and give Spokane a 4-0 advantage. The Chiefs would grow the lead in the third as Streek scored his second of the game and third in 3 games 6:51 into the period to hand the Chiefs a 5-0 lead. It was Spokane's largest lead in a game since November 12th when the Chiefs led 7-1 in a eventual 7-3 win over Tri City. Moose Jaw would score two goals in the final half of the third to spoil Cowan's shutout bid, but the Chiefs would snap their 4 game losing streak with a 5-2 victory.
It was Spokane's first win on the road trip and moved their record to 1-2 in the East. The Chiefs now had a chance to get to .500 on the trip if they could pick up a win the next night in Regina against the Pats. Cooper Michaluk got the start in goal and the offense would jump out quickly in the first period. Saige Weinstein took a Kooper Gizowski pass and fired home his 4th goal of the season just 3:18 into the game to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. For the second straight night, Chase Bertholet would make it 2-0 with his 11th of the season at 12:36. Spokane would go one better in the first period than they did in Moose Jaw as Cade Hayes tipped home a Mac Gross shot on the power play at 16:46 to take a commanding 3-0 lead after one.
In the second period though, the Chiefs puck management was less than ideal and 2 giveaways in their own zone would lead to the Pats scoring two goals in the first 8:45 to cut Spokane's lead to 3-2 at the end of two periods. In the third, the Chiefs would once again turn the puck over in their own zone and once again Regina took full advantage as the Pats evened the game at 3-3 early in the period. Spokane would outshoot Regina in the third 13-8 but would fail to find the net as the Chiefs headed to overtime for the second time this season. In the OT, the Chiefs got 4 of the 6 shots in the five minute period but shot the puck wide of the net on their two best looks of the overtime. That sent the Chiefs to a shootout and it was anti-climactic as the Pats scored on both of their shots while Spokane was denied on both of theirs. Regina got the two points as they overcame a 3 goal deficit to beat the Chiefs 4-3 in a shootout.
It was a bitter loss for Spokane as an opportunity to win 2 straight on the trip was denied and the Chiefs only gained one point in the standings in a game they absolutely gave away. All 3 Regina goals came off Chiefs giveaways in their own zone. The Pats generated little offense in the contest on their own, managing just 18 shots in the final 45 minutes of play. If there was any good news, the Chiefs point in the standings moved them ahead of Victoria into 9th in the Western Conference. The bad news was Kelowna won in Swift Current, moving 11 points up on Spokane for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West. The news didn't get any better for the Chiefs as they now had to head to Saskatoon and face the 4th ranked team in the CHL in the Blades, who were the hottest team in the WHL. Saskatoon had won 7 straight and 9 of their last 10 to move within 6 points of the top spot in the East.
Saskatoon was the stingiest team defensively in the league, having given up just 56 goals in 27 games. The Blades also had the top power play in the WHL and the second best penalty kill in the league, so the Chiefs had their work cut out for them. Things didn't start well for Spokane as the Blades scored just 2:31 into the game to take a 1-0 lead. A Chiefs turnover in front of their net ended up turning into the Blades second goal of the period as Saskatoon took a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. Saskatoon's Brandon Lisowsky's second goal of the night would come 5.5 minutes into the second period as the Blades took a 3-0 advantage into the third period. Spokane had managed just 15 shots in two periods, but had outshot the Blades by one.
Spokane would come out in the third like a new team as they took the game to the #4 team in the CHL. Chase Bertholet scored a goal in his third straight game as he converted on the power play 3:27 into the final frame to cut the margin to 3-1. Tomasso DeLuca then scored his 5th goal in the 5 game road trip at 5:34 to bring the Chiefs back within 3-2. Just when appeared the Chiefs had the Blades on their heels, the Chiefs then sent a pass off their goalie Dawson Cowan and into the net to put the Blades up 4-2. Saskatoon scored 45 seconds later and suddenly the Chiefs were down 5-2 and it looked like all was lost. Back would come the Chiefs though as Brayden Crampton scored his first of the year just 2:03 after Saskatoon scored to make it a 5-3 game. Saskatoon native Berkly Catton, in his first game in his hometown, then scored on Spokane's second power play of the period to get the Chiefs within 5-4 at the 11:35 mark.
The Blades then scored two goals just 14 seconds apart late in the third to go up by three at 7-4. Chase Bertholet would give the Chiefs some life with his second of the game, and team leading 13th of the season to bring Spokane within 7-5. It was as close as the team would get though, as Saskatoon scored an empty netter with less than 2 minutes remaining to seal an 8-5 victory. The Chiefs scored 5 goals on 12 shots on the toughest team to score on the league as Spokane won the special teams battle from the Blades, going 2-3 on the power play and a perfect 3-3 on the penalty kill. Despite the loss, the Chiefs showed a ton of heart in the final 20 minutes as they could have quit on several occasions in the period. Bertholet finished with 2 goals and an assist, while Catton went for a goal and 2 assists in his homecoming.
There's no question the team could really take that momentum into the next night as the Chiefs wrapped up their 6 game road trip on the prairies against the last place team in the East, Prince Albert. The key for me was the team to come out like they had played the third in Saskatoon, not the first period. Cooper Michaluk was back in net, looking for his first win on the trip in 3 tries. Spokane came out and jumped out to the lead just 2:52 into the game as Michael Cicek scored his first goal of the season on a wraparound to make it 1-0 Chiefs. Prince Albert scored midway through the period to even the game at one and then took a 2-1 lead as the Raiders scored on their 4th power play of the first in the final two minutes of the frame.
Spokane came out in the second and scored on their only power play of the period as Blake Swetlikoff scored his 3rd of the season midway through the stanza to even the game at 2-2. The Chiefs gave it right back though with yet another costly turnover net front and the Raiders scored at 10:12 to take a 3-2 advantage into the third. After failing to score on their only power play of the third, the Chiefs kept up the offensive pressure and tied the score yet again as Kooper Gizowski scored his 5th of the season at 4:43 to make it 3-3. The two clubs went on a 4 on 4 just under 4 minutes later, and it was the Chiefs who cracked as a miscommunication on a pass led to another turnover net front and the Raiders scored into an open net at 8:37 of the period to take a 4-3 lead. Prince Albert then wrapped up the game with another tally at 15:17 to snap their 6 game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Chiefs.
It was a disappointing ending to a road trip that saw the Chiefs go just 1-4-0-1 in the 6 game swing that ended with a 3 game losing streak. Spokane now heads to the holiday break with a record of 6-22-0-2. Their 14 points leaves them last in the U.S. Division and the Western Conference. The Chiefs have now fallen 3 points back of Victoria for 9th as the Royals swept two games from Tri City this past weekend, but more importantly, Spokane is now 13 points back of Kelowna for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West. That's a huge deficit for the Chiefs to overcome and it's going to take a small miracle for this club to make it up. While there are 38 games left in the season for Spokane, the team has only had one winning streak in the first half and that came with the back to back wins over Victoria to start the season way back in September.
The Chiefs won only one game each in the months of October and November and have just 2 wins in December as they head to the second half of the season. The schedule isn't going to get any easier after the holiday as Spokane will look at 4 games in 5 nights after the break beginning with a road game at second place Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday, December 27th. The Thunderbirds then come to Spokane the next night before the Chiefs start a home and home at the Arena on Friday the 30th against Tri City. Spokane finishes the 4 game week with their annual visit to Tri City on New Year's Eve on Saturday the 31st. Seattle has won 8 of their last 9 to move within 1 point of first place Portland while Tri City has moved 15 points ahead of the Chiefs in the U.S. Division standings. Simply put, Spokane has a giant mountain to climb in the second half of the season. I'll have the call on 103.5 FM the Game and 1510 AM KGA for all 4 games with the pre-game shows at 6:30 pm and the puck drops at 7:05 pm for the Seattle games and the Tri City game on the 30th. The New Year's Eve game from Tri City will be a 5:30 pm pre-game and 6:05 puck drop. Here's to everyone having a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you at the rink after the holidays!
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