After looking soooo good against Tri-City in the home opener the previous weekend, the Chiefs fell to Earth with a thud last weekend, dropping a pair of division games with Portland and Tri-City.

The weekend didn't get off to a good start on Friday at the Spokane Arena as Portland outworked the Chiefs in a 5-3 win. For the second straight game Spokane gave up an early power play goal as the Winterhawks took a 1-0 lead after one. Mitch Wahl's power play goal would even the game at one in the first minute of the second period, but the goal failed to ignite the Chiefs, as Portland scored three unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead.

The Chiefs got a late second period goal from Kyle Beach, who scored his 3rd goal in two games, to move within 4-2 after two.

Tyler Johnson would bring Spokane within 4-3 with his second goal of the year early in the third period, but the Chiefs would fail to score on a subsequent power play chance, and the offense faded after that. Portland tacked on an empty net goal for the win and pulled three points ahead of the Chiefs in the standings.

Spokane had a chance to bounce back the following night in Tri-City against the Americans, but an inconsistent effort led to a 6-2 loss to the Ams. Levko Koper continued his hot start with both Chiefs goals. His first of the night, on the power play, tied the game at one in the first period, but a late Tri goal gave the Ams a 2-1 lead after one. The second period was unkind once again to Spokane, as Tri put up three goals in the period to take a 5-2 lead to the third, before scoring one more in the third to cap the scoring.

The thing that bothered me the most about last weekend was the lack of hard work for 60 minutes and the focus on playing the Chiefs systems. It seemed there were times the boys were playing pond hockey and just trying to do whatever they could do individually to make things work. I would love to see some of the younger guys step up their games offensively and become more aggressive putting shots on net. That comes from skating harder and winning battles in the neutral and offensive zones too. The leadership corps of veterans needs to take their games up a notch too. Younger guys feed off of that and the Chiefs need that right now.

Mitch Wahl did get some good news this week, as he signed a three year entry level contract with the Calgary Flames. Wahl was drafted last year by Calgary, and made enough of an impression in training camp to warrant a pro deal. Congrats Wahlly!

Spokane also expected to get forward Anthony Bardaro and defenseman Corey Baldwin back in the lineup this week. That will certainly help the depth of this team to get both of those second year players back in on the ice. Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Letts are still a couple weeks out at least. Having a pair of 20 year olds back won't hurt either.

Chiefs will hopefully right the ship in time for this weekend's games with Prince Albert and Seattle. Both games get underway at 7pm and I'll have the call on 1510 KGA beginning at 6:30.

Hope to see you at the rink...and that the boys bounce back with a couple of wins!

1 Comments

Amy said:

totally agree, the chiefs need to get the chemistry going again. It was awful hard to watch them lose like that down there and we do need people like dony, ty, wahl, and other vets and it will really help to get the jareds back on D together.

October 6, 2009 11:38 PM

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