It was a sound that will give the Spokane Chiefs nightmares on Wednesday night. The shrill shriek of a whistle. While owning possession and peppering Portland Winterhawks overage goaltender Cole Kehler in Game 3, they just could not get the L.A. Kings prospect to cough up a rebound. They out shot the Winterhawks 16-8 over the first period and really had an even higher advantage over the first 11 minutes of the game, but they could not find a way to slip a puck by the Altona, Manitoba native.
Worse yet for Spokane, they actually trailed 1-0 after the game’s first 20 minutes due to a goal by Portland’s Cody Glass and had to battle from behind, despite playing some of their best hockey yet in the first round series.
The Chiefs would end up falling 3-1 to Portland in front of 3.417 at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena and now trail their best-of-seven series with the Winterhawks 2-1.
Game 4 goes Thursday night in Spokane, with the Chiefs needing to get over their frustrations over Wednesday night’s events, before Portland takes over the series completely.
Portland was led by their top unit which saw Glass net a goal and an assist, Kieffer Bellows add two assists and Skyler McKenzie finally crack the score sheet with an assist. Kehler also stopped 28 of 29 and now has turned away 89 of 97 in the three games so far for a 0.918 save percentage.
While Kehler’s performance in the first should be commended, the team’s defense in the final 40 minutes also played a big role. They did not allow Spokane to gain entry into their zone with anything resembling ease and just did not allow much possession time. The frustration was never more evident then when Spokane’s regular season leading scorer Jaret Anderson-Dolan took a late penalty and uncharacteristically let the referees and the Winterhawks know that he was not happy.
Portland got the game’s first goal when Glass followed up a play at the Spokane net by beating goalie Bailey Brkin with a shot inside the far post. It was the only goal of the first period and seemed to take the wind out of sails of the Chiefs who had been throwing checks at every opportunity on the Winterhawks and had them on their heels for large stretches.
Anderson-Dolan did tie the game in the second off a great individual effort. Most of the players at the faceoff dot got tied up, but Anderson-Dolan scooped up the puck and drove at Kehler. His first chance did not get through, but he found the puck behind the net and banked the puck off of Kehler and in. The goal was Anderson-Dolan’s first of the post-season.
The Winterhawks grabbed their lead back after Zach Fischer was taken off the ice for a hooking infraction. Glass drew the defense by driving the net on the power play and dumped a pass to Dennis Cholowski who had pinched up into the slot. Cholowski wired a shot by Brkin for his third in the post-season. Since he was acquired from the Prince George Cougars in early January, Cholowski has four goals. Three of those have come in the first three games of the playoffs.
3:37 later in the second, Ryan Hughes drove wide into the Spokane zone and flipped the puck to Joachim Blichfeld in front of Brkin. Blichfeld slammed home his first of the playoffs, giving Portland a 3-1 lead.
Brkin stopped 27 of 30 in the loss.
The Chiefs came out in the third needing to make something happen, but just could not create anything much resembling a quality chance on Kehler. When they finally did get the overage netminder to cough up a juicy rebound, they could not get to the puck in time.
Portland went 1-for-4 on the power play and is now 2-for-11 in the series. Spokane was not successful on any of their four chances on the man advantage and is now 2-for-9 in the playoffs.
Notes:
-Bellows now has two points in each of the three games in the series and leads both teams with six points.
-Spokane is needing their first round draft picks in Kailer Yamamoto and Anderson-Dolan to start inserting their names on the score sheet more. Yamamoto leads the team in shots with 10, but has only one assist in the three games. Anderson-Dolan scored in Game 3, but has just two points in the three games.
-Brkin now sports a 3.85 GAA and 0.893 save percentage.
-Alex Overahrdt went 10-for-25 on the faceoff dot while Glass was 5-for-14 and Jake Gricius was 5-for-9.
-Henri Jokiharju led the team with six shots, while Blichfeld had five and Glass had four. Blichfeld leads the team with 14 shots in the playoffs, while Jokiharju has 13.
-Cholowski has a team-high three goals on just seven shots.
