The Spokane Chiefs brought out their big guns in a 5-3 win over the Kootenay Ice on Friday in Cranbrook.
Kailer Yamamoto, an Edmonton Oilers first-round draft pick, had a five-point night with a goal and four assists, while Jaret Anderson-Dolan, a second-rounder with the LA Kings, notched a four point affair with a goal and four assists.
“They’ve got some good players,” said Ice head coach James Patrick. “To kill penalties against them or to play against them, you gotta play your best. It would have been a different score if it wasn’t for Matt Berlin. I thought he was really good and we got outshot by a big margin, we got out-chanced and you could say Yamamoto and Anderson Dolan and those guys; I noticed them all night.”
“I didn’t notice enough of our guys.”
Chiefs also got offensive help from Jake McGrew, Luke Toporowski and Ty Smith, the latter who is expected to be a top-10 selection in the 2018 NHL Draft.
Spokane won the special teams battle, scoring two goals in five power plays as the Ice struggled on the penalty kill.
“We don’t get in the shot lanes, we have players with no desperation and drifting around,” said Patrick. “On two of them, we got stuck out there for over a minute because we didn’t clear the puck. When you’re stuck out there that long you just collapse and get into shot lanes and we didn’t do that.”
Veloso agreed with the assessment of the penalty kill.
“I think our penalty kill needs to be a bit better,” Veloso said. “We knew coming into the game they have a strong power play and we didn’t do a good enough job that.”
However, Kootenay made a game of it, going into the final period at a 3-3 tie with goals from Peyton Krebs, Colton Veloso and Martin Bodak.
Chiefs netminder Dawson Weatherill made 14 saves for the win, while Berlin turned away 29 shots in defeat for the Ice.
It was Parents Night for the Kootenay team, who brought out player parents for a pre-game ceremony before puck drop.
That must have sparked Krebs, who scored just under two minutes into the game, sniping top corner short side after blitzing down the wing, which gives him his 50th career WHL point.
However, Smith didn’t wait long to tie up the affair, scoring on a slap shot during four-on-four play when both teams had taken coincidental minors.
Bodak responded with a bomb of his own from the blue line during an Ice powerplay to put his team back in the lead at the halfway mark of the period.
But Jake McGrew tied up the affair off a weird scramble in front of the net five minutes later.
Yamamoto put the Chiefs up in the second period, taking the lead for the first time of the night off a backdoor pass on the powerplay.
However, it was knotted up at 3-3 after a big pile up in front of the Spokane crease, with Veloso scoring his 17th goal of the WHL campaign. The referee behind the net initially waved it off, however, it was signaled a good goal after video review and a conference at centre ice.
Tied up at 3-3 going into the final period, Anderson-Dolan scored the go-ahead goal from the high slot with Spokane’s second powerplay goal of the night.
Patrick was livid on the bench that no penalty was called after defenceman Dallas Hines got punched in the head during a scrum 30 seconds before Anderson-Dolan scored the game-winner.
“After that, we hardly got any chances,” Patrick said. “They had numbers back and they played real well defensively. I thought we were trying fancy place instead of middle-lane driving and getting pucks into their corners and working for retrievals.”
“That’s what we needed to do but we didn’t.”
Veloso said his team played with fire by taking five trips to the sin bin.
“At the end of the day, we’re the ones taking the penalties,” he said, “so I think we need to be — especially with a team like this with a powerplay like that — we got to be way more disciplined.”
