The Spokane Chiefs were given a second life after the strange end to Game 5 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum Saturday.
To make use of that second chance they would need to do something they had not done against Portland since April 29th, 2011 – beat the Portland Winterhawks at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.
Since that Game 4 win nearly seven years ago, they had dropped five games to the Winterhawks at home, including the first two there in this series.
Spokane shrugged off that history on Monday night and played a hard-checking, tough game that knocked Portland back on its heels. They scored twice in the first, twice in the second and once in the third to lead the whole way, take a 5-2 victory over Portland and force a Game 7 at the VMC Tuesday night.
The Chiefs have the momentum now after winning two in-a-row and put Portland’s backs against the walls with their most complete game of the series.
The Chiefs got a lot of help from many players in their lineup. Tyson Helgesen, Jake McGrew, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Ty Smith and Eli Zummack all chipped in two points apiece.
The two teams have less than 24 hours to travel down to Portland do battle again. The game will also carry some bad blood as tensions boiled over late. At each stoppage over the last 2:48 of the game, players came together and exchanged pleasantries. Most notably Luke Toporowski was handed a 10-minute misconduct with 55 seconds left for Spokane and McGrew took a double-minor for spearing at the end of the game.
All in all, the benches were nearly empty by the time the final whistle blew with most players hitting the showers early.
The fireworks at the end seemed expected given the three-goal lead and the extremely physical way the Chiefs came at the Winterhawks.
Zach Fischer, who has been a thorn in the side of the Winterhawks all series led the way, checked every player he was near that had touched the puck. His tone carried over to the rest of the team and the Chiefs played like a team fighting to keep their 2017-18 season going.
They out-shot the Winterhawks 14-9 in the first and scored the only two markers.
Jake McGrew and Eli Zummack continued to do damage for the Chiefs as they netted the game’s first two goals just 14 seconds apart late in the first period.
First, Zummack got to a puck on the half-boards and fired a cross-ice pass right onto the tape of McGrew. The San Jose Sharks draft pick one-timed a shot by Cole Kehler for his second of the playoffs.
Then Zummack redirected a shot by Tyson Helgesen past Kehler for his second of the playoffs and a 2-0 Spokane lead.
McGrew now has six points in the six games, while Zummack has five.
The Winterhawks cut into the Chiefs lead 3:42 into the second on just their third power play goal on 19 chances in the series. For the third time this series, Mason Mannek netted a goal. The fourth-liner has scored some big goals at key times and is already 30 percent of the way to matching his regular season total of 10 goals.
He scored this one after Keoni Texeira drove the right wing hard and found him between the face off dots.
Spokane answered right back but had a goal called back due to incidental contact for the second time in as many games. This time it was Kailer Yamamoto colliding with Kehler, negating a goal from rookie defenseman Filip Kral.
Spokane would not be denied that third goal though as Anderson-Dolan led a rush up the ice and dished to Helgesen before the Chiefs captain dropped a pass to a hard-charging Smith. The 2018 NHL-draft eligible prospect wired a shot by Kehler for the 3-1 lead and his first ever playoff goal.
Kieffer Bellows got called for checking to the head later in the second and his victim would be the one who cashed in, giving Spokane their biggest lead of the series.
Ethan McIndoe found the rebound of a Anderson-Dolan chance and buried it, giving the Chiefs a power play goal and a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Spokane out shot Portland 10-9 in the period and were up on shots 24-18 after the middle frame was over.
Down 4-1 and on their heels, Portland came out inspired in the third. Henri Jokiharju, who now has 23 shots from the blue line in the six games, entered the zone and drilled a hard wrist shot by Weatherill for his second of the series.
Weatherill would not be beaten again despite facing 15 total shots in the third. The Chiefs would only fire three on Kehler.
After struggling at times toward the end of the year and into the playoffs, Weatherill seems to have found some confidence and is playing his best hockey of the series.He stopped 31 of 33 in the game for a 0.939 save percentage. That is his highest in a game since February 23rd against Prince George.
He would even show a physical side himself after Conor MacEachern tied up with Dalton Hamaliuk and took the big d-man into his own goalie. Weatherill got up and mixed things up with MacEachern and his teammates.
One of those three Spokane chances would get by Kehler and would provide the reeling Chiefs some much needed insurance. Yamamoto led a rush up the ice and found Hudson Elynuik, who in turn dished to Toporowski, who beat Kehler for his second of the series. His other one was a big one too as it was the overtime winner in Game 1.
There would be no more goals for the rest of the game and we would end with a 5-2 final. That doesn’t mean the scorekeeper wasn’t busy though as the two teams combined for 20 penalties over the last 2:48 of hockey.
Portland was one-for-three on the power play and is no longer worst in the WHL in the post-season. Their overall percentage is 14.3 as they are 3-for-21.
Spokane was 1-for-5 and is now 6-for-24 in the series. That is 25 percent.
Kehler stopped 22 of 27 and several of those were scrambling stops as Spokane was buzzing right near the net.
We now shift back to Portland for Game 7, the first between the two teams since the first round of 2010 when a 16-year-old Ty Rattie won the series for Portland in overtime.
Notes:
-Spokane continues to win at the face off dot. They won 36 of 76 overall. For Portland, Alex Overhardt was 9-for-17, Jake Gricius was 5-of-13, Cody Glass was 5-for-14 and Skyler McKenzie was 5-of-12.
-Lane Gilliss led the team in shots surprisingly with six. He has only eight total now in the series. McKenzie had five shots and Brendan De Jong had four. Notably for Portland, Glass had just two, Bellows had only one and Blichfeld had three. Those three were three of the top-four on the team in shots on goal in the regular season.
-The depth scoring has been the difference in this series. With the top defensive units assigned to the likes of Glass and Bellows for Spokane and Yamamoto and Elynuik for Portland, it has been up to the second and third lines to be the difference. McGrew and Zummack were just that for Spokane in Game 6.
