Chiefs start February with dominant 10-3 win over first-place Silvertips
Everett, Wash. — The Spokane Chiefs traveled across the state Saturday and posted a dominant 10-3 win over the first-place Everett Silvertips, marking their third win of the season over the divisional foe. The contest saw nine different Chiefs find the twine: Shea Van Olm (36, 37), Chase Harrington (14), Saige Weinstein (3), Andrew Cristall (32), Ossie McIntyre (1), Cam Parr (3), Assanali Sarkenov (9), Brody Gillespie (5), and Berkly Catton (23). Spokane is 3-1-0-0 against Everett in their six-game regular season series.
Western Hockey League leading goal-scorer Shea Van Olm got the party started at 6:11 as he jammed in a rebound from right in front of the net. He soon added another at 9:09 in similar fashion, marking his 37th goal of the season and putting the Chiefs up to an early 2-0 lead. Defenseman Saige Weinstein and Andrew Cristall earned the helpers on Van Olm’s first goal, while Berkly Catton and Cristall picked up the apples on the second.
Chase Harrington added another before the halfway mark of the period as he tipped in a shot from defenseman Brayden Crampton to push Spokane’s lead to 3-0. Forward Coco Armstrong also earned an assist on the play.
Everett got one back at 12:38 thanks to Shea Busch, but Spokane was quick to respond when Weinstein picked up the puck and sped up the left wing before snapping it to the back of the net for his third goal of the year. Cristall notched his third assist of the night, while Will McIsaac picked up his first of four assists on the night.
The Silvertips scored their second goal at 14:38 from Carter Bear before the Chiefs went on to score back-to-back goals to wrap up the first period scoring at 6-2 in thrilling fashion. Cristall dangled toward the net and swept the puck across the slot before rocketing his 32nd of the season to the twine at 16:05. Just a minute later, 15-year-old forward Ossie McIntyre was freed from the penalty box and picked up the puck on a breakaway toward the Everett net before snapping his first career WHL goal home.
It was the ‘Tips who got things started in the middle frame, as Bear logged his second goal of the night at 2:50, but that’s as close as they’d get as the Chiefs went on to score four unanswered goals throughout the rest of the game.
At 13:48 in the second, Cam Parr picked up a perfect feed from Cristall in the slot and carried it to the net before backhanding it past Everett’s netminder to put Spokane up, 6-3.
Just over three minutes later, Kazakh forward Assanali Sarkenov capitalized on a power play opportunity with help from Swedish forward Rasmus Ekstrom and Crampton.
Less than two minutes later, 16-year-old forwards Cohen Harris and Brody Gillespie connected on a quick rush toward the net that ended with Gillespie’s fifth goal of the season. McIntyre also picked up an assist on the play.
Spokane’s lone goal in the final frame went to team captain Berkly Catton to seal the 10-3 victory at 3:02. Cristall picked up his fifth assist of the game, while McIsaac notched his fourth.
Dawson Cowan stood tall in net, turning aside 25/28 Everett shots. Spokane went 1/4 on the power play and 5/6 on the penalty kill.
Up next, the Chiefs will travel north of the border to take on the Vancouver Giants Sunday evening at 4 p.m. PST. So far this season, Spokane is 2-0-0-0 against Vancouver, who are sixth in the Western Conference and third in the B.C. Division.