CHIEFS WIN 5-2 AT TRI CITY
A four goal second period lifted the Spokane Chiefs to a 5-2 win over the Tri City Americans on New Year’s Eve in Kennewick, WA. The win was the third straight for Spokane in the annual New Year’s Eve tilt with the arch rival Americans.
After a scoreless first period in which Spokane outshot Tri City 11-3, the Americans scored on a Parker Bowles power play goal just 1:38 into the second period to give the Ams a 1-0 lead. Spokane would tie the game at one on Keanu Yamamoto’s tip of a Matt Sozanski pass at 5:03. Riley Whittingham also assisted on Yamamoto’s 9th goal of the season. Markson Bechtold’s power play goal at 16:06 of the second gave the Chiefs the lead for good. Bechtold’s 9th of the year was assisted by Dominic Zwerger and Jason Fram. Ethan McIndoe scored off a rebound of a Jason Cardiff shot just 1:38 later as Fram picked up his second straight assist to give Spokane a 3-1 lead. Yamamoto then capped the scoring in the period with his second of the night on a tip of a Whittingham shot with 30 seconds left to make it 4-1 Chiefs after two.
Zwerger scored on the power play at 4:09 of the third period to make it 5-1 Spokane. Kailer Yamamoto extended his point scoring streak to 7 straight with an assist as Bechtold also picked up a helper. Bowles concluded the scoring with his second of the night for Tri City, as the Chiefs outshot Tri 37-24 in the game. Spokane was 2-8 on the power play and 2-3 on the penalty kill.
With the win, Spokane now has 42 points and are tied with Everett for second place in the U.S. Division, 1 point behind first place Seattle. The Chiefs will head to Portland for game 3 of their 4 game road trip Saturday at 7:05pm. Mike Boyle will have the call on 790 KGA starting with the pre-game show at 6:30pm.
