Chiefs drop dime against Kelowna Wednesday night
Kelowna, B.C. — The Spokane Chiefs dropped a dime on the Kelowna Rockets Wednesday night, running away with a 10-0 victory — Dawson Cowan’s fourth shutout win of the season.
It was 16-year-old forward Mathis Preston who got the party started just over halfway through the first period with his 14th goal of the season. Chase Harrington and Coco Armstrong earned assists on the play.
At 17:07, Andrew Cristall padded it to a 2-0 lead in his return to Kelowna ice after being acquired by the Chiefs ahead of last week’s trade deadline.Berkly Catton and Nathan Mayes were credited with the helpers. It marked Cristall’s 30th goal of the year.
Spokane stayed hot in the middle frame as Cristall and Catton connected for a filthy goal just 58 seconds into play. Catton swept the puck across the offensive zone before sliding it back to Cristall. Cristall passed it back to a backdoor Catton, who fired it to the twine for a 3-0 Chiefs lead. Defenseman Will McIsaac also earned an assist on the play.
A minute later, Chase Harrington logged his first goal of the night with help from Armstrong and Mayes to make it a 4-0 game. Sam Oremba followed that up at 7:30 with his 13th of the season and 10th in a Chiefs sweater.
Cristall wasn’t done yet, as he picked up a long feed from defenseman Saige Weinstein and rushed it to the net on a breakaway to score his 31st of the season and second of the game to push it to a 5-0 lead.
In the third, Harrington found the twine for the second time tonight eight minutes in with help from Oremba and Preston on the power play. Rookie forward Brody Gillespie scored his fourth of the season just under a minute later as fellow rookies Cohen Harris and Rhett Sather picked up the assists.
Captain Catton rounded out the scoring as he completed his hat trick with back-to-back goals at 10:48 and 19:42 to cap the Chiefs’ 10-0 victory.
Late in the game, Oremba went down with an apparent lower body injury and needed assistance leaving the ice.
The game marked Spokane’s second-straight win that saw them score 10 or more goals and all but five Chiefs made it to the scoresheet. Catton (3G-1A, +4) and Cristall (2G-2A, +4) both finished with four-point nights, while Weinstein led the way with a +6 and two assists. McIsaac also finished with a pair of apples and a +5.
Dawson Cowan turned aside all 27 Kelowna shots on his way to his fourth shutout victory of the season (21-10-0-0).
The Chiefs put up a whopping 50 shots on net and a perfect 6/6 on the penalty kill. Spokane’s league-best power play remains at the top, but moved to 29.9% after they capitalized on two of six man advantages.
Up next, the Chiefs will return home for a pair of games at Spokane Arena this weekend, first against the Prince George Cougars on Friday and then against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday for Military Appreciation Night presented by Pizza Factory.
