Chiefs set multiple records with dominant 9-2 win over Victoria Friday
Victoria, B.C. — The Spokane Chiefs set multiple records in dominant 9-2 win over Victoria Royals Friday night. It’s the first of back-to-back match-ups against the Royals this weekend.
It started just 11 seconds into play when Swedish forward Rasmus Ekstrom opened the scoring with help from Kazakh forward Assanali Sarkenov. It’s the new fastest opening goal in Chiefs history (previously 12 seconds).
Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall added on at 10:34 when he logged his first of five points on the night with his 43rd goal of the season. Berkly Catton and Will McIsaac earned the assists.
After that, Spokane broke another franchise record as Will McIsaac (13:44), Brayden Crampton (14:04) and Berkly Catton (14:13) scored a flurry of goals within 29 seconds of each other. The previous record was 51 seconds apart, which was set back in 1986.
McIsaac’s goal, which ended up being the game-winning score, came short handed — the Chiefs’ 11th short handed goal of the season and McIsaac’s second of three points tonight. Twenty seconds after that, Crampton was freed from the box and immediately made his way onto the scoresheet as he drove the puck up the ice and into the twine to push Spokane’s lead to 4-0.
Catton followed that up with a power play goal nine seconds later with help from Cristall and Crampton to give Spokane a strong 5-0 lead heading into the first intermission. In total the Chiefs put up 16 shots in the opening frame, while Dawson Cowan stopped all 13 Victoria shots he faced in the first 20 minutes.
The second period was a much more even affair, as the Royals found some footing at 8:01 when Keaton Verhoeff notched his 19th goal of the year on the power play. That was the only goal of the second as this time it was Royals’ netminder Jayden Kraus who stopped all of Spokane’s 14 shots in the frame.
Catton capitalized on another man advantage to kick off the third period, scoring his second goal of the night at 1:10 and extending the Chiefs’ lead to 6-1. Cristall and Dawson Cowan were credited with the helpers, marking Cristall’s 400th career WHL point. He becomes the first WHL player of the 21st century to reach the milestone and the 33rd WHL player ever to do it.
Just a minute and 47 seconds later, Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenseman prospect Nathan Mayes shot a laser from the circle to the twine to push Spokane’s lead to 7-1 before the Royals pulled one back at 6:44 as Verhoeff logged his second goal of the night.
That’s as close as Victoria would get, though, as Chase Harrington extended his point streak to four games with a goal at 14:04. It was Crampton and Catton with the assists, marking Crampton’s 56th assist of the season (T-9th all-time for single-season assists by a defenseman) and Catton’s 67th (8th all-time for single-season assists).
Cristall closed out the night by pushing a loose puck in the crease over the line to seal the 9-2 victory at 17:07 – his fifth point of the night.
Cowan turned aside 28 of Victoria’s 30 shots, while the Chiefs went 2-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.
In all, six Chiefs logged mult-point efforts in tonigh’ts win: Brayden Crampton (1G-3A), Nathan Mayes (1G-1A), Rasmus Ekstrom (1G-2A), Will McIsaac (1G-2A), Berkly Catton (2G-2A) and Andrew Cristall (2G-3A).
Spokane will take on Victoria again tomorrow night at 6:05 p.m. before heading home for a Wednesday night contest against the Everett Silvetips on March 12.
