Spokane Chiefs give up three power-play goals in 6-4 loss to Seattle Thunderbirds

Kailer Yamamoto scored a pair of goals but the Spokane Chiefs lost in their final stop of a four-game road trip, 6-4, to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday night.

A night after snapping a four-game losing streak with a victory at Portland, the Chiefs fell behind 2-0 in the first period to Seattle and never caught the Thunderbirds. Seattle went 3 for 3 on power plays after the Chiefs had gone 18 of 18 on penalty kills in six previous games with Seattle.

The loss kept the Chiefs two points behind idle Portland for the Western Conference’s final playoff berth and they fell seven points back of Seattle in the U.S. Division.

Trailing 3-0, Hayden Ostir got his fourth goal of the season with the Chiefs’ first score that came at 10:22 of the second period. Yamamoto scored on a power play less than two minutes later to make it 3-2.

Seattle scored the next three goals before the Chiefs added third-period scores in the final 5 1/2 minutes by Ondrej Najman, his third, and Yamamoto, his 28th.

Keanu Yamamoto and Jaret Anderson-Dolan had two assists each for Spokane, with four other Chiefs getting one each.

Jayden Sittler made 24 saves for the Chiefs to 30 for Seattle’s Rylan Toth.

Alexander True led Seattle’s scoring with two power-play goals.

Spokane, 3-4 against Seattle, hosts the Thunderbirds for a 7:05 game Wednesday night in the eighth of 10 meetings this season.

Braves hockey

The Nelson Leafs snapped a tie with four straight goals in taking a 6-2 victory over the Spokane Braves in a KIJHL game at Nelson, British Columbia.

Trail Thompson gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the first period and teammate Carter Jones tied the match at 2-all in the second period before the Leafs took the lead with a goal in the second and three in the third.