Teddy bears rain down on home ice as Spokane Chiefs beat Seattle Thunderbirds in overtime
Friday night saw the Spokane Chiefs dominate play but come out on the wrong end of the scoreboard. On Saturday, the Chiefs flipped the script and played the role of spoiler against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Seattle outshot Spokane 38-19 on the night and dominated possession and zone time, yet it’s the Chiefs waking up as winners today after a 3-2 overtime victory.
Graham Sward finished a three-on-one for Spokane in overtime and beat Seattle goaltender Thomas Milic to complete what became an emotional victory for Spokane.
Seattle tied the game at two at the 12:28 mark of the third when Kevin Korchinski scored his first career goal. The goal came with Seattle’s Jared Davidson and Spokane’s Luke Toporowksi both in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct. The two were jawing on the ice and came together near the Spokane bench when Davidson dropped his gloves to fight, but Toporowski continued on with the play.
Davidson then tracked down and grabbed Toporowksi by the collar as play ended. Both went to the box and there were plenty of fans and Chiefs personnel who disagreed with the result.
But it didn’t deter the Chiefs, and Sward’s game-winner came just 32 seconds into overtime.
It was teddy bear toss night as well, and Yannick Proske, who tallied a goal and assisted on the overtime winner, was the lucky Chief to send the teddy bears flying.
“It was amazing, a good feeling for me,” he said of the moment the teddy bears rained down.
After being dominated and hemmed in their own zone for nearly the entire first period, Proske scored the teddy bear goal on Spokane’s third shot of the game. Once the puck hit the twine, 5,175 teddy bears rained down onto the Arena ice.
“Getting the first goal was big when we were getting outplayed there pretty bad,” head coach Adam Maglio said. “I think that built a bit of confidence in the group. I think we did get better as the game went on. Certainly, the four-on-four goal, we could have sunk and packed in it but I thought we responded well to it.”
Seattle tied in in the second when Reid Schaefer scored from the slot.
Cordel Larson gave Spokane a 2-1 lead at 3:32 of the third when he put home a rebound on the power play against the league’s top penalty kill unit.
“Our power play’s been going good here,” Maglio said. “Power play is a bit of a momentum changer. You build it through games prior. You feel confident when they’re out there and they’ve been scoring a lot as of late. It was a huge goal.”
On the overtime winner, Proske nearly gave the game away when he turned the puck over in his own zone. He was able to snatch it back along the boards and took advantage of some fallen Thunderbirds to develop a three-on-one.
“I lost the puck which was not a good thing for me,” he said. “I do everything for the team so I got the puck back and then it was my own race to the goal. Then I saw (Blake Swetlikoff and Sward) with me three against one and when we do that it’s one hundred percent a goal.”
Mason Beaupit was huge in net for Spokane, stopping 36 shots in the win. Beaupit needed to be on his toes all game with Seattle dominating possession and zone time.
“I knew he’d respond today after (Friday night). I thought he was good Friday but tonight is the Beaupit we’re used to seeing,” Maglio said.
The Larson goal was the only power play goal Spokane scored on four opportunities. The Chiefs only put Seattle on the power play once and were able to kill it off.
The Chiefs travel to Portland for back-to-back games beginning Dec. 10.