Shea Van Olm, Mathis Preston score two goals apiece; Spokane Chiefs down Kelowna 5-3

Shea Van Olm and Mathis Preston scored two goals apiece and the Spokane Chiefs held off a late flurry to beat the Kelowna Rockets 5-3 in a Western Hockey League Western Conference game at the Arena on Friday.

The win pushed Spokane (4-1-0-0) into first place in the conference. Kelowna dropped to 0-5-0-0.

The Chiefs started the scoring early as Van Olm scored on the power play less than five 5 minutes into the game.

Preston added a power-play goal midway through the first and Berkly Catton, the No. 8 overall pick in this year’s NHL draft, scored his first goal of the season in the latter stages of the first off an assist by Van Olm to make it 3-0.

After a scoreless second period, Van Olm and Preston scored their second goals of the night midway through the third period to make it 5-1 with less than 8 minutes to play. Van Olm has five goals this season; Preston has four.

Kelowna’s Jakub Stancl did his best to keep the Rockets in the game, registering a hat trick in the final period – including a short-handed goal. But the the flurry started too late for the visitors.

Spokane outshot Kelowna 35-34, including 16-6 in the first period and Chiefs goalie Dawson Cowan ran his record to 3-0 with 31 saves.

Spokane returns to the Arena on Saturday against Seattle (1-3-1-0) at 6:05 p.m.