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Spokane Chiefs

WHL Playoffs: Spokane Chiefs beat Vancouver 4-1, earn first playoff victory since 2019

Spokane goalie Dawson Cowan defends against Vancouver during Friday’s Western Hockey League playoff opener in Langley, British Columbia. (Courtesy of Vancouver Giants)

From staff reports

LANGLEY, British Columbia – After going nearly six years without a playoff victory, the Spokane Chiefs finally got one on Friday night at Langley Events Centre, defeating the Vancouver Giants 4-1 in the first game of their best-of-seven series in the Western Hockey League playoffs.

Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Chiefs scored a pair of even-strength goals in the second to take a lead they never gave back. Andrew Cristall added two goals in the third, including an empty-netter, to clinch Spokane’s victory and end the franchise’s 10-game playoff losing streak.

That losing streak dated back to 2019, when Vancouver beat Spokane in the last two games of the Western Conference Final. Spokane was swept from the playoffs in the first round in 2022 and 2024.

But in Brad Lauer’s first season as their head coach, the Chiefs are ahead in this playoff series, which continues at 4 p.m. Sunday in Langley before shifting to Spokane for games 3 and 4, and, if necessary, 5.

Lauer is no stranger to playoff success: In 2022, the Edmonton Oil Kings went 16-3 in the WHL playoffs en route to a league championship with Lauer as their head coach.

After Jaden Lipinski put the Giants ahead 1-0 in the first period, the Chiefs had the better of the play in the second. They evened the score two minutes after the intermission when Rasmus Ekstrom broke down the right side into the Vancouver zone, centering the puck to Sam Oremba.

Oremba deked to his backhand and flicked the puck under goaltender Burke Hood to tie the game. It was the third career playoff goal for Oremba, who was on the Seattle Thunderbirds team that lost to Lauer’s Oil Kings in the WHL Final in 2022.

Spokane scored another even-strength goal 13 minutes later when Assanali Sarkenov, positioned in front of the net, deflected Nathan Mayes’ shot from the point into the net.

There were just two penalties called all game, one on each team. Spokane goalie Dawson Cowan made 25 saves, and counterpart Hood stopped 40 of 43 shots he faced.

The Chiefs’ third goal and the first of the game for Cristall – the WHL’s leading scorer during the regular season – came after Berkly Catton fired a shot in the low slot right into Hood, who could only deflect the puck to his left. Cristall was there and slapped the puck into the open net.

Cristall added an empty-net goal in the final minutes; Cowan earned the second assist on the play by finding Shea Van Olm, who then passed up ice to Cristall.

Van Olm had two assists, matching his playoff points output during last year’s four-game sweep against Prince George. It is also twice as many points as he had during the 2022 playoffs, when he assisted on one goal in nine games with the Oil Kings during Edmonton’s championship run.

This year’s Vancouver team is coached by Manny Viveiros, who was Spokane’s head coach during the 2019-20 season that ended early due to the pandemic. Adam Maglio, his associate coach for the Giants, is the one who succeeded Viveiros in Spokane and was the Chiefs’ head coach for nearly two seasons.