Apr. 3—After winning the first two games of their best-of-seven first-round series on the road, the Spokane Chiefs had to feel pretty good about their chances with the next three games against the Vancouver Giants in the friendly confines of the Spokane Arena.
But momentum is a funny thing. You've got it, until you don't — either in a game or a series.
The Chiefs spotted their visitors two goals, dominated the middle stretch to tie it, but went missing again in the third period and watched momentum pass over to the Giants.
Conner Levis scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, the Chiefs couldn't find the equalizer despite a late power play, and Vancouver took Game 3 3-2 on Wednesday.
The Chiefs lead the best-of-seven Western Hockey League Western Conference series 2-1. Game 4 is Thursday at the Arena.
"We did a good job on the road to get those two wins. Unfortunately, we missed an advantage here but we've got another chance tomorrow," Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said.
The Chiefs played without WHL leading scorer Andrew Cristall, who was suspended for one game after receiving a major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct in Sunday's 7-5 win at Vancouver.
"You know, you're not gonna go through the playoffs without a loss," Lauer said. "But you've gotta learn from it. And that's the biggest thing we have to understand as a group. ...(Vancouver) did a good job of getting into us. We didn't fight through those areas hard enough to draw penalties and to make it an advantage for us. We just kind of accepted it."
The Chiefs outshot Vancouver 43-22 but went 0 for 2 on the power play, marking seven consecutive scoreless opportunities with the man advantage in the series. Spokane led the WHL regular season power play rankings at 28.9%.
"I thought we generated some stuff, but at the end of the day shots don't win you hockey games — it's the goals that count," Lauer said. "We didn't capitalize on those second and third opportunities that we need to, especially in playoff hockey."
Meanwhile, the Chiefs committed four minor penalties, including a too-many-men infraction early in the third period.
"That's just not being aware, not watching the puck. It's just lazy hockey," Lauer said. "It's a quick turnaround. We'll see what we're about. ...We should be ready to go tomorrow."
Vancouver had more jump out of the gate and took advantage of their hosts quickly, scoring just 1 minute, 17 seconds minutes into the game. A shot-pass from Jaden Lipinski went through the crease to Ty Halaburda — who crosschecked Coco Armstrong to create space — and deflected it past goalie Dawson Cowan for his first of the postseason and the early lead.
The Chiefs killed off a Rhett Sather hooking penalty, but Vancouver made it 2-0 not much later. London Hoilett won a puck below the goal line, skated it out along the boards, spun at the top of the circle and fired through a screen for his first of the playoffs — and just his fifth of the season in 53 games, at 7:01 of the first.
"I don't think we were ready at the start of the first period," Lauer said.
With 37 seconds left in the first the Chiefs gave the home fans something to cheer about. Assanali Sarkenov circled the net and found Saige Weinstein at the point. His shot deflected off the skate of a Vancouver defender and past Burke Hood for his first goal of the playoffs.
The Chiefs evened it up midway through the second. The line of Sarkenov, Sam Oremba and Rasmus Ekström put together a shift of extended pressure. Each got a whack at the puck from in close, with Ekström eventually knocking in a rebound of an Oremba shot for his first goal of ...
