Chiefs Fall To Thunderbirds, 6-4 - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

by SpokaneChiefs.com

In their first meeting of the season, the Spokane Chiefs fell short to their U.S. division rivals, the Seattle Thunderbirds by a score of 6-4 Tuesday night in Kent, WA. With the loss, Spokane fell to 6-3, but remained 2 points ahead of Seattle for third place in the division.

Seattle jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Luke Lockhart rebound goal just 1:01 into the game. That lead would hold until just 24 seconds into the second period when the Chiefs Mitch Holmberg scored his league leading 10th goal of the year on a breakaway. Rookie Mikulas Rimmel then rifled home his first WHL career goal at 1:15 of the period on assists from Tyler King and Todd Fiddler to give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead. Seattle would counter with goals from Alexander Delnov and Connor Sanvido less than 3 minutes apart to retake the lead at 3-2. Spokane would equalize on Adam Helewka's first WHL goal at 7:54 of the period from Brenden Kichton and Tyson Predinchuk, who picked up his first WHL point with the assist.

Sanvido would score in the final minute of the second period though to give Seattle a 4-3 lead heading into the third. Spokane would get off 15 shots in the first 2 periods, but would outshoot the Thunderbirds 17-5 in the third. Unfortunately for Spokane, Delnov's second goal of the night, on a 5-3 power play early in the third would lift Seattle to a 5-3 lead. Chiefs defenseman Reid Gow scored his first goal of the season at 17:26 to bring Spokane within 5-4. Kichton picked up his second assist of the night on Gow's goal, giving him 147 for his career, passing Frank Evans all time team mark by a Chiefs defenseman.

Seattle would cap the scoring though on Lockhart's second tally of the night, an empty netter at 18:40 to seal a 6-4 win. Spokane outshot Seattle 32-23 in the contest, while Seattle went 1-4 on the power play, while Spokane was 0-1. The Chiefs will host Seattle Friday night at the Spokane Arena with the puck drop at 7:05pm. Mike Boyle will have the call on 1510 KGA beginning with the pre-game show at 6:30pm.