Up and down, and up and down again

Ever to to a movie and left thinking there should have been more? Maybe a better plot line, or better story, or maybe even better acting? You liked the way the movie ended but you wished it was better.

That's how I felt Friday night.

The Spokane Chiefs scored a goal in the first period from Jared Cowen and made that stand up as they beat Seattle for the first time this year 1-0. James Reid was stellar in goal in place of the absent Distin Tokarski stopping everything that Seattle threw at him. The win was the Chiefs fourth in a row and pulled them within three points of idle Tri-City for first place in the U.S. division. It is also the second straight 1-0 win for Spokane, who also came off of a 1-0 win at Chilliwack on Tuesday.

The feeling I had on Friday? I wish I had that same feeling on Saturday.

Seattle got their act together, taking advantage of the Chiefs mistakes in their own zone and getting a 3-1 win over Spokane on Saturday. Trevor Glass gets the only goal for Spokane in the second period off of a feed from Drayson Bowman. Reid, who looked great on Friday, looked the opposite on Saturday. He faced only 18 shots in Saturday's game, stopping only 15. Spokane stays 3 points back thanks to a Tri beat down at the hands of the Vancouver Giants.

So in the name of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and the Hanson brothers, where did our offense go? Three goals in three games? And two of those came from defensemen! The Johnson - Koper - Letts line that was lights out a while back has been quiet. Justin McCrae still looks like he's trying to find his groove, and everyone is missing their lead passes and just seem to have an overall knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope that all of the players departing for the world juniors find their groove. We need them.

I did see something very positive this past weekend, and that came from rookie defensemen Brenden Kichton. With Jared Spurgeon and Stefan Ulmer gone to the world juniors, and Mike Reddington still out with a groin injury, Kichton was called upon to play a lot of minutes on the ice. He really showed what he was made of. His defense was solid and he showed that he has skill and great awareness at the position. I think I found my favorite rookie of the season. Nice job Brenden Kichton!

Spokane has one more game before the Christmas break when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Tuesday. Spokane will then resume play on December 27th with a HUGE home game against Tri-City.

Go Chiefs!