The Tremendous Upside

It wasn't all pretty but if you come away with four points I'll take it.

On Friday the Chiefs showed that strange things still happen on trips to Seattle. Spokane shows up to play in the third period and wins 3-1. Kyle Beach gets another goal. Blake Gal gets the game winner in the third. Mitch Wahl adds an empty netter. James Reid gets the job done in net again, stopping 28 of 29 shots. Spokane still racks up penalty minutes like no one's business. I'd like to see that tone down. An ugly win, but a road win nonetheless.

Saturday it was home against the Vancouver Giants. I had some concern about this one. Vancouver was sure to be in a foul mood after the 8-2 beatdown that Tri-City handed them the night before. But the Chiefs played solid defense and scored just enough to win 2-1. Levko Koper scored in a nifty breakaway to put a fakey past the goalie and in the net. Mitch Wahl added a second goal when he went five hole on the goalie. James Reid is again showing that he still wants the starting job with another rock performance in the pipes. He stoned 24 of 25 shots and only let in the goal that Vancouver scored on a 5 on 3 power play. Which leads me to the next issue: Penalties. The Chiefs are still taking lots of penalties. Several of them are stupid and unnecessary. The Chiefs need to be more disciplined and take fewer penalties. They are giving their opponents to many chances to score. But this team is showing promise. They are finding more than one way to win and are becoming more resourceful on both ends of the ice. If this trend continues they will make a serious run. Bank that.

As it stands, though, the Chiefs have won four straight. They are now in a third place tie with Everett in the U.S. division. And ironically enough it's the Everett Silvertips that come to Spokane on Tuesday.

One more thing. That was a red out Saturday? Embarrassing. They were even selling red t-shirts at the gate. Red out means wear red! To anyone not wearing red do better next time.

Go Chiefs!