WHL Spokane Chiefs

Chiefs Weekly Report

Published on February 11, 2013 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Spokane Chiefs News Release


THIS WEEK

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH

vs. CALGARY HITMEN

AIR-6:30

GAME-7:05

RADIO-1510 KGA

TV-NONE

The Chiefs will host the Calgary Hitmen in their only meeting of the season. Spokane dropped a 3-2 overtime decision last year, December 2, 2011, in Calgary. Brenden Kichton scored for Spokane as the Chiefs went 1-3 on the power play and 5-5 on the penalty kill. Calgary hasn't been to the Spokane Arena since October 20, 2010, an 8-1 Spokane win. Blake Gal recorded his first career hat-trick and Mike Aviani and Mitch Holmberg both recorded singles. Spokane was 2-8 on the power play and 2-3 on the penalty kill and outshot the Hitmen 52-21. Spokane and Calgary went to overtime three straight seasons from 2007-2009 and have played into the extra session four of the last six meetings. Calgary has won twice in a shootout while Spokane won in overtime twice.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH

at EVERETT SILVERTIPS

AIR-7:00

GAME-7:35

RADIO-1510 KGA

TV-NONE

Spokane will travel to Everett for the third time this season in their sixth of eight meetings. Spokane is 3-2-0-0 on the season versus the Silvertips with a 3-0 record at home and a 0-2 record on the road. Everett skated to a 6-5 win on October 26th. Todd Fiddler had two goals and an assist while Mike Aviani had a pair of assists. Spokane won the next three games, all at home, by a combined score of 12-1 with two shutouts. Five different players scored goals in Spokane's 5-0 win on Saturday, November 3rd. Connor Chartier, Todd Fiddler and Brenden Kichton each finished with a goal and assist. Eric Williams stopped 26 shots for the shutout. In their next game, just three days later on November 6th, Garret Hughson made 22 saves in a 4-0 win. Mikulas Rimmel, Connor Chartier, Dylan Walchuk and Adam Helewka scored goals. Fiddler scored two more goals and Reid Gow had a goal and assist in the Chiefs 3-1 win on November 21st. The Silvertips earned a 3-2 win on January 4th in their last meeting. On average, the Chiefs are outshooting Everett 34.6-24.2. Spokane finished with an 8-1-1-0 record with one win in overtime last season against the Silvertips. Including Friday's game, Spokane will play two more times in Everett and host the Silvertips just one more time; Friday, March 8th. In five games, Todd Fiddler has five goals and nine points. Connor Chartier has three goals and seven points. Spokane is 4-19 (21.1%) on the power play and 10-11 (90.9%) on the penalty kill. Spokane has outscored Everett 10-2 in the third period.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH

at TRI-CITY AMERICANS

AIR-6:30

GAME-7:05

RADIO-1510 KGA

TV-SWX

The Chiefs will travel to play the Tri-City Americans for the fifth time this season in their 10th overall meeting of the year. Spokane is 5-2-2-0 versus the Americans having won the first three of the year and four of the first five. Overall, the Chiefs are 3-1-1-0 at home and 2-1-1-0 on the road. Riley Whittingham scored twice and Eric Williams stopped 31 shots in a 5-2 win on February 9th. Malte Stromwall scored 21-seconds into overtime on January 19th for a 4-3 American win. Todd Fiddler, Carter Proft and Dylan Walchuk scored for the Chiefs as they outshot the Americans 42-22. The Americans picked up a 6-3 win on December 31st, the 23rd New Year's Eve meeting all-time between the two. Brenden Kichton, Blake Gal and Mitch Holmberg had Spokane's goals. The Chiefs led 3-2 going into the third period. Tri-City beat the Chiefs 2-1 on December 15th in Spokane's Teddy Bear Toss. Reid Gow had Spokane's only goal. Brenden Kichton has two goals and 11 points while Holmberg has six goals and 10 points in eight games. Mike Aviani has four goals and 10 points. Overall, the Chiefs are 5-32 on the power play and 22-23 on the penalty kill. The team to score the first goal of the game has won seven of nine. The Chiefs have outscored Tri-City 12-1 in the second period and have outshot the Americans, on average, 32.9-29.3. Spokane and Tri-City are coming off their second straight season of facing each other in the playoffs and their sixth ever meeting in the post-season. In 2011, the Chiefs earned a six game series win while the Americans won last year's series in seven games. In its 25th year of existence the Chiefs lead the regular season series 148-128-3-5 with 13 ties.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH

at PORTLAND WINTERHAWKS

AIR-2:30

GAME-3:00

RADIO-1510 KGA

TV-NONE

The Chiefs will play in Portland for the fourth time this season in their eighth meeting of the year. Portland skated to a 4-0 win on February 2nd in their last meeting. The Chiefs won two of three games versus Portland from January 21st through the 25th when the two teams played three straight games with each other. Portland picked up a 3-0 win on January 25th. The Chiefs have won the first two games of the series, including a 5-4 shootout effort on January 23rd. Adam Helewka scored two goals and Dylan Walchuk and Brenden Kichton added singles in the win. Eric Williams stopped 41 shots, including eight in overtime. Spokane also skated to a 5-2 win on January 21st in Portland. Todd Fiddler scored three goals and Mike Aviani had a pair. The Chiefs outshot the Winterhawks 38-35 as Williams made 33 saves. The Winterhawks won the previous three games versus Spokane including a 5-2 decision on January 11th in Portland. Prior, Portland won a 4-3 game on December 18th in Spokane. Portland earned a 9-1 victory over Spokane on November 10th in the first meeting this season. Spokane outshot the Winterhawks 44-36. Spokane and Portland will play a total of eight times this season, including six in the second half of the season. The final meeting of the year will take place on Monday, February 18th in Portland. Todd Fiddler has five goals and eight points and Mitch Holmberg has one goal and eight points in six games

NEWS AND NOTES

2,000...The Chiefs played their 2,000th game in franchise history on Monday, February 10th versus the Victoria Royals. The Chiefs broke into the WHL on October 4th, 1985 versus the Kamloops Blazers. Despite Grant Delcourt tallying the franchise's first goal 36-seconds into the game, Spokane would drop a 7-4 decision. Their first win came two nights later at New Westmister, BC, the franchise that would later move to Tri-City and become the Americans, when Brent Gilchrist recorded a hat trick. In total, 453 players have suited up as a Chief in their 28 years of existence. Brandin Cote's 352 career games played are tops on the franchise's all-time list.

HITTING 1,000...The Chiefs won their 1,000th game in franchise history on February 6th with a 5-0 victory over Kelowna. Spokane has lost 839 games and 159 have ended in a tie, shootout loss or overtime loss. Spokane has won 229 games over the past six seasons, including this one. Twice, they have won 50 games in a season (1995-96 and 2007-08) and have won more than 45 games eight times.

HOLM-SCHOOL...Mitch Holmberg has six goals and eight assists in his last 10 games, including his third hat trick this season at Kamloops on February 1st. Holmberg recorded a career high five points, three goals and two assists, in a 7-6 shootout win over Seattle on December 14th. Holmberg has 18 goals and 32 points in his last 28 games. His 79 career goals are 26th in franchise history. Holmberg played two games in the Subway SuperSeries.

GET CARTER...Carter Proft leads the WHL with 167 penalty minutes. The 18-year-old has appeared in all 55 games this season and has scored six goals, three more than he had in 50 combined games last year with Brandon and Spokane. Proft scored on a penalty shot on January 9th versus the Seattle Thunderbirds.

ROOFTOPS... Todd Fiddler played his 200th career WHL game on February 10th versus Victoria. Fiddler tied a franchise record for quickest goal to start a period when he scored eight seconds into the third period versus the Medicine Hat Tigers on January 26th. The original mark was set by Tony Horacek in 1988. Fiddler has seven goals and 12 points in his last 11 games and is tied for third in the WHL with 36 goals. Fiddler now has 24 goals, 40 points and is +11 in his last 36 games. He recorded his first career hat-trick in a 3-2 win at the Seattle Thunderbirds on November 17th. Fiddler also has a team leading four shorthanded goals.

Text Box: SPOKANE CHIEFS ALL-TIME LEADERS ASSISTS 1 - Ray Whitney (1988-1991) 207 2 - Pat Falloon (1988-1991) 194 3 -Mitch Wahl (2005-2010) 186 4 - BRENDEN KICHTON (2008- ) 185 5 - Travis Green (1986-1990) 165 6 - Ryan Duthie (1991-1994) 164 Greg Leeb (1994-1998) 164 8 - Valeri Bure (1991-1994) 163 9 - Chad Klassen (2001-2006) 156 10 - Trent Whitfield (1993-1998) 155 BOLD - active IN YOUR KICHTON...Brenden Kichton had an 11 game point scoring streak snapped on January 21st at Portland. Kichton recorded six goals and 17 points during the stretch. Kichton appeared in his 300th career game on Friday, January 4th at Everett becoming just the eighth player in Spokane history to hit that mark. Kichton is also the franchise's all-time leader as a defenseman with 62 career goals, 185 career assists and 247 points. His 185 assists are fourth all-time in Spokane history. Kichton has eight goals and 20 assists in his last 26 games and is +20 in his last 31 games. He leads all WHL defensemen in scoring with 17 goals and 64 points. Last season Kichton was named the WHL's Western Conference Defenseman of the Year as he led all blueliners with 74 points, including 17 goals and 57 assists. Kichton was selected in the fifth round in 2011 by the New York Islanders.

GAL GAB...Blake Gal has three goals and nine points in his last 11 games. Gal had an assist in his 300th career WHL game on January 21st at Portland. He became the ninth player in the history of the franchise to have appeared in that many games. He has six goals and 14 points in his last 20 games. Originally a second round selection in the 2007 WHL Bantam Draft, Gal joined the Chiefs at the end of the 2008 WHL season but did not appear in any regular season Text Box: SPOKANE CHIEFS ALL-TIME LEADERS GAMES PLAYED 1 - Brandin Cote (1996-2002) 352 2 - Tim Krymusa (1998-2003) 332 3 - Levko Koper (2006-2011) 330 4 - Derek Schutz (1994-2000) 322 5 - Mason Wallin (1998-2003) 319 6 - BRENDEN KICHTON (2008- ) 318 7 - Jeff Lynch (2001-2006) 313 8 - BLAKE GAL (2008- ) 309 9 - Jevon Desautels (2000-2005) 301 10 - Steven Kuhn (2008-2012) 288 BOLD - active or playoff games in Spokane's run to the Memorial Cup. The Lethbridge, Alberta native has scored 67 career goals and 152 career points in five seasons.

NACHBAUR'S 1,000TH...Spokane Chief Head Coach Don Nachbaur returned to the bench on January 8th after serving as an assistant for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. He had picked up a 5-2 win over Tri-City in his 1,000th WHL game on November 30th at home. He became just the fourth man in the history of the league to coach in 1,000 games. To this point of his career Nachbaur is 546-391 with 85 games finishing in a tie, overtime loss or shootout loss. He is two wins behind Ernie McLean for fourth all-time in WHL wins. Nachbaur coached 408 games in Seattle winning 202 times and 423 games in Tri-City with 229 wins. Nachbaur was the head coach of Team WHL for the Subway Super Series and went 1-1 in the two games versus Team Russia.

AVIANI FLEW...Mike Aviani has two goals and seven points in his last six games, including a four game point scoring streak. Aviani scored two goals in a 5-2 win over Portland on January 21st. Aviani now has eight goals and 19 points in his last 19 games. Aviani had his third four point night with a hat trick, his first career, and an assist in a 7-4 win at Prince Albert on December 4th. He has 14 goals, including the game tying goal with 55-seconds left in a 7-6 shootout win over Seattle on December 14th, 34 points and is +16 in his last 29 games.

MY NAME'S HELEWKA...Adam Helewka has one goal and five points in his last six games. Helewka has a pair of two goal games this year, including January 23rd in a 5-4 shootout win over Portland.

GOW SCHOLASTIC PLAYER OF THE YEAR...Reid Gow has two goals and 14 points in his last 22 games. He is +15 in his last 27 games. Gow has six goals, 23 points and is a +14 in his last 30. Gow was selected as the winner of the WHL's Daryl K. (Doc) Seaman Trophy for the Scholastic Player of the Year last season. Gow earned a cumulative 95% in his core classes. The defenseman from Killarney, Manitoba scored 22 points, including 20 assists, in 54 games last year. Gow recorded a career high four assists, in a 7-2 win over Tri-City on October 1st, 2011.

WALLY'S WORLD...Dylan Walchuk has five goals and 12 points in his last 18 games. In 2010-11 he helped the Vernon Vipers finish as a runner-up in the Royal Bank Cup Championship, the Canadian Junior A National Title, one year after winning it.

INJURY REPORT...Tanner Mort (upper body, indefinite), Tyler King (upper body, week-to-week), Alessio Bertaggia (upper body, 2 weeks), Jason Fram (lower body, 2 weeks)

NHL DRAFT...Brenden Kichton (New York Islanders, 5th round, 2011)

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