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WHL Spokane Chiefs

McCrae helps lift Chiefs over Blazers, 6-2

January 10, 2008 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Spokane Chiefs News Release


Newcomer Justin McCrae tallied a pair of goals in his Spokane debut and helped lead the Spokane Chiefs to a 6-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday night in the Arena. Ondrej Roman also had two goals and added an assist as Spokane scored three times on the power play and won for the third time in a row. The Chiefs won their 30th of the season and now have 63 points, tied for the top spot in the Western Conference with the Vancouver Giants with one game in hand.

Roman's snapshot on a penalty shot at the 12:19 mark of the first period gave the Chiefs an early 1-0 lead. McCrae then rebounded a Drayson Bowman shot at 14:35 of the first for his 12th of the year.

34-seconds into the second, McCrae found the back of the net again with Spokane on the power play. Roman and Mitch Wahl, one of his three, had the assists.

Kamloops climbed back into the game with a pair of goals at 13:45 and 18:20 to make it 3-2 through 40- minutes of play.

The Chiefs scored the only three goals of the third, two on the man-advantage, for the win. Roman, on a cross crease feed from third star David Rutherford, scored at 10:12. The 20-year-old Rutherford then scored at 13:03 and Jared Spurgeon at 17:00 for the final.

Spokane was 3-5 on the power play and 5-5 on the penalty kill and outshot the Blazers 39-28, including 27-11 in the second and third periods.

Dustin Tokarski stopped 26 shots for his 18th win of the year against just three losses in regulation and one in a shootout.

The Chiefs extended their lead to four points in the U.S. Division over the Tri-City Americans, a shootout loser to the Everett Silvertips on Wednesday night. After a trip to Portland on Friday night, the Chiefs will return home to host the Americans on Saturday night on Red Lion River Inn's Buck Night. The first 5,000 fans through the gates will receive a pair of CheerStix. Saturday's game is also televised live on Comcast channel 12.

Ticket to all home games are available by calling the Chiefs office at (509) 535-PUCK or TicketsWest at (800) 325-SEAT.

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 10, 2008


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