WHL Spokane Chiefs

Tickets Available for Games Three and Four

Published on March 23, 2007 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Spokane Chiefs News Release


The Spokane Chiefs have announced that tickets are still available for games three and four on Tuesday, March 27th and Wednesday March 28th on the first round playoff series versus the Everett Silvertips.

The Chiefs traveled on Thursday to Everett for games one and two this weekend. Spokane and the Silvertips will begin their best-of-seven series on Friday at 7:30 in the Everett Events Center. Mike Boyle will go on the air at 7:00 with Comcast Hockey Tonight on KJRB 790 the Fan.

Game two will also be played on Saturday at 7:00. Comcast Hockey Tonight will hit the air at 6:30.

Times for games three and four in the Spokane Arena will be 7:00.

Spokane finished the regular season with a 36-28-4-4 record and 80 points, fourth in the WHL's U.S. Division. The Silvertips, the Canadian Hockey League's top team, won a league high 54 games and finished with 111 points.

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

THE SCORING RACE

At the start of March, four players were within five points of each other as the Chiefs leading scorer and with just two games left Derek Ryan, David Rutherford and Michael Grabner were tied at 55 points a piece. Thanks to a four point weekend, Ryan won the scoring title with 28 goals and 59 points. His effort was one point better than Rutherford's three points on Sunday against Portland and 31 goals and 58 points overall.

Ryan became the first Chief to lead the team in scoring in back-to-back seasons since Greg Leeb in 1997 and 1998. Grabner's 39 goals also led the team for the second year in a row, joining Daniel Bohac and Chad Klassen as the only Chiefs to do that.

After going scoreless in his first eight games as a Chief, Rutherford scored 19 goals in his next 26 and finished the year with 31. in his last 35 games, Rutherford had 12 goals, 19 assists and 31 points. You can count the 19-year-old as one of the most consistent as he has 20 points in his last 17 games. The Delta, BC native was a part of the Vancouver Giants run to a WHL title last season, but did not play in the playoffs due to a shoulder injury. Rutherford scored only four goals as an 18-year-old but enjoyed an obvious breakout year after being acquired in September for a fifth round selection in the Bantam Draft.

Grabner, Rutherford, Ryan and Drayson Bowman (24) finished the season with more than 20 goals, the first time since 2001-02 that the Chiefs had more than three 20 goals scorers in the same season.

Mitch Wahl's five goals and 11 assists in his last 13 games put him in a tie with Ondrej Roman for the top scoring rookie on the club. Both finished with 48 points, a majority (44) of Roman's through assists. Wahl had 16 goals and 32 helpers, making him the third highest scoring 16-year-old in franchise history. Only Pat Falloon (22-56-78 in 1988-89), Jason Podollan (36-33-69 in 92-93) and Ray Whitney (17-33- 50 in 88-89) finished with more points as a 16-year- old. Those names just happen to be one, two, three in franchise history in goals scored with 146, 145 and 141, respectively and are all three in the top 10 in career scoring.

Check out the Spokane Chiefs Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 23, 2007


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