The Kyle Beach show came to Kelowna on Halloween Eve. For the Kelowna Rockets, it proved to be a frightful night.
Beach had a three-point night for Spokane, with two goals and one assist, as the Chiefs posted a 4-3 victory over the Rockets in WHL action on Friday night. Only a good effort by Kelowna netminder Adam Brown kept the game from being a blowout, as the Chiefs were methodical in their win, which wasn‘t as close as the one-goal difference.
“It was a good game,” said Beach, a Kelowna product. “We made a couple of mistakes – defensive zone, last minute of a period, shift after a goal, that type of thing – but the guys played really well. Our power play is clicking and if that keeps going, we‘ll keep winning games.
“This win was huge for our team: We lost a couple of games (recently) we thought we should have won, but we made mistakes late, and it cost us. Personally, I was a little nervous (playing in front of the hometown crowd), but the guys kept battling, never got down and we got the win.”
Tyler Johnson, with two goals, also scored for Spokane (6-5-1-0), which snapped a two-game losing streak and went 2-for-4 with arguably the best power-play unit that‘s been inside Prospera Place this season.
The Chiefs‘ top five was comprised of three players with world-junior experience (Johnson and Mitch Wahl, U.S.A.; and Stefan Ulmer, Austria) plus two first-round picks in Beach (Chicago, 11th overall, 2008) and 6-foot-5 defenceman Jared Cowen (Ottawa, 9th overall, 2009).
After a scoreless first period, the Chiefs, opened the second frame with two quick goals in the first two minutes. Johnson made it 3-0 at 9:12, then Beach, with what stood as the winner, made it 4-1 at 17:40 on the power play.
Tyson Barrie, with two goals, his third and fourth markers of the season, and Mitchell Callahan replied for Kelowna (8-7-1-0), which fell to 6-3-1-0 on home ice this season. The game was a letdown for Kelowna, which, just two days earlier, was coming off a big 4-1 win over the league-leading Calgary Hitmen.
“We came out flat in the first period and we‘ve done that a few games now,” said Barrie. “This game, we came out flat for the first two and that killed us. We get in the box, we‘re not moving our feet and then we take penalties. They have a good power play . . . after a big win like that, the last thing you want to do is come out and deflate yourself, which is what we did.
“It‘s a tough game; you want to play them tough, but we didn‘t have it in the first two (periods). It‘s frustrating; we have to learn as a team that (coming out flat) is not acceptable.”
Brown made 31 saves for the Rockets, while Michael Tadjdeh turned aside 31 shots for the Chiefs. Top of Page
