It wasn't supposed to be like this.
After winning last season's Memorial Cup, the Spokane Chiefs were supposed to be tops in their division, if not their conference, because of all the returning talent they had.
Instead, after another mediocre week which saw them go 2-2 in four road games, the Chiefs are staring a #4 seed in the Western Conference in the face with just a few regular-season contests remaining.
Spokane opened the week in Seattle, looking to get revenge against the Thunderbirds for a loss in Kent last week. And behind a pair of goals from The Greater One, Drayson Bowman, the Chiefs knocked off the T-Birds 4-2.
The next night, though, in a much more important game, Spokane struggled mightily, especially on special teams, in a 4-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets, which dropped the Chiefs to fourth in the conference. The Chiefs generated nothing on the power play and surrendered a back-breaking shorthanded goal early in the third period to turn a one-goal contest into a 3-1 game, before the Rockets added an empty netter to seal the win.
From there, Spokane traveled north for back-to-back games with the current 8-seed in the West, the Prince George Cougars. Former Chief Kevin Armstrong shutout Spokane in the first half of the weekend, winning 2-0. But the Chiefs would defeat Army on Saturday night, thanks to scoring from five different skaters in a 5-2 victory.
This week, Spokane has a home game on Wednesday versus the Everett Silvertips before a home-and-home pair with the Tri-City Americans over the weekend, beginning Friday in the Lilac City.
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