The Westside Warriors scored four second period goals and used a potent power play that scored three times to defeat the visiting Chilliwack Chiefs 5-2 Wednesday night.
The Chiefs remain tied with the Prince George Spruce Kings in third place in the Interior Conference. Chilliwack now has one game in hand on Prince George.
Despite carrying the play and recording six of the game’s first eight shots on goal the Chiefs found themselves down 1-0 when Max French scored his 18th goal of the season at 5:13 of the first period.
The Chiefs evened the score just over three minutes later when Spencer Graboski set up Trevor Hills for his 13th goal of the year.
The Warriors opened the second period with a flurry of chances including two clear cut breakaways that were turned away by Chiefs goaltender Mitch Gillam. Westside then got goals by Connor Dempsey and Shawn Hochhausen 24 seconds apart to take a 3-1 lead three minutes into the middle stanza.
Chilliwack drew to within one when David Thompson jumped on a loose puck in the high slot and slapped it past Westside goaltender David Rodrique at 6:30. The goal was Thompson’s sixth of the season.
Westside needed less than two minutes to regain their two goal lead. Connor Dempsey scored his second of the game on a power play breakaway to put the home team up 4-2. At the 10:55 mark, the Warriors scored another power play goal, this one by Marcus Basara that gave them a 5-2 lead that stood till the final buzzer.
Final shots in the game were 47-39 in favor of the Warriors.
The Chiefs return to action with a pair of home games this weekend vs the Merritt Centennials Friday and the Trail Smoke Eaters on Saturday. Saturday is Cancer Awareness night. Please check the Chiefs website Thursday for more details.
Notes: The Chiefs were without Tyler Miller, Jeremy Gossard, Mathieu Tibbet and Garrett Forster…Forwards Brad Parker and Adam Rossi were called up from the Abbotsford Pilots for the game…Chiefs Head Coach Harvey Smyl was ejected from the game midway through the third period after a pair of fights broke out…Trevor Hills (secondary fight) and Derek Huisman (checking from behind) were also ejected in the third period.
