Submitted by Fox First at Ten on December 30th
The Kootenay Ice tallied seven goals one night after being shutout as they dropped the Chiefs 7-3 in front of 8,469 fans at the Spokane Arena on Saturday night. The Chiefs' Todd Fiddler found the back of the net twice, and now is tied for the league lead in goals, as the Chiefs fell to 13-5-0-0 at home and 24-11-1-0 overall. The Ice notched the game's first goal at 7:20 as Eric Benoit beat Eric Williams glove side. Fiddler, who scored the only goal of the game in Spokane's victory over Kootenay in the first half of the home-and-home series on Friday night, registered the equalizer at the 13:15 mark off an assist from Blake Gal. Kootenay regained the lead on a goal from Austin Vetterl at 15:49. The Chiefs struck back at the 18:11 mark as Dylan Walchuk's shot crept across the goal line to tie the game on assists from Brenden Kichton and Mitch Holmberg. Spokane outshot the Ice 14-9 for the period. The Chiefs capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play early in the second with Fiddler scoring his second of the night at 1:11 on assists from Reid Gow and Kichton to give Spokane a 3-2 advantage. Kootenay controlled the rest of the second getting goals from Sam Reinhart at 4:26, Ian Cable at 14:19, and Tanner Faith at 16:46 to take a 5-3 lead into the third period. Garret Hughson replaced Williams to start the third but goals from Reinhart at 4:09 and Joey Leach at 6:17 provided the game's final 7-3 margin. Williams stopped 15 of 20 shots, Hughson was 5 of 7, and Skapski finished 39 of 42 for Kootenay. The Chiefs finished 1 for 6 on the power play and 2 of 4 on the penalty kill. Tonight's three stars were: Sam Reinhart (1st), Jaedon Descheneau (2nd), and Todd Fiddler (3rd). The Chiefs embark on a four-game road trip starting with a game in Tri-City on December 31st before retuning home on January 9th for a matchup with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
