A small crowd of just over 5,000 saw the new look Spokane Chiefs tonight and although the Giants dominated most of the game there was no denying the upgrade in young talent the Chiefs were sporting. Tyson Sexsmith got the start and turned away 16 of 18 shots for the win, while Kevin Armstrong earned a third star for keeping out 32 of 35 shots, and made a few great stops along the way.

The Giants came out playing as a Giant team forechecking aggressively and getting a goal 38 seconds into the contest. Milan Lucic stormed in and fed the puck to Michal Repik who wheeled and found Tim Kraus at the side of the Chiefs net. Tim chipped the puck over Armstrong for the first goal of the game. A couple of minutes later Chad Scharff (in as one of the over-age players because Slade was not dressed) snapped a nice shot from the point and Garet Hunt standing on the doorstep whacked the puck into the back of the net. Hunt had a very good game tonight as he was not only tenacious but made some nice passes and for the most part played smart hockey. The Chiefs would get one back before the end of the period as defenseman Matt McCue found the twine off of a screened shot Sexsmith did not see.

The reffing was nowhere near as particular as the fans were lead to believe it was going to be, but in the players favour both teams seemed to get the concept, did not blatantly flaunt the rules and were allowed to play a pretty free-wheeling game. The two refs tonight were Smith and Smith (Colby and Pat), and they did a fine job of being consistent with their calls. If this continues I’ll have nothing to gripe about during the games.

The second began where the first left off as the Giants continued their strong play on the puck, quick passing and aggressive forechecking. Just 1:18 into the period Tim Kraus stripped a Chief player of the puck in the neutral zone and charged the net on a break-away; a head fake and a sweet fore to backhand move and it was in the net padding the Giants lead. It seemed then that the Giants gradually began to slow down a bit and took their foot off the gas – something they did not do on their opening night, where they were uncharacteristically ruthless with the Winterhawks. The penalties mounted up and though the G-men out shot the Chiefs they were definitely giving them life into the third.

The third was more of the same as the fire had gone out of the Giants belly and they allowed the Chiefs to work them in their own zone. After out shooting the Chiefs in the first two stanzas 31 to 13 , the Giants only managed a paltry 5 shots (same as Spokane) in the third period and took more penalties than they drew. Spokane made it interesting halfway into the third when J.P. Szaszkiewicz deflected a Mitch Wahl shot past Sexsmith. It’s a bit disappointing to see the players sag like that, but part of that could have been due to the fact that Hay was giving more ice-time to the depth players and the speed of the Chiefs came to the fore, as well as the size of the crowd not pumping them up. Michal Repik was finally rewarded for all his hard work, being robbed on the doorstep too many time already this evening, by getting the empty netter to salt away the victory.

Both squads went 0 for 6 on the PP and the shots were 36 to 18 in favour of the G-men at the end. I can’t see Don hay being overjoyed that his team sagged noticeably late in the second and into the third. And even though the team got the win, playing like they did will not be tolerated. Giants host the newest WHL team, The Chilliwack Bruins, on Friday (September 30th) night at 7:30pm for their next game, before challenging The T-Birds in Seattle on Saturday and then back home on Sunday to face the Prince George Cougars for a 5:00pm game at the Coliseum.

[b]Three Stars[/b]
1 – JD Watt
2 – Chad Scharff
3 – Kevin Armstrong