Chilliwack Bruins forward Ryan Howse goes top shelf on Spokane Chiefs goalie James Reid during second-period action at Prospera Centre on Wednesday evening. Howse’s marker was the Bruins’ lone goal in regulation, and the home team ended up earning a 2-1 shootout win on Jeff Einhorn’s game-winner.
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ShareBruins stun Chiefs in shootout
Published: October 04, 2008 12:00 PMEvery time hockey starts to make just a little bit of sense, something happens to throw logic out the window.
Last weekend, the Chilliwack Bruins absolutely embarrassed themselves on home ice against the Vancouver Giants. They had no life whatsoever in a 4-1 loss.
Watching that game in isolation, one could have reasonably concluded that the Bruins were one of the worst teams in the history of the sport.
On Wednesday night, they welcomed the defending Memorial Cup champions to town. Inexplicably, the underdog Bruins rose up and shocked the powerhouse Chiefs, upsetting them 2-1 in a shootout.
“That’s why you’ve got to pay your money and come to the games, right?” said Bruins head coach Jim Hiller. “We played our hearts out tonight. You hope you get rewarded for that and tonight, fortunately, we were.”
The Bruins got off to a rough start, surrendering the game’s first goal just one minute and 19 seconds in. Tyler Johnson forced a turnover in the neutral zone and set up Levko Koper with a beautiful cross-ice pass. The Edmonton native roofed it over Chilliwack goaltender Lucas Gore to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead.
But the Bruins didn’t lose the faith, and from that point on they played solid, defensively responsible hockey against one of the most potent offences in junior hockey.
Chilliwack got on the board on a second-period power play. Defenceman Jeff Einhorn made a gutsy pass from the right point to the bottom of the left faceoff circle, and Ryan Howse rifled a shot over the right shoulder of Spokane netminder James Reid to knot the score at 1-1. That’s the way it stayed through regulation and overtime.
Cue the shootout, and what an epic it was. Gore faced eight Spokane snipers and turned away six, while Howse and David Robinson came through with clutch efforts for Chilliwack.
It was an unlikely hero who sealed the deal. Hiller went deep into the bench in the eighth round, and sent in Einhorn.
“Everyone was deking,” the Red Deer native said with an ear-to-ear grin. “I backed the Spokane goalie in a little bit and let it go. I couldn’t believe it went in.”
With the win, the Bruins improved to 2-1-1-0 heading into back-to-back weekend road games in Prince George. The next home game is Oct. 10 versus the Prince Albert Raiders.
