Still some fight left in 'em

The Spokane Chiefs played, unquestionably, their best period of hockey of their second-round series with the Vancouver Giants in the opening stanza of Game 3.

They still went into the locker room down 2-1.

The Giants are a team which thrives on sustained offensive pressure and the mistakes of their opponents. By outshooting the Chiefs 10-9 and drawing an unnecessary elbowing penalty on Ryan Letts, Vancouver was able to escape the Chiefs initial push with a lead.

After Letts ended up in the box again for a slash prior to a face-off, he got an earful from Change and I before apparently receiving another one from Mitch Wahl and coach Hardy Sauter. The message got through because he skated the rest of the game collected and wanting to play hockey. Even when prodded by the Giants (once when a Vancouver player on the bench grabbed and held Letts' stick while he was in a play), Letts remained calm and focused on trying to help his team win.

That play rubbed off on his teammates, as the Chiefs thoroughly dominated the final two periods, outshooting Vancouver 19-8 and outscoring them 4-0 en route to a 5-2 victory.

With each line outhustling and outplaying their counterparts, Spokane got goals from Levko Koper, Jared Spurgeon, Drayson Bowman, Justin McCrae and Mike Reddington in closing the gap in the series to 2-1.

Unfortunately, this series is very reminiscent of the 2007 playoff series Spokane played versus the Everett Silvertips. After a more talented Everett team won twice on the west side of the state, the Chiefs came home and, clearly wanting the wins more, took Games 3 and 4, but ultimately lost in six.

Fortunately, however, many of the players from that series - Bowman, Koper, Spurgeon, Roman, Wahl, Reddington and Tokarski - have that experience, along with a Memorial Cup ring, under their belts and are better prepared this time around.

As they enter Game 4, which is virtually another must-win game, the Chiefs have the confidence that they can skate with and defeat the team widely considered to be the best in the Western Hockey League. If they play as hard and as smart as they did for most of last night, Spokane is going to give the Giants a major problem going forward in this series.