Chiefs struggles continue through November

Since my last article, the Chiefs season has taken a turn on the losing side of things. From October 16 to November 16, they’ve only won four games.

The losing ways started when the team traveled to Salmon Arm and Vernon in mid-October and lost to the Vipers 4-1 and Silverbacks 2-1 in overtime. After that trip, the Chiefs headed up to Prince George for their first trip of the season to play the defending BCHL champions.  They split the two-game set with PG winning the first game 3-2 in OT and the Chiefs winning the second game 2-1.

Chilliwack came home to play the mighty Pentiction Vees at the Chilliwack Coliseum on October 26. The Chiefs dropped that decision 4-3 in overtime in front of 2307 fans. The Chiefs came back the next night and thumped Surrey 6-3.  Their road record against non-divisional teams is 1-5 after blowing Merritt out 7-1 to close out October at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

November looked very tough for the Chiefs with most games against teams near the top of their divisions. It didn’t started well for the Chiefs as they dropped their first three games to start the month. Chilliwack lost to Surrey 4-3, Coquitlam 4-1 and Langley 6-5 in overtime on November 2nd, 3rd and 8th respectively. The Chiefs would get one win back with 4-1 win over Prince George on home ice but then hit another wall with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the resurgent Cowichan Valley Capitals last week.

Even though the Chiefs haven’t been producing wins, their power play is still tops in the league with a 24 percent efficiency.  The Chiefs have also made a few personnel changes as well, acquiring Conner Milburn from Salmon Arm and Davis Murray from the Sherwood Park Crusaders in AJHL. They also shipped the CJHL playing rights to Hunter Donahoe to Vernon and Tyler Cristall to the West Kelowna Warriors. Things might get worse for the Chiefs as five players Jack Agnew, Xavier Henry, Ethan Bowen, Kyle Penney, and Peter Reynolds, along with head coach Brian Maloney, are invited to the Team Canada West selection camp from December 1-3 for the World Junior A Challenge.

Regardless, the Chiefs have a lot of catching up to do with the Coquitlam Express atop the Mainland Division, 15 points clear of Chilliwack.