The Chilliwack Chiefs laid a savage beating on the Coquitlam Express Saturday night, thumping their Mainland division rivals 9-1 at Prospera Centre.
Returning to home ice after two weeks away, Chilliwack peppered the Coquitlam net with 53 shots and had eight different players light the lamp.
The Chiefs won their fourth straight game and improved to 14-5-3-0 while the cellar-dwelling Express dropped to 6-16-0-2.
Making his return to the Chiefs lineup, Kale Kane opened the scoring at 11:42 of period one.
The Quebec kid showed no rust from eight games off due to injury, cutting into the Coquitlam zone and beating netminder Reid Cooper with a low shot from high slot.
Jake Smith doubled the Chilliwack lead at 17:26, with help from shoddy Express D.
A Coquitlam defender tried to clear his zone by chucking the puck up the middle. Chiefs forward Aaron O’Neill picked it off and found Smith lurking near the Express net. Smith took the pass, cut across the goal-mouth and tucked the puck inside the right goal post for his eighth of the year.
The shot clock reflected Chilliwack’s dominance in period one, favouring the home side 17-6.
The Chiefs popped four more past Cooper in the middle frame, with Jordan Kawaguchi leading the charge.
Kawaguchi scored his first just 62 seconds in, with an assist to Kohen Olischefski. Working out of the left corner, Olischefski spotted Captain K uncovered in the goal-mouth. Kawaguchi pulled the puck to the backhand and snuck the puck past Cooper for his team-leading 14th of the year.
Minutes later Josh Borynec roofed a sharp-angle shot over Cooper from the bottom of the left faceoff circle.
Kawaguchi was at it again at 15:59, scoring on a Chilliwack power play.
No. 28 started the play, hustling to keep the puck in at the right point, and finished seconds later with a water-bottle popper over Cooper’s glove.
Rookie Will Calverley sniped his fourth of the season at 18:17, earning two Subway cookies for everyone in the building on ‘Score Six Saturday.’
Shots on goal through 40 minutes favoured Chilliwack 36-13.
The Chiefs kept coming in period three, with Tommy Lee lighting the lamp just 90 seconds into the final frame.
Connor McCarthy scored on a booming slap-shot for the eighth Chiefs goal, but Coquitlam head coach Barry Wolff wouldn’t pull his goalie. Cooper was sunburned from the red light behind him, but couldn’t escape.
Rookie defenceman David Bunz collected his first BCHL goal at 6:26 to wrap up the Chiefs scoring.
Chilliwack goalie Mark Sinclair saw his shutout bid end on a sharp-angle shot from the right-wing wall by Calvin Babych.
The three stars were Kawaguchi (first), Lee (second) and Bunz (third).
The Fortis BC Energy Player of the Game was Smith.
Announced attendance was 2,989