Chiefs Buck Swift Current Spokane Uses Power-Play Goals To Take A Grip On Second Place

Call it an early Christmas present.

Coach Mike Babcock asked for a little finish Wednesday night and the Spokane Chiefs gave it to him.

Scoring on 4 of 6 power-play opportunities, the Chiefs held off the Swift Current Broncos 4-3 at the Arena to assume sole possession of second place in the Western Hockey League West, two points up on idle Tri-City and two down to the division-leading Kamloops Blazers.

With veteran sniper Jason Podollan off to evaluation camp with the Canadian National Junior Team, and with right wing Randy Favaro resting an injured shoulder, the Chiefs turned to Sean Gillam, Dmitri Leonov and Trent Whitfield for the edge.

Gillam, playing hurt, had a three-point night and scored the game-winning goal.

“Gilly can hardly skate,” said Babcock, whose club improved to 21-9-3 heading into Saturday night’s home date with the Medicine Hat Tigers. “He got hit the first shift. I thought it was the shoulder again, but it’s a hip flexor.”

Whitfield struck for a pair of goals. Leonov had three assists.

All of the damage came with the Chiefs on the power play.

“We felt we’ve been getting chances on our power play, but we haven’t been shooting the puck, getting the rebounds and burying it,” Babcock said. “We’ve been talking about it. I’m glad to see that we finally scored some (power play) goals.”

Although the Chiefs weren’t at full strength, they were able to take advantage of Swift Current’s manpower shortage.

The Broncos, the WHL Central Division leaders who lost 4-2 in Tri-City on Tuesday night, were without two players and coach Todd McLellan. All three were suspended for their part in a Sunday night brawl in Lethbridge.

Left wing Jeremy Rondeau and right wing Tyler Willis are serving five-game suspensions for their part in the melee. In addition, high-scoring left wing Brad Larsen is off, along with Podollan, to the national junior team tryouts.

The Broncos looked like a club shot full of holes in the first period when Spokane’s John Cirjak and Whitfield scored while the Chiefs were doubling the Broncos in shots, 16-8.

“We got on them so quickly that our guys thought this was going to be a night off,” Babcock said. “We found out what kind of a night off it was. It was way too much work for what it should have been.”

Down 2-0, the Broncos jumped back into it under assistant coach Kurt Lackten, tying it with second-period goals only 2:04 apart.

Scott Burt got the first, assisted by Brent Sopel. The two reversed roles for the second goal, Burt assisting Sopel for the score at 3:54 of the second.

Whitfield answered at 15:52 of the period with yet another Spokane power-play goal, assisted by Gillam and Leonov, and the Chiefs were up 3-2 after two periods.

Gillam’s goal at 2:01 of the third period put Spokane up 4-2. Leonov and Cirjak had the helpers.

Craig Millar replied with the Broncos’ third power-play goal at 11:06 of the third period but that was all the Broncos could scratch away from the Chiefs, the toughest defensive team in the league. Spokane outshot Swift Current 11-3 in the third period.

The Chiefs’ penalty kill was unusually vulnerable but wasn’t as feeble as it appeared, Babcock said.

“Their first power-play goal, we have the puck and just give it to them and they shoot it in the back of the net,” he said. “Big mistake by us. The next two are pretty good shots by them, individual efforts, not really power-play type goals, more just gunning it home and beating your goaltender.”Spokane’s David Lemanowicz, who came in with the WHL’s best goals-against average (2.97), only had to face 21 shots. He had 18 saves. Goalkeeper Aaron MacDonald of Swift Current rejected 34 shots.

Chiefs 4, Broncos 3

Swift Current 0 2 1 - 3

Spokane 2 1 1 - 4

First period - 1, Spokane, Cirjak 16 (Cerven, Leeb) 1:33 (power play); 2, Spokane, Whitfield 15 (Leonov, Gillam) 16:40 (pp). Key penalties - Millar, SC, :37; Bertsch, Spo, 4:59; Rezansoff, SC, 9:11; Sopel. SC, 15:24.

Second period - 3, Swift Current, Burt 5 (Sopel) 1:50 (pp); 4, Swift Current, Sopel (Burt, Arbez) 3:54 (pp); 5, Spokane, Whitfield 16 (Gillam, Leonov) 15:52 (pp). Key penalties - Gans, Spo, 1:03; Magarrell, Spo, 3:26; Millar, SC, 15:02.

Third period - 6, Spokane, Gillam 6 (Leonov, Cirjak) 2:01 (pp); 7, Swift Current, Millar 11 (Beagle, Rezansoff) 11:06 (pp). Key penalties - Rezansoff, SC, :45; Jones, Spo, 2:11; Bertsch, Spo, double minor, 10:32; Bertsch, Spo, 15:00; Millar, SC, 15:23.

Power plays opportunities - Swift Current 3-7, Spokane 4-6

Saves - MacDonald , SC, 14-10-10-34. Lemanowicz, Spo, 8-8-2-18

A - 4,315

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo