Chiefs Dig Deep In Ot
After 60 minutes of regulation and a long shift in overtime, John Cirjak was just tired enough to dig deep for a little rest.
What he came up with - a gamewinning shot from center ice - beat the Tri-City Americans 4-3 before a Wednesday night crowd of 5,258 at the Coliseum.
Cirjak’s unlikely goal was his second of the night and 20th of a season that is beginning to look a lot brighter than anyone dreamed on Jan. 1 when the Chiefs were last in the Western Hockey League West.
Dmitri Leonov and Joe Cardarelli ALSO had goals for the Chiefs (30-36-3), who won their third straight.
It was the fourth loss in five games for the Americans (35-30-5), a depressing turn of events for a club that is a week away from the playoffs.
Although Tri-City came in without four players who’ll probably be available for the playoffs, and won the season series 9-5, Spokane underscored the obvious.
The Chiefs are the hotter of the two clubs that will meet for a homeand-home series in the first round, starting next week.
Chiefs coach Mike Babcock poohpoohed the notion of this serving as a pre-playoff message, but Tri-City coach Bob Loucks saw the implications.
“Obviously, Spokane wanted to send us a message before the playoffs started and I suppose if they think they did, they did,” Loucks said. “They got their win and I’m sure they’re happy with it.”
If this is the way it’ll be in the playoffs, the Chiefs better pack a lunch and figure out how to cover their Ascroft.
That’s Tri-City center Brent Ascroft, who slipped free for three goals in a penalty-marred and ultimately entertaining game.
Each time the Chiefs took a lead, the Americans countered with Ascroft until Cirjak hit the back of the net from the red line at 6:39 into the sudden-death overtime.
“I blocked a shot on the point and was on a break,” Cirjak said. “It was on a long shift and I was really tired. I just wanted to get it on net. I saw it curving toward the net and actually saw it go in.
“It was pretty nice.”
Pretty nice?
Cirjak hit it and went head-first into the penalty box.
Babcock could hardly contain his smile over a club that was given up for dead after a 1-10 December.
Spokane led 2-1 after Leonov took the puck from Ascroft in the corner and shot it between David Trofimenkoff’s pads. The short-handed goal came with the Americans on their seventh power play.
Ascroft tied it late in the second period and put the Americans ahead 3-2 with an unassisted goal 6:30 into the third period.
Spokane finishes the regular season with Saturday and Sunday night games against the Prince George Cougars. The Chiefs are in Portland Friday night.
Spokane probably will finish the regular season without captain Kevin Sawyer, who picked up a game misconduct following a sticking incident.
After taking a jarring hit from TriCity’s Jeremy Thompson, Sawyer took Thompson down with his stick and pounced on him.
Sawyer earned 5 minutes for highsticking, 5 for fighting and the game misconduct, his fourth of the year.