Chiefs Lose From Ahead, 4-3 Lowly Moose Jaw Comes Back For Win Before Record Wednesday Night Crowd

The Spokane Chiefs established a new adage in hockey Wednesday night.

You can’t keep a bad team down.

Right wing Jeff Dewar’s goal at 8:04 of the third period carried the Moose Jaw Warriors - the last-place club in the Western Hockey League East - to a 4-3 comeback win in the Arena. The Chiefs disappointed a crowd of 6,375, the largest Wednesday night gathering in Spokane’s 13-year association with major junior hockey, by blowing 2-0 and 3-2 leads.

Darren Sinclair and Dmitri Leonov each had a goal and an assist, but it wasn’t enough to save the Chiefs from their second straight loss at home.

Blame some of it on injuries. John Cirjak missed his third game with a bruised foot. The Chiefs have scored on only 2 of 22 power-play tries and are 0-2-1 in his absence.

Blame some of it on superior goaltending. Moose Jaw’s Trevor Anderson turned away 44 Spokane shots while David Lemanowicz set aside 32 Moose Jaw shots.

Blame some of it on Moose Jaw’s persistence. Twenty-four hours after losing 7-5 in the Tri-Cities, the Warriors found a way to bounce back, keeping the pressure in the Chiefs’ defensive zone through most of the second and third periods.

A slump does not a disaster make. A third of the way through the regular season, the Chiefs are 15-8-1, just where the Memorial Cup-champion Chiefs of 1990-91 stood at the same point of their banner season.

That’s not a bad comparison, but it was no way to spend a Thanksgiving eve for Spokane coach Mike Babcock, the former Warriors coach who split the season series with his old club after winning Nov. 11 in Moose Jaw, 6-4.

Wednesday, the Chiefs jumped up 1-0 when Martin Cerven’s wrap-around move and backhanded shot beat Anderson at 6:26 of the first. When Sinclair’s 10th goal of the year bounced off, then dribbled through Anderson’s pads at 10:03 of the first, the Chiefs were up 2-0.

But Matt Higgins, Chris Twerdun and Curtis Capjack beat Lemanowicz in the second period while holding the Chiefs to one goal - Leonov’s 11th of the year.

, DataTimes