Whitfield’s Early Goals, Assist Spark Chiefs Past Hawks

Trent Whitfield scored the first two goals and assisted on another as the Spokane Chiefs stopped scrutinizing their younger players and went with veterans Sunday night.

With established players standing out the Chiefs evened their exhibition record at 1-1-1 with a 4-1 win over the Portland Winter Hawks at Eagles Ice Arena.

Whitfield shot up the left side, took a soft feed from Jason Podollan and beat Winter Hawks goalkeeper Brent Belecki midway in the opening period.

After Portland’s Judd Casper tied the Winter Hawks’ fourth game in five nights at 1, with Portland on the power play, Whitfield put the Chiefs ahead to stay.

His power-play goal at 16:55, assisted by Sean Gillam and Rob Sandrock, made it 2-1.

“Whitfield plays hard,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “If he stays healthy he’ll be a dominant player.”

Podollan notched his second point with another timely pass to Dmitri Leonov 13 seconds into a Chiefs power play late in the second period. Leonov’s goal made it 3-1.

Joe Cardarelli finished off the scoring 10 minutes into the third period, assisted by Whitfield and Mike Haley.

Aren Miller, the starter in goal, turned in 11 saves and gave up the Portland goal in a period and a half.

David Lemanowicz had 9 saves while pitching a shutout.

“Both our goaltenders were sharp,” Babcock said. “In exhibition hockey you have breakdowns. Your goaltenders have to give a you a chance to win, and ours did.”

Defenseman Scott Fletcher, who has returned from pro camp with the San Jose Sharks, and right wing Jay Bertsch, who is in camp with Denver, were among the Chiefs’ no-shows.

Forward Greg Leeb (off-season ankle injury) did not suit but is expected to be fit by Tuesday.

“We had more (regulars) in the lineup than they did on Friday (in a 3-3 tie in Kimberley, B.C.) and they had more in the lineup tonight,” Portland coach Brent Peterson said. “We looked at our young kids tonight. They needed to get their veterans in tonight.”

Belecki and Scott Rideout are ticketed to split time in goal until one steps up, Peterson said.

, DataTimes