Chiefs Halted In Ot Brandon’s Leclerc Rings Up Game-Winner

After his slap shot ended Game 1 in overtime Friday night,

Mike Leclerc remembered when he last felt this kind of intensity.

It was almost a year ago, in the Memorial Cup.

Game 1 of the Western Hockey League championship series - won 5-4 by Leclerc and the Brandon Wheat Kings - confirmed predictions.

There’s not a lot separating the Spokane Chiefs from the Wheat Kings, who delighted the fourth-largest crowd in their history - 5,607 at Keystone Centre - when Leclerc’s snap shot from the left slot went in 6 minutes, 36 seconds into overtime.

The Wheat Kings carry a 1-0 lead into Sunday’s Game 2 at 12:30 p.m. (PDT). A trip to the Memorial Cup awaits the winner of this best-of-seven series.

“This was a great game but I think the best is yet to come,” said Leclerc, who spoiled a late rally as the Chiefs twice came from two goals back in the third period. “Playing in the Memorial Cup last year was a great experience. This had that kind of feel to it.”

Flashy goals by Sean Gillam and John Cirjak kept the Chiefs in it. Gillam went end-to-end to score unassisted, the lone goal of a first period that was largely a feeling-out process.

Cirjak undressed rookie defenseman Burke Henry and walked in on goalie Jody Lehman to score at 5:05 of the second period, an important goal because the Wheat Kings were firing for effect. They scored four times in a span of 6:21 to go from one down to two up, 4-2.

Jason Podollan’s second goal of the night and league-high 20th of the playoffs inside the final minute of the second period put the Chiefs back in it at 4-3. It was Podollan again in the third period, at 13:13, the lone breakthrough of a period dominated by the Chiefs.

That set up Leclerc’s overtime heroics. “(Chiefs goaltender David) Lemanowicz tried playing the puck and Cory Cyrenne intercepted it,” Leclerc said, recalling the action that led to the game-winner. “He took it into the corner. The defenseman came out to play him and I just slipped into the slot and they fed me for a one-timer.”

The shot settled in low, to the goalie’s blocker side.

“I didn’t know where I was putting it,” Leclerc said. “I just shot the puck.”

Gillam shrugged it off.

“You can’t take too long to mope around,” he said. “It’s a series. They still have to win three more.”

That won’t get any easier.

Both teams say the best is yet to come.

Leclerc scored on a similar shot from the slot in the second period. Brandon’s other goals came from Bobby Brown, massive Chris Dingman and Mark Dutiaume.

The series opener showed that the Wheat Kings don’t have the market cornered on creative defensemen.

Gillam can be pretty inspired with the puck.

The Chiefs will need that puck-carrying skill, or any dimension beyond the ordinary.

“If you let down at all against these guys they’re going to bury you,” Podollan said. “They have such quality forwards their ‘D’ doesn’t have to take too many chances. Whenever you’re looking up there’s usually two of them facing you. When you get a two-on-one, it’s a rare occasion. You’ve got to take advantage of that.”

The Chiefs had a great opportunity with 1:28 to go in regulation when Greg Leeb’s shot deflected off Lehman’s glove and grazed the crossbar.

“You always talk about setting the ante,” said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock. “They raised the ante in the second period and we didn’t respond at all. We can look at overtime, but the bottom line is that for 10 minutes of the second period they were good and we were brutal.”

Babcock talked of losing one-on-one battles. Some of that had to do with the Wheat Kings’ strength. Dingman - at 6-foot-4, 232 pounds - is a load.

“We’re two pretty evenly matched teams,” Dingman said. “Their defense, they have some size back there, but they’re not the fastest or most mobile D. I think we can get in there and take the body to them. They do good things off transition and they work hard, but once we get in there and cycle down low they lose coverage.”

Wheat Kings 5, Chiefs 4 (OT)

Spokane 1 2 1 0 - 4

Brandon 0 4 0 1 - 5

First period - 1, Spokane, Gillam 2, 6:02. Key penalties - Bertsch, Spok, 3:07; Gillam, Spok, 8:05; Henry, Bran, 12:22; Brown, Bran, 18:16; Hamilton, Spok, 18:41.

Second period - 2, Brandon, Brown 11 (Leclerc, Cyrenne), 2:02. 3, Brandon, Dingman 12 (Schaefer, Smart), 3:22 (pp). 4, Spokane, Cirjak 3 (Leonov, Gillam), 5:05. 5, Brandon, Leclerc 3 (Tetrault), 5:30. 6, Brandon, Dutiaume 2 (Butenschon, Anneck), 8:23. 7, Spokane, Podollan 19 (Leonov, Sinclair), 19:23 (pp). Key penalties - Hamilton, Spok, 3:03; Tetrault, Bran, 5:43; Cherneski, Bran, 8:46; Leclerc, Bran, 11:15; Boschman, Spok, 16:38; Kurtz, Bran, 18:27; Jones, Spok, double minor, 20:00.

Third period - 8, Spokane, Podollan 20 (Cirjak, Hrdina), 13:13. Key penalties - Butenschon, Bran, 1:12; Boschman, Spok, 14:06; Van Oene, Bran, 17:25.

Overtime - 9, Brandon, Leclerc 4 (Cyrenne, Brown), 6:36. Key penalties - None.

Power-play opp. - Spokane 1 of 7; Brandon 1 of 7.Saves - spokane, Lemanowicz 12-7-14-7-40. Brandon, Lehman 8-5-12-4-29.A - 5,607.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo