New And Old Propel Chiefs Newcomer Hrdina, Veteran Podollan Spark Spokane’s Win Over Portland

The first dividends of this week’s celebrated trade for Jan Hrdina came in Saturday night in the Arena.

Hrdina rang up an assist and a goal - a 55-foot slap shot from the right point of the power play - in a 4-2 Western Hockey League win over the Portland Winter Hawks.

But as much a factor as he was in Spokane’s 32nd win, around here Hrdina is just one of the boys.

Jason Podollan, in fact, skated off with the game’s first star after scoring the winning goal and elevating his play away from the puck.

“I thought we were pretty good,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “Their goalie (Brent Belecki) was excellent but I thought we were too cute. With Jan’s skill, all of a sudden we started playing with a little bit of that (cuteness). We’re not going to play like that. We’re going to play like Spokane Chiefs - we’re going to get greasy and get after it.

“But I like what he brings to our team. We just have to get used to each other and play together. We did lots of good things but we didn’t shoot the puck enough.”

Coming off a 3-3 tie with the tough Prince Albert Raiders on Friday night, the Winter Hawks were without suspended right wing Richard Zednik, who’s burned the Chiefs with 14 points and two game-winning goals in six games.

Given all they had working against them the Hawks surprised the 9,937 in the Arena by pressing the issue deep into the third period.

Portland’s Todd Robinson and Matt Davidson turned the Chiefs’ first power play into a Winter Hawks’ short-handed goal, Davidson’s shot sliding by David Lemanowicz’ glove side at 3:04 of the first period. It put Portland up 1-0.

“Trent Whitfield carries the puck into the zone, shoots it and Gilly (Sean Gillam) goes for the rebound,” Babcock said. “He didn’t get the rebound and they’re on a 2-0 breakaway. If he shoots it into the back of the net, no one notices.”

Determined work by Kris Graf evened it at 1 at 12:18 of the first.

Graf dished the puck low to Hugh Hamilton, absorbed a hit and worked his way into the slot. Receiving the puck, Graf - known more for his punching than his puck-handling - skated through the slot and beat Belecki with his backhand for his second goal of the season.

Hrdina broke the tie with his long blast at 12:54 of the second, but the Winter Hawks’ Brad Isbister answered with his 29th goal of the season to send the teams into the second intermission tied at 2.

It took Podollan less than a minute to win it, ramming a backhander off Belecki’s chest and scooping the rebound through the goaltender’s legs.

“I went wide as I did a couple of other times,” Podollan said. “I wasn’t even the best chance I had. I just threw it on net and it came down in front of him. I whacked at it again, he opened his legs up and it went in. He made some great glove saves on me. I gave him a tap on the pads at the end there because he had a great game.”

Belecki had 38 saves.

“I thought Podollan had his best game of the year tonight,” Babcock said, “as far as working hard and doing what you have to do to be a dominant player.”

Playing in his 250th game as a Chief, Podollan broke out of a minor slump.

“I was struggling for a while, mentally a lot of it was,” Podollan said. “It takes a while to get back (from the World Juniors). I was having trouble scoring and fighting it that way, too. I worked hard all night. It’s easy to look good when everyone’s playing well.”

Chiefs 4, Winter Hawks 2

Portland 1 1 0 - 2

Spokane 1 1 2 - 4

First period-1, Por, Davidson 18 (Robinson), 3:04 (sh). 2, Spo, Graf 2 (Hamilton, Podollan), 12:18. Key penalties-Tetarenko, Por, 1:19; Podollan, Spo, 5:08; Lane, Spo, 8:27; Symes, Por, 14:36; Morrow, Por, 19:07.

Second period-3, Spo, Hrdina 20 (Cirjak), 12:54 (pp). 4, Por, Isbister 29 (Robinson, Forbes), 15:04. Key penalties-Jacobson, Por, 6:06; Schutz, Spo, 8:37; Bekkering, Por, 11:23; Magarrell, Spo, 15:22; Jacobson, Por, 18:14.

Third period-5, Spo, Podollan 21 (Cardarelli, Boschman), :58. 6, Spo, Cardarelli 13 (Hrdina, Leeb), 13:03 (pp). Key penalties-Magarrell, Spo, 2:11; Lane, Spo, 7:14; Davidson, Por, 9:08; Isbister, Por, 11:23; Shockey, Spo, 14:18; Isbister, Por, 14:44; Hamilton, Spo, 17:40.

Power-play opp.-Por 0 of 8; Spo 2 of 8.Saves-Por, Belecki 12-13-13-38. Spo, Lemanowicz 5-11-10-26.A-9,937.

, DataTimes