Cirjak, Cisar Counteract Curtins As Chiefs Charge Past Kelowna

John Cirjak’s four assists and a pair of brilliant breakaway goals by Marian Cisar whisked the Spokane Chiefs past the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night, but not until it was almost Curtins for goaltender Marc Magliarditi.

With Luke Curtin scoring three goals and setting up a fourth - a third-period, short-handed strike - the Rockets chased the Chiefs all over the Arena before caving in 7-4 before a crowd of 4,607.

Magliarditi evened his record at 3-3 but gave up the hat trick to Curtin, who wristed the first one through the goaltender’s pads and twice scored on rebounds. None of the three will make the Rockets’ highlights film. Magliarditi did reject 29 shots and toughened up down the stretch when the Chiefs aggressive on the forecheck finally pulled away with sheer strength of numbers.

Five Chiefs - Derek Schutz, Joe Cardarelli, Adam Magarrell, Ty Jones and Cisar - scored goals to keep Spokane in second place in the Western Hockey League West, only one point behind division-leading Prince George, a 9-1 Wednesday night loser to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Chiefs (8-3-1) ended the Rockets’ five-game win streak with a two-way effort that pleased the taskmaster, coach Mike Babcock.

“I thought Cirjak was awesome,” the coach said, “and Cisar was pretty good himself. We gave up four goals but we got good production from a lot of guys - Whitfield, Leeb, Cardarelli.”

As for the quality of his goaltending, Babcock shrugged, “Mags would probably like to have one of them back but there’s no sense (criticizing). Guys won, he played and that’s awesome.”

Twice the Chiefs rallied with last-minute goals to go into the dressing room between periods up by two.

“We scored with 29 seconds left in the first period (on Magarrell’s blast from the blue line to go up 3-1) and we scored with a minute to go in the second (when Jones made it 5-3).

“That kills a team,” Babcock said. “We were fortunate to go in both times back in the driver’s seat.”

The Rockets pulled the Curtin on the Chiefs for the last time four minutes into the third period. The Chiefs were on the power play when Curtin carried the puck to the middle and found an open Jordan Walker, who scored Kelowna’s fifth short-handed goal in six games. It cut the lead to 5-4.

But 1:27 later Hugh Hamilton’s one-timer from the point of the power play rebounded off Dillabaugh and Leeb was there for the rebound and the goal.

Cisar’s second goal came 8:36 into the final period after he zipped by defenseman Chris Fleury in the circle and walked in alone for his team-high eighth goal of the year.

When the two clubs go at it here again Friday night at 7, Kelowna coach Pete Anholt will look for more grit from his 7-6 Rocks.

“They were grittier than we were in most areas,” Anholt said. “They created some things off the forecheck and off the rush. Three-on-three down low at both ends of the ice, Spokane was better than we were. Our defense wasn’t real sharp at clearing rebounds and clearing people in front of our net. We weren’t sharp in front of our net at all from the goaltender on out.”

Kim Dillabaugh rejected 40 of Spokane’s 47 shots.

“He had a lot of shots but I thought he created some of those shots on his own because of rebounds,” Anholt said.

Curtin’s third hat trick of his major-junior career may not have been all beauty but it was the glue that held the Rockets in for the better part of 45 minutes.

“Bounces come your way,” the 19-year-old Colorado Avalanche draft choice said. “The rolls. That’s how you score goals. It’s good that I got a bounce and kept plugging from there. I just wish we would have played a little harder.”

Chiefs 7, Rockets 4

Kelowna 1 2 1 - 4

Spokane 3 2 2 - 7

First period - 1, Spo, Schutz 5 (Cirjak, Cardarelli) 10:40 (power play); 2, Spo, Cardarelli 3 (Cirjak) 12:07; 3, Kel, Curtin 8 (Fleury) 17:51 (pp); 4, Spo, Magarrell 1 (Cirjak) 19:31. Key penalties - Whitfield, Spo, double minor 2:06; Fedoruk, Kel, 9:55; Diener, Kel, 13:12; Mikhailov, Spo, 17:28. Second period - 5, Kel, Curtin 9 (Hart, Diener) 5:26; 6, Spo, Cisar 7 (Cardarelli, Boschman) 6:42; 7, Kel, Curtin 10 (Fedoruk) 12:35; 8, Spo Jones 3 (Leeb, Whitfield) 19:00. Key penalties - Ference, Spo, 6:42 (served by Cardarelli); Whitfield, Spo, 20:00. Third period - 9, Walker 5 (Curtin) 4:04 (short-handed); 10, Spo, Leeb 5 (Hamilton, Cirjak) 5:31 (pp); 11, Spo, Cisar (Cardarelli) 8:36. Key penalties - Deleurme, Kel, 3:31; Deleurme, Kel, 15:30; Graf, Spo, 16:34. Power plays-Kelowna 1 of 6. Spokane 2 of 4. Saves-Kel., Dillabaugh 12-16-12-40. Spo., Magliarditi 9-10-10-29. A-4,607.

, DataTimes