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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wheaties Turn Soggy Vs. Chiefs Grimard, Suter, Leeb Lead Chiefs’ Rally Against Tired Brandon Squad, 6-5

It’s the only scheduled Spokane stop for the Brandon Wheat Kings but Saturday night’s thriller in the Arena - a 6-5 Chiefs win - may just be the appetizer.

The Wheaties are good enough to play their way back here.

The champion of the Western Hockey League will join the Chiefs and two other championship teams in May for the Memorial Cup tournament.

The WHL representative could very well be the Wheat Kings.

Playing their fifth game in seven nights, the weary Wheaties jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the Chiefs delighted a sellout crowd of 10,455 with another Saturday night special. A week after they erased a two-period deficit to beat the Kamloops Blazers, the Chiefs scored three in the third period to overhaul the Wheat Kings.

The Chiefs, who leave this morning for a week on the road, won for the 13th time against five losses and a tie when Ron Grimard, Curtis Suter and Greg Leeb scored goals down the stretch. Leeb capped his three-point night with a snap shot from the left circle that beat goaltender Jamie Hodson with 1:18 to go.

“Ty Jones had the puck and I had some speed coming in through the neutral zone,” Leeb recounted. “Jones made a good pass to me, just chipped it over the guy’s stick, and I went in. I shot for the far side.”

The implication of the win - that all this could be repeated in the Memorial Cup - was set forth by Leeb.

“They’re one of the contenders (to make it to the Final Four here),” he said. “We definitely won’t be surprised if they’re back here in May.”

The Chiefs tied it at 5 with 6:15 to go on Suter’s third goal in two games, a deflection of Brad Ference’s wrist shot from the point with the Chiefs on the power play.

As big as the Leeb and Suter goals were, the comeback may never have come about, Leeb said, without a lift from defenseman Kyle Rossiter.

“The turnaround came after Rossiter stepped up for us,” Leeb said. “That tussle (in the second period with Brandon’s Darren Van Oene) got us going and got the crowd going. Right after that we scored.”

Jones, who spent part of the week fighting off the flu, turned a long rebound in front of the net into his 12th goal of the season to cut the gap to 4-2 midway in the second period.

Until then it was all Brandon.

Twenty-four hours after winning in overtime at Tri-City, the Wheat Kings riddled Chiefs goaltender Aren Miller early. The Wheaties hit the back of the net with three of their first 10 shots and four of their first 14, forcing Spokane to play catch-up all night.

And catch up they did, thanks early on to Marian Cisar, who notched his 19th goal to get the Chiefs on the board in the first period, and his Western Hockey League-high 20th of the year in the second to pull the Chiefs to within 4-3.

Brandon led 3-1 after 20 minutes when Aaron Goldade, Stefan Cherneski and Josh Woitas beat Miller. Cherneski’s was his 19th goal.

When Twordik struck 5:59 into the second period to make it 4-1, it was up to Rossiter to ignite the crowd and Jones to start carving into the Wheat Kings’ lead.

Cisar’s second of the night cut it to 4-3, but Brandon’s Cory Cyrenne sent Brandon off after 40 minutes up 5-3 with a power-play goal with 2:46 remaining.

Bring on Grimard - with his first goal as a Chief - Suter and Leeb to complete the comeback in the final 20 minutes.

The Chiefs lost defenseman Zenith Komarniski to a first-period hip injury. Brandon was skating without Ukranian defenseman Andrei Lupandin, who is suffering from the flu. The Wheaties’ starting goaltender, David Haun, was also scratched from the lineup because of illness.

Wheat Kings coach Bob Lowes brushed off the fatigue and illness factor.

“That’s a cop-out for us,” he said. “We were in control. We made a couple of bad plays. Their second goal (by Jones), we turn it over. The third goal (Cisar’s second, which he punched through the goaltender’s pads as he was being tackled) was just a bad goal we shouldn’t have let in. We weren’t in control as much then.

“In the third we were just trying to hang on and Spokane stormed us like they can.”

The Chiefs’ road swing starts Monday night in Lethbridge. The club is back in the Arena on Friday night, Nov. 21, with Seattle, the Chiefs’ only remaining home date this month.

Chiefs 6, Wheat Kings 5

Brandon 3 2 0 - 5

Spokane 1 2 3 - 6

First period - 1, Brandon, Goldade 4, 4:29. 2, Brandon, Cherneski, 19 (Smart), 12:56. 3, Spokane, Cisar 19, 16:33. 4, Brandon, Woitas 3 (Twordik), 16:58. Key penalties - Borsheim, Bran, 5:34.

Second period - 5, Brandon, Twordik 4 (Woitas), 5:59. 6, Spokane, Jones 12 (Leeb, Cisar), 10:35. 7, Spokane, Cisar 20 (Leeb, Johnson), 15:46 (power play). 8, Brandon, Cyrenne 8 (Smart, Law), 17:14 (pp). Key penalties - Skolney, Bran, Fisher, Spokane, 16:12.

Third period - 9, Spokane, Grimard 1 (Graf, Ference), 10:55. 10, Spokane, Suter 5 (Ference, Whitfield), 13:45 (pp). 11, Spokane, Leeb 8 (Jones, Fisher), 18:42. Key penalties - Twordik, 2:51; Jones, Spo, 7:53; Cherneski, Bran, 11:54.

Power plays - Brandon 1 of 2. Spokane 2 of 4. Saves - Hodson, Brandon, 13-12-18-43. Miller, Spokane, 9-4-6-19. A - 10,455

, DataTimes