Chiefs Tough On Defense, Skate Past Moose Jaw, 7-4
As usual, all eyes were on the puck Wednesday night in the Arena. Still, there was something different about the Spokane Chiefs’ 7-4 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors.
This time the puck was looking back, as if it had sprouted eyes.
The best that could be said for either goaltender - Moose Jaw’s Donavan Nunweiler and David Haun of Spokane - is that others in the Western Hockey League suffered more.
Prince Albert hung 10 goals on Red Deer. Kelowna scored seven on Portland, as the Winter Hawks’ win streak came to a halt at 15. Seattle bombed Prince George, in Prince George. Regina rolled up 9 on Edmonton.
Here, despite one of the stronger defensive games the Chiefs have played in the second half of the season (“This was really a 7-1 game,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said), goals came in weird clusters.
“That puck for them had eyes for our net,” Babcock said. “They never had any (quality) chances. Their last one was ugly, ugly. Ugly. And their third one, their second one … Hauner is just glad it’s over.”
“Our goalie was awful,” Moose Jaw coach Al Tuer said, sparing no sentiment in his post-mortem. “Really, a couple of their goals were really very poor on his part. A goaltender will help your penalty kill when he doesn’t kick the rebound out to their stick.”
On a night for strange bounces, the Chiefs (37-18-3) picked up two points on third-place Prince George. The Chiefs lead PG by two games (four points) with 14 regular-season games remaining.
Spokane’s Greg Leeb had a hat trick after a late scoring charge. Ty Jones had been credited with the Chiefs’ sixth goal on a redirection in the third period. After the game, the goal went to Leeb. Leeb’s third goal - his 40th of the season - came with 5 seconds left, 57 seconds after Tuer pulled his goaltender. The Chiefs turned it around and Leeb had an empty net to shoot at.
Jones, who was X-rayed Tuesday night for a suspected broken hand, played with the left hand wrapped and swollen and was a force, particularly on the power play.
The Chiefs were an impressive 4 of 4 on the power play.
“We were zinging it tonight,” Babcock said.
As for the starter in net Friday night, Aren Miller has a history of success in Kelowna’s tiny rink, but Babcock was not ready to make the decision after the game. “We’ll see (today) at practice,” he said. “Haun has won two in a row. Winning is what matters to me.”
The Chiefs scored 14 seconds into the game - 2 seconds shy of a club record for fastest goal to start a game - when Kyle Rossiter’s pass sailed untouched up the middle to the tape of Marian Cisar’s stick.
Cisar, stickhandling on the breakaway, carried the puck low, got goaltender Nunweiler stretched out and down, then patiently swept it just inside the right post for his 24th goal of the season - and his first in more than two months.
Cisar last scored for the Chiefs on Dec. 10, against the Red Deer Rebels.
The Spokane club record for quickest goal is 12 seconds, set in March 1985, by Judson Innes against Seattle.
“Cheezo is back,” Babcock said, referring to Cisar. “And Whitfield is on a roll, scoring-wise.”
Spokane made it 2-0 on the power play when Perry Johnson’s shot from the high slot bounced off Nunweiler out to Spokane’s Derek Schutz, who backhanded the bouncing rebound on net. Cam Severson punched in the rebound.
The Chiefs went up 4-1 on the power play with a couple of dead-on passes. Komarniski tipped the puck to Jones, who found Cisar on the breakaway. It was the seventh straight game in which the Chiefs have scored two or more power-play goals.
They’ve connected on 16 of their last 36 opportunities on the power-play.
Around the WHL …
Ex-Chief John Cirjak, who returns to the Arena on Feb. 21 with the Regina Pats, had a pair of third-period insurance goals in the Pats’ important 4-1 home-ice win over the Swift Current Broncos Saturday night… . Former Chiefs right wing Mike Haley is playing for ex-Spokane assistant coach Brett Cox in Bonnyville, Alberta, for the Junior A club there. Haley joined the Pontiacs just after Christmas… . One night after chasing Spokane goaltender Aren Miller here Friday night, the Portland Winter Hawks drove Seattle Thunderbirds netminder Cody Rudkowsky to an even earlier exit. At least Miller made it to the third period. Rudkowsky was lifted at 7:15 of the second in Seattle’s Saturday night loss to the streaking Winter Hawks. Portland winning streak ended at 15 games, and the Hawks are 25-2-1 in the last 28 games. Oh yeah, the Hawks humbled the T-Birds with their backup goaltender Jason Labarbera, in net.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING UP Friday: Spokane Chiefs at Kelowna Rockets, 7:35 p.m.