Chiefs Tend To The Netting Cisar, Jones Make Play That Nips Kamloops 3-2

It took a very good team to beat a very good goaltender Wednesday night in the Arena.

The Spokane Chiefs held off the Kamloops Blazers 3-2 in a Western Hockey League game that boiled down to goaltender Randy Petruk trying to fend off Spokane’s Ty Jones and Marian Cisar.

It was Petruk, the barrier, vs. the puck carriers.

Jones and Cisar were up to the challenge, teaming up for the winning goal with 1:18 left in a game that left Spokane riding more comfortably in second place in the WHL West.

Petruk turned away 42 of 45 shots to give the Blazers a chance to rally in the third period. When they did, turning a 2-0 deficit after two periods into a tie at 2, Petruk was the catalyst.

But in the end, it was the hot stick of Jones that did him in on a play that started in the corner, to Petruk’s right. Cisar stick-handled out of the corner alone through the slot. Petruk went down to get the shot, but Jones was there for the rebound.

“One of our D men got trapped in the corner,” explained Petruk, the WHL’s player of the week. “Fell down, unfortunately. Cisar was allowed to walk to the net. I made the first one, but Jones was there.”

Both coaches concurred with the story line.

“We dominated,” said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock. “Randy Petruk was pretty good.” “We didn’t play well. Our goalie kept us in,” said Marc Habscheid of the Blazers. “We came back to tie, but if we’d won it wouldn’t have been right. We didn’t deserve to win.”

Although Petruk had to absorb more rubber the Chiefs had a commanding 45-28 shot advantage the netminding down the stretch at the other end by Spokane’s Aren Miller was brilliant as well.

“When they scored we tightened up a little bit,” Babcock said, “and Milsy bailed us out.” Miller swept aside 26 of 28 shots, including three major chances in the final 7:10. The first - a sliding right pad save to stop Alan Manness on a breakaway - was the key. Miller also got an arm on a wrist shot by Ajay Baines with 5 minutes remaining and put a left pad on a snapper by Shawn Thompson with 2:05 to go, both point-blank shots.

“They were rollin’ three lines in the third period and kind of turned the tides a bit on us,” Miller said.

Jones had a goal and a superb assist early to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead they carried into the third period. The winning goal was his third point of the night.

Greg Leeb had three assists to hike his Chiefs-leading scoring total to 89 points.

Cisar, who celebrated his 20th birthday, said he thought the defense was anticipating the pass when he launched the shot Petruk rejected, only to give up the telling rebound.

Blazers Miki DuPont and Shane Belter scored third-period goals to tie it and threaten Spokane with its first loss when it leads after two periods. The Chiefs are 28-0 when they lead after 40 minutes.

Spokane (41-20-4) moved six points up on third-place Prince George with seven regular-season games left, including Saturday night’s test in the Arena with Tri-City that will set a club attendance record. The seats in what is called the crease area behind the east net will be pulled out for the first time.

, DataTimes