Chiefs Can’t Hold Own At Home Spokane Blows Another Lead, Trails 3-1

The Spokane Chiefs jumped ahead by four goals after 20 minutes Friday night before a packed house on friendly ice.

They were, in other words, cruising along with everything going their way - just where the Tri-City Americans seem to want them.

The game - a 6-5 Tri-City win - followed an eerily familiar script.

The Americans wiped out a a 3-0 Spokane lead on Wednesday night to win going away.

This time, it was Tri-City’s Brent Ascroft who scored twice in a span of 4:39 of the third period to tie the game at 5-5.

Ascroft’s first strike - coming only 22 seconds after a goal by Greg Leeb put Spokane ahead 5-3 - was a killer. It came with the Chiefs on the power play, threatening to break it open.

Instead, Ascroft made it 5-4.

Mark Hurley stripped the puck in the Chiefs’ zone to set up the Americans’ game-winner with 6:23 remaining.

Hurley fed Chad Cabana, who worked it back to Hurley for the shot that completed the comeback and put Tri-City up three games to one in this Western Hockey League West Division semifinal.

“We had to get pressure on their end,” Hurley said. “I was going to be the high forward and just do my job when they got the puck and came out. I don’t think the guy expected me to be that high. I poked it through and waited for Cabana and (Rob) Butz to get on-side.

“We had a two-on-one, I gave it to Cabana - we’ve worked that play all year in practice - and he gave it right back. It was a great feeling. It was a great play by him (Cabana).”

It was only the third loss at home for the Chiefs in the past 15 games. Hurley couldn’t say he saw it coming.

“I guess a lot of us we’re thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ after the first period because this is kind of how it started in our 9-1 loss here (in Game 2),” he said. “When they get the first ones and the fans get behind ‘em, they really run and gun here. I won’t lie and say we weren’t worried.

“Penalties really hurt us in the first period (when the Chiefs scored three power-play goals),” Hurley added. “We wanted to be disciplined in the second. We got some power plays, some bounces went our way and when it got to be 4-3 we knew we had a good chance.”

The Tri-City comeback - or the great Spokane fade, depending on how you reconstruct it - may be the final sporting event in the 40-year history of the Coliseum.

The teams resume their best-of-seven series tonight in Kennewick, where Tri-City can end Spokane’s season with a win.

The winner of this Highway 395 series goes on to the division finals to face the Portland-Kamloops winner.

Should Spokane survive tonight, Game 6 is back here on Tuesday night.

The Chiefs appeared to arrest Tri-City’s runaway momentum early in the third period when Leeb scored on the power play. It was Leeb’s second goal of the game and put Spokane up 5-3 with 17:02 left.

But no lead has been safe the past two games.

“We were fortunate to be up 4-0,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought we played better in Tri-City (Wednesday night). We were unbelievably uptight, and as the game went on, and they scored some goals we got tighter.

“Down the stretch we couldn’t complete a pass or shoot it into an empty net. We were tight.”

Tri-City goaltender David Trofimenkoff, subbing for the third straight game for injured Brian Boucher, again got stronger with time. After surrendering a pair of soft goals in the first period - Dmitri Leonov’s backhander and Trent Whitfield’s wraparound - Trofimenkoff made two excellent secondperiod saves.

It was the same story on Wednesday, with Trofimenkoff wobbly for 20 minutes. But it takes more than 20 minutes to beat the Americans.

John Cirjak, Whitfield, Leonov and Leeb scored first-period goals for the Chiefs.

When it was pointed out that the Chiefs have come along way since their 1-10 December, Babcock said, “We expect to win. We’re not going down there just to have another pregame meal. It’s just like a win. Dwell on it for 2 seconds and forget it.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHL PLAYOFFS Best-of-7 (Tri-City leads 3-1) Friday: Tri-City 6, Spokane 5 Tonight: Spokane at Tri-City, 7 p.m.