Chiefs Pull One Off In Ot Whitfield Earns Hat Trick, Spokane Wins Fifth At Home

Greg Leeb turned desperation into overtime Wednesday night.

Trent Whitfield took it from there, turning overtime into a celebration for 4,203 at the Arena.

Leeb’s spectacular goal with 1:24 remaining in regulation gave the Spokane Chiefs a 4-4 tie with the Portland Winter Hawks.

Whitfield notched the game-winning goal at 3:58 into overtime, a slam from the left point that appeared at first to deflect off a stick, judged to be Randy Favaro’s.

Favaro was initially credited with the decisive goal in Spokane’s 5-4 win, the Chiefs’ fifth straight in their new building, but officials said replays showed that Whitfield’s shot went untouched, at least by Favaro, although it rebounded off the stick of Portland defenseman Justin Guy.

If that’s too much confusion, just think of it as another night at the office.

What’s clear is that Whitfield gets the hat trick, his seventh, eighth and ninth goals of the year. Leeb comes away with two goals and two assists and the Chiefs at 7-2 keep the pressure on WHL West leader Kelowna.

The tying goal - Leeb’s work of art in the crease - was hatched during timeout, after which Spokane coach Mike Babcock pulled his goaltender and gambled that his power-play unit would find a way to get it done with time running out.

After a faceoff in the Chiefs’ offensive zone Whitfield launched the slap shot from the left point. Leeb - going to the net - went airborne and deflected the puck between his skates and by Portland goaltender Brent Belecki.

The Chiefs were on a 5-minute power play after a high-sticking call on Portland center Todd Robinson.

“It was pretty early to pull our goalie,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said, “but with the type of game it was - we were pressing so much - we didn’t know if we’d get another opportunity.

“What we wanted to do on the faceoff was wing it back to Whitfield. We didn’t. They rimmed it, Whitfield was cutting off one wall, (Sean) Gillam was supposed to cut off the other wall. Leeb cut the pass off, got it back and Whitter just shot it on net. From there the guys just go to the net.

“You can draw it on the board a million times and it works once,” Babcock added. “Coaching is having your team prepared, having your special teams working, and we didn’t have any of that. Getting lucky is pulling the goalie and scoring and then scoring in overtime. We were very, very fortunate to win, to play hard after we spotted them a significant lead.”

The Chiefs came back from a 3-1 deficit to spoil another hot night for Portland’s Richard Zednik, the WHL player of the week who punished the Chiefs with two goals - his 12th and 13th of the young season - and an assist.

Leeb confirmed that he did a complete turn going after the deflection.

“I looked for the shot from the point and deflected it with the heel of my stick with my backhand, through my legs,” he said. “That’s when I did the complete 360 and saw it go in the net.”

So did you think it all through as it was happening?

“I guess so, a little bit,” Leeb said. “Whitter made a great shot from the ice and I deflected it in. That was one of the prettiest goals I’ve made. I hope there’s more to come.”

The early going wasn’t that extraordinary.

For four games the Chiefs killed off penalties at home like nobody in the league. Opposition power plays had gone nowhere in the Arena.

The Winter Hawks turned that around early, riddling the Chiefs’ penalty-killers with 2 power play goals and a third that came 2 seconds after a power play expired.

The news isn’t all good.

Twenty-four hours earlier, the Chiefs lost veteran left wing Joe Cardarelli to a broken ankle at Tuesday’s practice. Cardarelli, who had 5 goals and 7 assists in the Chiefs’ first eight games, is expected to miss the next 12 weeks ,

Suddenly the depth that was so secure is now stretched.

The Chiefs also played without center Jason Podollan, out with what general manager Tim Speltz said was the flu.

Spokane’s John Cirjak was credited with an assist in the game-winning goal to run his scoring streak to nine games.

Kevin Haupt and Judd Casper scored for Portland (3-6-1).

Chiefs 5, Winter Hawks 4

Portland 3 1 0 0 -4 Spokane 1 2 1 1 - 5

First period - 1, Por, Haupt 1 (Zednik, Isbister) 10:37 (power play); 2, Spo, Whitfield 7 ( Boschman) 11:55; 3, Por, Zednik 12 (Ference, Isbister) 12:48 (pp); 4, Por, Casper 2 (Gaudet) 14:03. Key penalties - Cerven, Spo, 8:35; Schutz, Spo, 12:08; Tetarenko, Por, 17:54.

Second period - 5, Spo, Whitfield 8 ( Leeb, Favaro) 5:27; 6, Spo, Leeb 7 (Favaro) 9:31; 7, Por, Zednik 13 (Tetarenko, Forbes) 11:57 (pp). Key penalties - Hamilton, Spo, :21; Bertsch, Spo, 11:03; Zednick, Por, 15:47; Tetarenko, Por, 16:21.

Third period - 8, Spo, Leeb 8 (Whitfield, Cirjak) 18:36. Key penalties - Bertsch, Spo, 1:49; Haupt, Por, 5:46; Robinson, Por, 10:20; Schutz, Spo, 12:31.

Overtime - 9, Spo, Whitfield 9 (Favaro, Leeb) 3:58 (pp). Key penalties - Robinson, Por, sticking major, game misconduct, 3:50.

Power plays - Portland 2-7. Spokane 1-6

Saves - Portland, Belecki 8-11-12-3-34. Spokane, Lemanowicz 7-13-5-3-28.

A - 4,203.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo