Seventh Heaven! Sinclair Ends Tough Series With Ot Goal

Darren Sinclair scored the winning goal in overtime Wednesday night in a scene straight out of every hockey player’s dream.

Overtime, the seventh game of an emotional series and a full house watching a whole season come down to just you and the goaltender.

That was the setting for Sinclair, who slammed home the game-winner from the slot 58 seconds into overtime of a 4-3 win over the Portland Winter Hawks at the Arena.

With a little help from his forechecking friends, John Cirjak and Dmitri Leonov, Sinclair shot the Chiefs into the Western Hockey League record book, and the West Division finals.

It was the first time in WHL history a team has come back from three games down to win a playoff series.

Portland was bidding to become the first No. 6 seed to knocked off a regular-season division champion.

They came as close as anybody could without getting it done.

But the Chiefs earned a second-round bye in the playoffs with their fourth straight win. The Kamloops Blazers and Tri-City Americans will start a best-of-5 division semifinal this weekend, the winner meeting the Chiefs for the division championship and a ticket to the WHL finals.

It was Sinclair, Cirjak and Leonov, rotating on the forecheck, that put the Chiefs in position to finally rid themselves of No. 6 Portland inside the first minute of OT.

“Leonov took the body,” Sinclair said of the play that led to his third goal of the playoffs and the biggest of his life. “Cirjak was following and stripped the puck from (Portland defenseman Doug) Strobl and just walked out, faked like he was going to shoot and dished it off to me.

“I had the whole net. It looked like Belecki (goaltender Brent) was coming out to my forehand, thinking I was going to shoot right away, but I came back around and put her in the back of the net.”

The reaction?

“As a kid you dream of this,” he said. “It’s a great feeling. I tried that (move) before and Belecki stoned me in Portland.”

Chiefs coach Mike Babcock spread the credit for the unprecedented comeback.

“I’m just proud to be associated with them,” he said. “Battling back against unbelievable odds says a lot about the talent that (general manager) Tim Speltz and (head scout) Ray Dudra got for us.”

As was the case in the preceding six games, nothing came easy.

Portland got the early goal it wanted when Richard Zednik scored 15 seconds into the game. Spokane goaltender David Lemanowicz dived to cover the puck, it slipped free and Zednik shoved into an open net.

The Chiefs got it back with their first two shots. Leonov took a pass from Sinclair, pounded it off Belecki, then tucked in the rebound at 2:08.

The Chiefs’ first go-ahead goal came 1:58 later, from Jason Podollan, who took Jan Hrdina’s cross-ice pass at the right faceoff circle and wristed it in at 3:58 of the first period.

Belecki put more of a routine spin on the game at that point, keeping the Hawks in the game with 18 saves.

The Chiefs dominated the period, outshooting Portland 20-6, but Portland made the most of limited opportunity.

Todd Robinson tied it at 2 with a power-play goal at 8:59 of the second period, re-directing Zednik’s slap shot from the blue line. It was Portland’s ninth shot of the first 29 minutes.

Nine shots, two goals.

The Chiefs found themselves tied in a game they had dominated. Before frustration could turn to desperation, however, they got the go-ahead from Cirjak, whose first goal of the series, at 12:06 of the second period, put Spokane back up 3-2.

A consistent factor in last year’s playoffs, Cirjak had struggled in this series until his snap shot came in low and hard, just inside the left pipe through a screen.

Podollan got the first assist. It was his second point of the night and team-high 14th of the playoffs.

“In my mind, the player of the series for us was Jason Podollan,” Babcock said.

Defying the notion that Chiefs depth would decide the final game of a rugged series, Portland came out stronger in the third period, outshooting Spokane 16-10 and tying the game 3-3 on Brad Isbister’s powerplay goal at 6:34 of the third.

Isbister muscled in a slap shot from the right circle that found its way through the pads of Lemanowicz.

A series this close wouldn’t have been complete without controversy.

That came late in regulation, when Zednik put the puck across the line at 17:59 of the third period as he was being tripped by Spokane’s Adam Magarrell. The play was waved off, Magarrell picked up a 2-minute penalty, and Portland went on a power play that was interrupted when Zednik checked Spokane’s Joel Boschman from behind 14 seconds later.

Zednik said the goal should have counted.

“Bad call,” the Portland star said. Portland coach Brent Peterson concurred.

“He (referee Tom Kowal) said the play can’t be ruled a goal if he (Zednik) carries it in,” Peterson said. “He didn’t carry it in, he got tripped in. They (the officials) didn’t want to listen.”

The Chiefs lost Game 7 of a tough series last year after a similar controversy in Tri-City.

Chiefs 4, Hawks 3 (OT)

Portland 1 1 1 0 - 3

Spokane 2 1 0 1 - 4

First period - 1, Portland, Zednik 8 (Scatchard), :15. 2, Spokane, Leonov 4 (Sinclair, Bertsch), 2:08. 3, Spokane, Podollan 7 (Hrdina, Haley), 3:58. Key penalties - Haupt, Port, 5:14; Isbister, Port, 7:13; Whitfield, Spok, 7:57; Forbes, Port, 11:37; Leeb, Spok, 11:52; Ference, Port, 13:49; Spokane bench, too many men, served by Schutz, 15:39; Shockey, Spok, 18:11; Zednik, Port, 20:00.

Second period - 4, Portland, Robinson 6 (Zednik, Forbes), 8:59 (pp). 5, Spokane, Cirjak 1 (Podollan, Boschman), 12:06. Key penalties - Shockey, Spok, 2:05; Morrow, Port, 4:36; Cirjak, Spok, 7:48; Bertsch, Spok, 12:23; Robinson, Port, 18:03.

Third period - 6, Portland, Isbister (Haupt), 6:34 (pp). Key penalties - Bertsch, Spok, 6:21; Strobl, Port, 7:10; Magarrell, Spok, 17:59; Zednik, Port, 18:13.

Overtime - 7, Spokane, Sinclair 3 (Cirjak), :58. Key penalties - None.

Power-play opp. - Portland 2 of 9; Spokane 0 of 9. Saves - Portland, Belecki 18-13-10-0-41. Spokane, Lemanowicz 5-9-15-0-29. A - 10,528.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TICKETS ON SALE Tickets for the first two home games of the Chiefs’ next playoff series, against the winner of the Kamloops-Tri Cities series, will go on sale this morning at 8.