Knocking ‘Em For Loop Blazers Keep Series Alive; Chiefs Hit Road

The Kamloops Blazers kept Spokane’s champagne on ice Thursday night.

The Blazers headed home last night down three games to two in the Western Hockey League West Division finals after rallying to beat the Spokane Chiefs 6-5 before 9,508 at the Arena.

Game 6 is Saturday night at 7:30 in Riverside Coliseum in Kamloops. If a seventh game is necessary, it’ll be back here on Monday night.

Defenseman Jason Holland, tireless Jarome Iginla and rookie Peter Bergman scored unanswered goals down the stretch for Kamloops in a game of strange spurts.

The Chiefs led 5-3 with 1:16 left in the second period when Holland, alone in the slot, took a feed from Iginla and made it a one-goal game heading into the second intermission.

“That was a tough goal to give up,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said, “one that in the end was the difference in the hockey game. But in saying that, it was the best game in the last three nights. It was racing out there. We did a lot of good things, had lots of opportunity to score, and didn’t.”

Chiefs goaltender David Lemanowicz put the same kind of spin on the Chiefs’ second 6-5 loss in as many nights.

“It’s not that bad of a storyline,” Lemanowicz said. “If someone had told us at the beginning of the West Division finals that we’d be up 3-2 going into Kamloops - and guaranteed a Game 7 back in our rink - I think we’d grab it pretty quick.”

No doubt. Yet the Chiefs, who won the first three of this series, will have to look back at Game 5 as one that got away.

They survived a shaky first 6 minutes, turning a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 first-period lead. Ahead 5-3 on Jason Podollan’s 15th playoff goal with 4:55 left in the second, the Chiefs were cruising when Petruk suddenly toughened up between the pipes. The Blazers goaltender saw only six shots in the first period. Four got by him.

With the season on the line, Petruk rejected 16 of 17 shots in the second period and turned away all 13 Spokane shots in the third period.

“The one he gave up (to Dmitri Leonov, a 98-footer that slid under his stick at 7:21 of the first period) he gassed, but other than that he was a tender tonight,” Babcock said.

Petruk’s reaction?

“This series gets crazier at it goes on. The first period proved that.”

Down 2-0 and 3-1, outshot 14-6 in the first period, the Chiefs cashed in on what little opportunity they had in the first 20 minutes to escape with a 4-3 lead at the first intermission.

They got it done as they have all year, with an assortment rather than a concentration of force, getting goals from Jan Hrdina, Leonov, John Cirjak and Darren Sinclair after weathering 2 of the roughest minutes of the season.

The Blazers scored two goals in the first 2:10, Donnie Kinney and Ajay Baines beating Lemanowicz in what would become a second successful bid to stave off elimination.

By the time Hrdina got the Chiefs on the board at 2:23, the huge Thursday night crowd had seen three goals, two goalie changes, a Spokane timeout and the nagging persistence of the Chiefs to take penalties that put the potent Blazers’ power play on the ice.

Banes and Bob Maudie scored power-play goals in the hectic first 20-minute set, but with the Chiefs riddling Petruk, it didn’t seem to matter. Babcock made a brief switch in goal after the Baines goal at 2:10, sending in Aren Miller for 23 seconds. When Hrdina scored the first of his four points to make it 2-1, back in came Lemanowicz.

The loose first period was a warmup to a tight-checking second period in which the Chiefs had a 17-7 shot advantage.

“In the last two periods, we out-chanced them, but they finished and we didn’t,” Babcock said.

Playing their 10th game in 14 nights, the Blazers kept the Chiefs off the board in the third period while Iginla, with his 15th playoff goal, and Bergman, with his first, broke through on Lemanowicz.

The Blazers, who trailed 5-4 heading into the third period, went 3-16-1 in regular-season games in which they trailed after two periods.

“All year we haven’t had much luck coming back,” Kamloops coach Ed Dempsey said, “but I’m glad it happened tonight. Our goaltender wasn’t great early, but he won the game for us in the third period.”

Ticket information

Tickets for a Game 7, which would be played Monday at the Spokane Arena if necessary, go on sale today at 8 a.m. at G&B select-a-seat outlets and the Chiefs ticket office (328-0450).

Blazers 6, Chiefs 5

Kamloops 3 1 2 - 6

Spokane 4 1 0 - 5

First period - 1, Kam, Kinney 3 (Keller, McNeil) 1:30; 2, Kam, Baines 4 (Holland) 2:10 (power play); 3, Spo, Hrdina 4 (Cirjak, Podollan) 2:23; 4, Kam, Maudie 8 (Iginla, Holland) 5:56 (pp); 5, Spo, Leonov 7 (Sinclair) 7:21; 6, Spo, Cirjak 2 (Hrdina, Podollan) 17:06; 7, Spo, Sinclair 7 (Leonov, Hrdina) 18:15 (pp). Key penalties - Bertsch, Spo, 2:04; Magarrell,Spo, 3:04; Hamilton, Spo, 5:21; Boschman, Spo, 8:08; Hrdina, Spo, 13:21; Domenichelli, Kam, 14:25; Iginla, Kam, 17:16. Second period - 8, Podollan 15 (Hrdina, Cirjak) 15:05; 9, Kam, Holland 4 (Iginla, Bergman) 18:44. Key penalties - Podollan, Spo, 2:40. Third period - 10, Kam, Iginla 15 (Maudie, Domenichelli) 2:15; 11, Kam Bergman 1 (McNeil) 8:16. Key penalties - Rishaug, Kam, 3:04; Favaro, Spo, 6:07; Keller, 9:18; Domenichelli, Kam, 19:01. Power plays - Kamloops 2-7; Spokane 1-5. Saves - Kamloops, Petruk 2-16-13 - 31. Spokane, Lemanowicz 11-6-8 - 25. Miller 0-x-x - 0. A - 9,508.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WEST DIVISION FINALS Thursday: Kamloops 6, Spokane 5. Spokane leads series 3-2. Saturday: Game 6 at Kamloops, 7:30