Chiefs Can’t Topple Prince Albert Raiders Handle Spokane 5-4 In Meeting Of Whl Powers

If this was as advertised - a preview of what’s to come - the Spokane Chiefs have a lot of work to do before the Western Hockey League playoffs.

The Chiefs lost for only the second time in their last 15 games at home Wednesday night, going down 5-4 to the Prince Albert Raiders in a crisp match of potential division champions before 4,806.

The Raiders (35-15-4) concluded their romp through the West by turning up some of the Chiefs’ trademark aces, namely quickness, tough checking, puck pursuit and five different goal scorers.

Twenty-four hours after they shut out the Tri-City Americans 4-0, Prince Albert’s Roman Vopat, Jason Issel, Shane Willis, Mike McGhan and Brad Church scored to keep the Chiefs (32-16-3) from moving into a first-place tie in the WHL West Division with the idle Kamloops Blazers.

Spokane’s Trent Whitfield had two goals and an assist to keep it close through two periods. Darren Sinclair and Jason Podollan scored in the third period, Podollan’s breakaway goal coming with 38 seconds left after the Chiefs had pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker.

That was all the damage the Chiefs could inflict on Prince Albert goaltender Rod Branch, who turned away 39 shots.

“I like lots of things we did,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said, “but they looked more experienced. They had us in trouble numerous times 3-on-3 down low and on the rush. It was a real measuring stick for our hockey club.

“We saw things tonight in another team that we like. Often we see things in ourselves that we like, but their speed and ability had us in trouble at times, which shows us that in the learning curve, we have a ways to go.

“We’re aware of that,” Babcock added. “I don’t think the people in Spokane were quite as aware of it as we were, but they found out tonight.”

After Sinclair tied the game at 3-3 with his 26th goal, 20 seconds into the third period, McGhan and Church scored 1:44 apart to put the Raiders up 5-3, turning the usually lively Arena into the Mallon Avenue Morgue.

Vopat, who spent much of the season with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, got the Raiders on the board at 6:30 of the first period with a power-play goal. Whitfield answered with his 26th goal of the year, at 18:57, to send the teams into the first intermission tied at 1.

After Issel and Willis struck in the second period to give PA a 3-1 lead, Whitfield split the defense and slid the puck past Branch’s glove side inside the final minute of the second period.

The Chiefs didn’t go down for lack of effort. They were a very good team that had matchup problems.

“I thought we had two units that could play, not the three going, as we like,” Babcock said. “They only had 21 shots (to Spokane’s 43), but what they did have was pressure that they put on us with speed and with size.”

Branch said he’s playing behind “probably the best defense in the league.

“I just have to go out there and make the saves I’m expected to,” he said. “If I do that, we should be well on our way to making it quite a ways in the playoffs.”

Quite a ways may be a conservative guess.

“Sometimes you beat yourself,” Babcock said. “Sometimes the other team beats you. I don’t think we beat ourselves.”

Defenseman Chris Phillips, among the earliest projected picks in the June 22 NHL entry draft, assisted on Vopat’s first-period power-play goal. Phillips is listed at 6-foot-3, 204 pounds.

Church, who had a couple of assists to go with his goal, is 6-2, 205. The roster is deep in size and savvy.

Whitfield’s first-period goal was the first the Raiders had surrendered in 150 minutes, 43 seconds, dating to a 3-3 tie in Portland Friday night.

The Raiders, who won both this season’s meetings with Spokane, improved to 8-3-1 against West Division opponents. On this trip, they blanked Seattle 2-0, followed that with a 4-0 win in Tri-City and then ended the Chiefs’ three-game win streak.

Raiders 5, Chiefs 4

Prince Albert 1 2 2 - 5

Spokane 1 1 2 - 4

First period - 1, Prince Albert, Vopat 3 (Phillips, Van Drunen)

6:30 (power play); 2, Spokane, Whitfield 26 (Hrdina, Hamilton) 18:57. Key penalties - Bertsch, Spo, 4:35; Branch, PA, delay, 6:47; Cirjak, Spo, 11:49; Hnidy, PA, 12:51; Phillips, PA, 19:54.

Second period - 3, Prince Albert, Issel 21 (Kelly, Church) 5:31; 4, Prince Albert, Willis 33 (Church, Kemp) 11:11; 5, Spokane, Whitfield 27 (Leeb, Hamilton) 19:46 (pp). Key penalties - Kellett, PA, 2:33; Hnidy, PA, 18:59.

Third period - 6, Spokane, Sinclair 26 (Bertsch, Leonov) :20; 7, Prince Albert, McGhan 26 (Brown, Hogue) 7:20; 8, Prince Albert, Church 26 (Kelly, Willis) 9:04; 9, Spokane, Podollan 22 (Cirjak, Whitfield) 19:23. Key penalties - Kemp, PA, 9:19.

Saves - PA, Branch 14-15-10-39. Spo., Lemanowicz 6-5-5-16, Miller x-x-0-0.Power plays opp. - Prince Albert 1-2, Spokane 1-6.A - 4,806

, DataTimes