Rally Carries Chiefs Spokane Comes Back From Late Deficit To Knock Off Seattle 5-3 At The Arena

The Spokane Chiefs put a little different twist on a familiar victim Wednesday night at the Arena.

For the 12th time this season the Chiefs went into the third period trailing a Western Hockey League opponent.

For only the third time they came out of their second-period tailspin with a victory, this time a 5-3 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds before 5,082.

Martin Cerven, a 6-foot-4 Slovakian 18-year-old, wristed in the game-winning goal at 14:18 of the third period.

What it lacked in artistry was doubled in importance. The goal allowed the Chiefs to improve to 19-4-2 at home, already one more victory than last year’s team managed all season in the Coliseum. And this club still has 11 regular-season home dates.

Too bad all of them aren’t with the T-Birds, who have only one tie to go with five losses to the Chiefs.

By winning with a third-period flurry, Spokane sent another signal through the league: This is a 31-15-3 team that’s winning and improving at the same time.

Throw out Sean Gillam’s three assists and the Chiefs beat Seattle without game-breaking contributions from their four all-stars - Gillam, Jason Podollan, Dmitri Leonov and David Lemanowicz - who got into Spokane Wednesday afternoon after Tuesday night’s All-Star game in Prince George.

It was Trent Whitfield, John Cirjak, Darren Sinclair and Cerven with the key goals.

The Chiefs outshot Seattle 46-30 but nearly squandered that edge by sleepwalking through the second period.

“I don’t know if it was lack of respect for the opposition but preparation wasn’t that high,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “We had four kids at the All-Star game who were out late (Tuesday night). That’s an excuse but it’s reality. It hurt us a little bit.”

Whitfield turned a blah power play into the Chiefs’ opening goal. After the puck appeared to drop out from under Bonner’s arm - the goalie had stopped a shot by Spokane’s Cirjak - Whitfield was there to clean up the rebound with 19 seconds remaining on the power play.

Seattle’s Chris Schmidt tied it at 1 early in the second period, when the T-Birds came alive with three goals to take a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.

The goal was a gift from Gillam, whose pass from behind the net ended up on the tape of T-Bird Dan Tompkins’ stick. Tompkins flipped it to Schmidt in front of the net.

Jan Hrdina and rookie Patrick Marleau also scored for the Birds, who hung tough while Bonner was making 41 saves.

Spokane goaltender Aren Miller, starting for David Lemanowicz, came up big in the third period when he stopped 12 of the 30 shots Seattle put on net.

Cirjak tied the game at 2 at 5:42 of the second period, again with the Chiefs on the power play. Cirjak rebounded Hugh Hamilton’s shot from the point. Hamilton’s assist gave him 38 for the season, tied with Whitfield for the team lead.

Marleau put Seattle back up 3-2 after hooking Chris Lane, pulling the Chiefs D-man down and taking control of the puck. Marleau walked in alone on Miller, whom he beat with a shot to the goaltender’s stick side.

“I don’t think we were good tonight but in saying that I thought lots of guys were good - Lane was excellent and Derek Schutz went to the net hard when we got that (third) goal,” Babcock said. “I thought we could have dominated the game if we’d wanted to step it up a little bit and get it going.”

Summary can be found on stat sheet/C5

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