Chiefs Lose Again, Sink Deeper Hawks Win 7-4 To Take 2-0 Series Lead As Lofty Ranking Does Spokane No Good

Conventional wisdom dictated that after two games, the talk of the Spokane-Portland playoff quarterfinal would be of one team without a weakness, a club playing to play again, a threat to carry the hockey season deep into May.

The Portland Winter Hawks?

The Winter Hawks, the No. 6 seed out of the WHL West, made it two straight over the Chiefs with a 7-4 victory Saturday night, piling up a 5-2 lead after the first 20 minutes and scoring two late empty-net goals before a stunned Arena crowd of 9,834.

As improbable as it seemed at the outset of this best-of-seven series, Portland can eliminate the top-ranked junior hockey team in North America with a sweep at home Tuesday and Wednesday nights when play resumes in the Rose Garden.

There was no panic in the Spokane coach’s office after Portland’s Richard Zednik ran up five points on the Chiefs with a hat trick and a pair of assists.

“We’ve done it all year long,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “We’ve gone back to the well with our young men time and time again and they’ve found ways to win big games. We can’t be happy with the way we’ve played or how hard we’ve worked. The things we’re getting beat at are the things we’re supposed to be good at.

“We’ve given up more shots (83) in two games than we have forever. But remember, it’s a series. They came in and won two games on the road. They’ve shown it’s possible. I guess that’s how we’re going to have to respond.”

The Chiefs weren’t without their moments.

Booed off the ice at the first-period intermission when they fell behind by three goals, the Chiefs rediscovered, however briefly, the magic that made them No. 1.

Joe Cardarelli and Dmitri Leonov scored second-period goals, Aren Miller got stronger the longer he was on in relief of starting Chiefs netminder David Lemanowicz and the Chiefs pulled to within 5-4 after two.

Then came controversy, another disallowed goal, the third in Spokane’s last three playoff games going back to last year.

John Cirjak snapped a shot from the right circle past Portland goaltender Brent Belecki at 3:34 of the third period, an apparent game-tying goal. But referee Brad Meier waved it off, ruling that Spokane’s Jan Hrdina had interfered on the play by taking out Colin Forbes.

Portland coach Brent Peterson said it was the right call.

“It was a good call because Forbes would have had the guy passing the puck out. They just ran interference. We were trying to get them to call interference all night on their picks.”

The Chiefs pulled Lemanowicz when the Hawks hiked their lead to 4-1, after Forbes tossed the puck on net and watched it dribble between the goaltender’s pads at 17:55 of the first period.

The change didn’t do much at first. The only shot Miller saw in the first period went in.

It was a feeble ending to a great start. Trent Whitfield’s power-play goal gave the Chiefs their only lead of this series, 1-0, just 1:18 into the game. But Todd Robinson, Dave Scatchard, Zednik and Forbes answered with goals before Jason Podollan could get one back for Spokane. Podollan’s goal was part of a flurry. Forbes, Podollan and Zednik scored in a span of 46 seconds late in the first period.

Podollan canned his goal 9 seconds after the Forbes goal, but just as Spokane had appeared to stop the bleeding, Zednik was off on a breakaway.

Zednik put a one-hander through Miller’s pads at 18:41 and the gap was three goals after one period.

Cardarelli and Leonov scored on the power play in the second period, and it remained 5-4 until the final minute of a another frantic third period. Babcock pulled his goaltender and the Winter Hawks dumped into the abandoned net, the first the shot by Forbes from deep in his zone, at least a 150-footer.

Besides Zednik, who’s turned his game up in the playoffs after a drab final month of the regular season, the Hawks won with two goals by Forbes and one each by Todd Robinson and Dave Scatchard.

“Tough team, Spokane,” Zednik, a 19-year-old right wing from the Czech Republic, said. “I’m happy. It’s different, you know, in regular season. It’s like different season, playoffs.”

Podollan called Zednik one of the league’s premier players, “the one guy in the league who has dominated us all year. He’s strong, fast and tough to knock off his feet,” said Podollan, who had a goal and a pair of assists.

Winter Hawks 7, Chiefs 4

Portland 5 0 2 - 7

Spokane 2 2 0 - 4

First period - 1, Spokane, Whitfield 2 (Sinclair, Podollan), 1:18 (pp). 2, Portland, Robinson 1 (Isbister, Zednik), 2:41 (pp). 3, Portland, Scatchard 1 (Davidson, Zednik), 9:20. 4, Portland, Zednik 2 (Scatchard), 14:17. 5, Portland, Forbes 1 (Robinson), 17:55. 6, Spokane, Podollan 1 (Whitfield, Shockey), 18:04. 7, Portland, Zednik 3 (Symes), 18:41. Key penalties - Zednik, Por, :19; Hamilton, Spo, 1:40; Bertsch, Spo, 18:54.

Second period - 8, Spokane, Cardarelli 2 (Cirjak), 2:01 (pp). 9, Spokane, Leonov 1 (Podollan), 8:30 (pp). Key penalties - Tetarenko, Por, 1:35; Shockey, Spo, 5:48; Isbister, Por, 6:35.

Third period - 10, Portland, Forbes 2, 19:16 (en). 11, Portland, Zednik 4 (Forbes), 19:46 (en). Key penalties - Hrdina, Spo, 3:34; Ference, Por, 4:13; Robinson, Por, 10:46; Tetarenko, Por, 11:29.

Power-play opp. - Portland 1 of 4; Spokane 3 of 6.Saves - Portland, Belecki 13-11-8-32. Spokane, Lemanowicz 10-x-0-10, Miller 0-8-15-23.A - 9,834.

Tri-City 5, Kelowna 0

Kennewick

Brian Boucher stopped 36 shots as the Americans blanked the Rockets to take a 2-0 lead in their WHL opening-round playoff series.

Alexandre Boikov and Jaroslav Svejkovsky each had a goal and an assist for the Americans, who led 2-0 after 20 minutes and 4-0 after the second period.

Other Tri-City scorers were Grady Manson, Mark Hurley and Shawn Gervais.

The Americans fired 45 shots at Rockets goaltenders Rob Friesen and Kim Dillabaugh.

Dillabaugh came in midway through the second period after Gervais had scored the fourth goal.

The next two games in the best-of-seven series will be in Kelowna, British Columbia, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Blazers 4, Thunderbirds 2

Kamloops, B.C.

Hnat Domenichelli and Jarome Iginla each scored twice to lead Kamloops over Seattle.

The Blazers lead the best-of-seven first-round series 2-0.

Kamloops wasted little time getting into the game as Domenichelli scored after just seven seconds.

Iginla, who scored twice in the Blazers’ 3-2 victory on Friday, got two goals within 17 seconds midway through the second period to make it 3-0.

Seattle bounced back before the end of the period with power-play goals from Brad Swanson and Patrick Marleau.

Domenichelli rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:45 of the third.

The Blazers will head to Seattle for the next two games on Monday and Tuesday.

, DataTimes