Blades Have Chiefs For Lunch Struggling Saskatoon Wins, Ruins Fans’ Chance For Free Pizza

A game that had all the makings of a pizza party turned into the upset of the young Western Hockey League season.

The Saskatoon Blades - young, tired and prior to Wednesday night, winless on the road - rallied with three third-period goals to beat the best of the West, the Spokane Chiefs, in front of 4,741 in the Arena.

Instead of treating the Arena faithful to lunch, the Chiefs found themselves chewing on a bitter 5-4 loss.

When the Chiefs score seven or more goals, fans can trade in their ticket stubs for a free lunch pizza. With Saskatoon coming in 0-10 on the road, 24 hours after getting whacked 8-2 in Tri-City, the Blades seemed prime for a seven-goal licking.

Enter Nathan Rempel, Garrett Prosofsky and a team too proud to just go through the motions.

Down 4-2 midway through the third period, the Blades won for only the fourth time this season with a flurry that sent Chiefs goaltender Marc Magliarditi off for cover. Ryan Bonni, Laird Laluk and Rempel scored down the stretch for the last-place team - by far - in the WHL East.

Playing its fourth game in six nights, Saskatoon pulled to within 4-3 when the 16-year-old Prosofsky stepped around Chiefs defenseman Chris Lane at the right circle and brought the puck in for Bonni, who scored at 9:34.

Two minutes later the Chiefs gave up an empty-net goal that was the turning point.

Magliarditi left the crease to play the puck - something he does well a dozen times a night - but miscommunciated with Lane while trying to clear in the slot. Laluk jumped on the loose puck and hit the back of the net for an unassisted goal that tied it at 4.

It wasn’t the last of the Chiefs’ late mistakes.

After play was whistled down with 8:27 to go, Mike Haley fired the puck into the net, picking up penalties for goaltender interference and roughing and setting off a chain reaction behind the net. By the time rookie referee Darryl Davis finished handing out penalties, the Chiefs had lost captain Hugh Hamilton to a game misconduct and the Blades were on the power play.

One thing the 4-13-0 Blades do pretty well is score with the extra attacker, which is what they did with 4:22 left when Rempel drove in a slap shot from the top of the right circle for the game-winner.

“We were disappointed in getting beat pretty bad in Tri-City,” Rempel said. “We came in relaxed, knowing Spokane had a real good team - we watched them play about a week ago, so we knew what they were all about.”

Chiefs snipers Trent Whitield and John Cirjak, put up big numbers, Cirjak with two goals and two assists,

Whitfield with a pair of goals and an assist.

It was too little too early.

“Embarrassing,” said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock. “I’ve been coaching for nine years and this is the worst beating I’ve ever taken. You’ve got to want to win more than that. That much talent sittin’ in that room (the Chiefs locker room) can’t muster up more of an effort than that? It’s pretty obvious the coach ain’t gettin’ his job done.

“They are a very young, inexperienced team that tried hard and we were awful. No discipline, no work ethic, no commitment to team play.”

Spokane was without its two import players, Marian Cisar and Yegor Mikhailov, who were in Vancouver taking care of immigration paperwork. Would they have made the difference?

“If they had been here they would have been right there with the rest of them,” Babcock said. “We let each other down in the worst way. The effort was totally unacceptable. We will not play like that again, I guarantee it.”

The Brandon Wheat Kings are here Saturday night for the first time since they wrapped up the WHL championship on May 2.

Blades 5, Chiefs 4

Saskatoon 1 1 3 - 5

Spokane 2 1 1 - 4

First period - 1, Sask, Rempel 10 (Gaucher) 4:52 (power play); 2, Spo, Cirjak 7 (Cardarelli) 5:23; 3, Spo, Whitfield 11 (Cirjak, Schutz) 14:23 (pp). Key penalties - Schutz, Spo, 4:20; Ference, Spo, 6:11; Graf, Spo, 9:07; Sask bench (too many men on) 13:31; Bonni, Sask, 15:55; Haley, Spo, 18:41.

Second period - 4, Spo, Whitfield 12 (Cirjak, Leeb) 3:03 (pp); 5, Sask, Johnston 9 (Bonni, Prosofsky) 12:21. Key penalties - Klochkov, Sask, 2:06; Jones, Spo, 7:36; Milne, Spo, and Wedjelski, Sask, game misconducts, 12:03; Klochkov, Sask, 16:28; Prosofsky, Sask, 19:51.

Third period - 6, Spo, Cirjak 8 (Schutz, Whitfield) :40 (pp); 7, Sask, Bonni 2 (Prosofsky, Gaucher) 9:34 (pp); 8, Sask, Laluk 4 (unassisted) 11:23; 9, Sask, Rempel 11 (Klochkov) 15:38. Key penalties - Hamilton, Spo, 4:55; Schutz, Spo, 7:56; Haley, Spo, 11:33; Hamilton, Spo, Sonnenberg, Sask, game misconducts, 11:33.

Power plays - Saskatoon 2 of 8. Spokane 3 of 4., Saves - Saskatoon, Love 12-10-16-38. Spokane, Magliarditi 4-7-7-18, Miller x-x-1-1.

, DataTimes