Chiefs Earn A Deadlock For The Ages Shorthanded Spokane Ties Seattle After Trailing 3-0

Spokane won’t see its hockey club again for another week and a half, until Jan. 2.

Trent Whitfield made sure Sunday night that the Spokane Chiefs won’t be forgotten in their absence.

With Whitfield and his 20-year-old skate mate Greg Leeb at their finest in a furious third period, the Chiefs kept the Seattle Thunderbirds bottled up in their own zone for the better part of the final 20 minutes and through five minutes of overtime to salvage a 3-3 Western Hockey League tie.

It was as sweet and improbable a no-decision as Chiefs coach Mike Babcock could remember.

Four of his stars - Brad Ference, Zenith Komarnis ki, Ty Jones and Marian Cisar - were off for World Junior Tournament tryouts. A fifth, Perry Johnson, is out with a shoulder injury.

The Chiefs compounded their manpower shortage by taking a couple of ill-advised penalties early and falling behind 3-0.

Enter Whitfield, who did everything, including a passable imitation of former teammate Darren Sinclair, who made a living scoring from his knees.

Whitfield brought the Chiefs to within a goal in the third period with a one-handed swipe of the puck from his knees in front of the net. The goal on the rebound of a Dan Vandermeer shot from the point with 16:09 left in regulation put the Chiefs on the road to their second overtime tie in as many nights.

Leeb took it from there with his 20th goal of the year with 5:02 left.

“With all our guys gone that’s a great point for us,” Whitfield said. “We had a bunch of young guys who had to step up, and they did. Rossy (Kyle Rossiter) was big on the defensive end.”

He was, just as Whitfield and Leeb were huge in the attack zone.

“The rebound was sitting there,” Whitfield said of his power-play goal. “The only way I could get there was to dive for it. I dove, poked at it and fortunately it went in for me.”

It was the kind of effort to make a coach forget that it’s December, with all its holiday distractions.

“Five of our best eight players weren’t here,” Babcock said, “yet our guys worked very hard. It’s amazing what energy does for you. You can talk about Whitfield, he was outstanding, but (Brandin) Cote and (Marc) Brown and (Lynn) Loyns and (Justin) Ossachuk and (Josh) Maser -everybody - played a part.”

The T-Birds shoved the Chiefs in an early hole.

Bret DeCecco scored five minutes into the game. Jame Pollock followed nine minutes later. Both goals came on the power play and seemed to put a premature end to the Chiefs’ only Sunday night game at home.

When Torrey DiRoberto put Seattle up 3-0 just 49 seconds into the second period, the Chiefs needed a break. They got it late in the period when Seattle’s Rod LeRoux tried to clear the puck with the T-Birds on the penalty kill.

LeRoux’s pass hit Spokane’s Curtis Suter in the skate and bounded into the net for a Chiefs power-play goal. It woke up the crowd and seemed to invite the Chiefs to the party.

The Chiefs tied it when Whitfield, working hard to get free, let a shot go from the left circle. Leeb going hard to the net buried the rebound.

Rudkowsky, who stopped 40 of 41 shots in a 4-1 win over Spokane on Nov. 26, had no chance. , DataTimes