Cirjak’s Star Rises For Chiefs

John Cirjak wasted no time Saturday night validating his selection to the Western Hockey League West Division all-star squad.

One night after he was named to play in the Jan. 22 all-star game, the Spokane Chiefs’ 19-year-old center scored two goals and assisted on a third in a 5-4 comeback win over the Kamloops Blazers.

The Chiefs won for the third time in four games under interim coach Brett Cox by overturning a 4-3 deficit in the third period, only the second time all season they’ve won when trailing after 40 minutes.

Marian Cisar tied it at 4 with a power move on the power play 4:34 into the third period. Five minutes later Ty Jones won it with his ninth goal in his last eight games, also on the power play.

Four of Spokane’s goals came with the extra attacker on the ice. None was prettier than Cisar’s.

With a burst Cisar stepped around defenseman Chris St. Croix and stormed to the net with goaltender Randy Petruk at his mercy.

“He drove to the outside with his speed,” Kamloops coach Ed Dempsey said. “Our goaltender could have made a better play on it but that was a great goal.”

The Chiefs, who pulled to within a point of third-place Kamloops in the standings, are in Portland tonight to face the division-leading Winter Hawks at 6.

They’ll do it without center Derek Schutz, who suffered what was described as a mild shoulder separation. Schutz assisted on Spokane’s first three goals before he was knocked out of the game by Konrad Brand with 12:12 to go in the second period.

Life got a lot tougher at that point for Cox, who came into the game short-handed without captain Hugh Hamilton and center Trent Whitfield, who were in Geneva, Switzerland, with coach Mike Babcock. The three Chiefs were celebrating their 2-0 win over the U.S. in Saturday morning’s gold-medal game at the World Junior Tournament.

“It took a great deal away from us when Schutz went down,” Cox said. “We went through an adjustment period, obviously.”

The Chiefs had led 3-2 on Chris Lane’s first goal of the year at 6:49 of the second period but 2 minutes after Schutz left the ice, Kamloops tied the game.

Two minutes after that, the Blazers had the lead on Steve Albrecht’s goal.

Schutz could return as early as Tuesday when the Chiefs play the first of two games in Prince George, Cox said. “We need him but when he left, it created an opportunity for someone else.”

The someone else was Lane, who had his most productive game in two seasons.

“We’ve got the talent,” Lane said. “It’s just that on some nights, not all of us show up. We’ve had good efforts but tonight the effort was even better.”

“We didn’t know if it would take three shifts or 10 (to score in the third period),” Cox said, “but we talked about chipping away at it and something good would happen.”

The Chiefs were down 2-0 early after A.J Baines and Wade Burt scored.

It took the Chiefs most of the first period to get the sellout crowd of 10,455 into it. The wake-up call was placed by Cirjak on the power play. His tip just made it through the pads of Petruk and across the goal line with 2:28 left in the period. Cirjak tied it at 2 early in the second period with a one-timer from the left point of the power play.

Two minutes later, Lane beat Petruk with a shot from the right circle.

Cirjak’s goals were his team-high 22nd and 23rd of the season..

Game summary in Stat sheet

, DataTimes