Chiefs Gun Down Hitmen Suter Shines As Team Effort Produces Win

Two lightning bolts from Marian Cisar - the tying and game-winning goals - you’ve come to expect.

Aren Miller coming off the bench with 15:37 left to rally the Spokane Chiefs past the Calgary Hitmen 5-3 is what a veteran goaltender does.

But Curtis Suter?

Suter scored two goals for the first time in his two seasons in Spokane, essential finishing touches in another back-and-forth game.

Any number of Chiefs could have skated away with one of the three star awards - Miller for his 13 saves; Cisar, who put on a stick-handling clinic, then topped it with his 17th and 18th goals of the year; or Trent Whitfield, for winning two key faceoffs that led to Spokane goals.

Add to that mix defenseman Kyle Rossiter, whose 50-foot snap shot with 14:48 left tied the game at 3.

But no doubt the happiest face in the crowd of contributors belonged to the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Suter, who gave the Chiefs a 1-0 lead on a hustle play early in the game.

An essential presence in that power forward Ty Jones was sent home with the flu, Suter went hard to the net even though goaltender Alexandre Fomitchev was going down routinely to cover the puck. But before the netminder could smother it, Suter threw on the brakes and poked it in the back of the net.

His second goal, a tip-in off Zenith Komarniski’s shot from the point of the power play, put the Chiefs up 2-1.

“I was pretty happy when that second one went in,” Suter said. “It was kind of a looper over the goalie that I wasn’t sure was going in.

“On the first one I saw (Fomitchev) was having a little bit of trouble with the puck. I just went to the net and when he went down to cover it I poked it through his legs. I figured he would play it in the corner. I was just trying to get there ahead of their D.”

The Hitmen, a 3-year-old team with limited success - but on the move under coach Dean Clark - climbed back into it when the well-traveled Brad Mehalko stepped up.

Mehalko, who has played in Lethbridge and Prince George and started the year in the minors with Wichita, carried down the left wall to the corner, skated out a couple of strides, then sent a backhander to Boris Protsenko in front of the net. Protsenko scored his ninth goal and team-high 22nd point to tie it at 2, six minutes into the second period.

When Kenton Smith scored his first goal of the year with a wrist shot that made it through Spokane starter Shaun Fleming’s pads, the Hitmen were up 3-2 4:23 into the final period.

Enter Miller. Enter Rossiter.

Clear the stage for Cisar, whose game-winner came with the Chiefs skating short-handed. It was Cisar’s third goal on the penalty kill.

“We weren’t intense enough on the power play,” Clark said. “On the road you’ve got to be smart, and a little greedy.”

The Chiefs improved to 12-5-1 by setting off the 5,451 in the Arena with their second straight third-period comeback.

“We got her back in the third,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “It was like panic, and then we got rolling. I’d like us to panic more earlier in the game.”

Babcock went easy on his rookie netminder, Fleming.

“He hasn’t played very much, he’s (starting) at home and their goal in the first period (Peter Bergman’s shot to the short side on the power play) was a tough one,” the coach said.

Spokane’s string of 23 straight penalty kills ended with the Bergman goal.

“Then, like all young guys, (Fleming) got farther back in the net, instead of stepping out a little more and challenging,” Babcock said. “Milsy came in, shut the door and gave us a chance to win.”

The Chiefs won their third straight to take sole possession of second place in the WHL West, one point behind Portland.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING UP Spokane vs. Brandon, Saturday at 7:05 p.m., Arena. Radio: KGA 1510, 6 p.m.