Chiefs Fight For 6-3 Win Over Birds

This is the one series in hockey that could take a page from pro football and throw in the 2-minute warning.

That way they could clear the building while the Spokane Chiefs and Seattle Thunderbirds cleared the air.

For teams that have only met twice this season, they’ve developed many differences.

The Chiefs clipped the T-Birds 6-3 in Friday night’s game, but after 58 pretty routine minutes followed by 2 minutes of game ending rough stuff, it was hard to say who won the fights.

Greg Leeb and Marian Cisar had three-point nights for the Chiefs (17-6-1), who are in Seattle tonight to renew the rivalry that heated up late before a sold-out Arena crowd of 10,455.

Seven players were tossed out in the final minute, four from Seattle and three from Spokane. Leaving early with game misconducts were Curtis Suter, Brandin Cote and Mark Forth of Spokane, and Nathan Forster, Jason Beckett, David Morisset and Tim Preson for the T-Birds.

“If you watch the tape you’ll see that none of my kids instigated,” Seattle coach Don Nachbaur said. “We had 16-year-old forwards out there. They were challenged and met the challenge. I thought we won most of those fights. Our 17-year-old kid on the back end (Beckett) hammered their big guy (Suter). If he’s their tough guy, they should look for a new one.”

If the Chiefs were trying to make a statement, “There was no exclamation point at the end of it,” Nachbaur said.

The Chiefs unloaded 52 shots on Seattle goaltender Cody Rudkowsky.

“We were all over them early,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “It was a good win for us. It was Zenith Komarniski’s best game. He had some real big body checks. He was real good on the back end - an area where we struggled. I didn’t think our D-men or our team defense was very good.”

The Thunderbirds had their lapses as well.

“We didn’t do a good job of clearing rebounds,” Nachbaur pointed out. “We gave up a lot of second and third shots. Most of their goals - other than the Cisar goal - were ones we could have done something about.”

The Cisar goal came on a breakaway, when the Chiefs caught Seattle on a line change at a critical moment in the third period, with Spokane leading 4-3. Leeb’s breakout pass found Cisar alone, streaking up the middle.

Cisar eventually went to the backhand to beat Rudkowsky for his 21st goal of the season. That put the Chiefs up 5-3 midway in the third period.

The T-Birds had twice cut the lead to a goal. Jeremy Reich and Chris Thompson scored in the first 5:26 of the third, but Justin Ossachuk kept the Chiefs ahead with his second goal of the season at 4:31 of the period.

Then came the Cisar breakaway, followed by Leeb’s goal into an empty net with 23 seconds left, after Nachbaur had pulled Rudkowsky for the extra attacker.

Babcock continues to get production from his rookie Cote.

“Cote’s line scored again,” Babcock said, “Ossachuk scoring from Cote and (Marc) Brown. Brownie had a two-point night and a good scrap (with Seattle’s Rick Berry) at the end. He got dinged with one but that’s a pretty selective guy out there.”

Meaning Berry found the matchup he wanted?

Babcock shrugged away the chance to add any more fuel to the fire that will be rekindled in Key Arena tonight.

The Chiefs had a 2-1 lead and a 19-8 shot advantage after 20 minutes. Leeb and Ron Grimard scored to put the Chiefs up 2-0. A.J. Van Bruggen had a power-play goal for the T-Birds with 1:38 left in the period.

The Chiefs bumped the lead to 3-1 with 1:03 left in the second period on Ty Jones’ 14th goal. Jones stepped in front of defenseman Jame Pollock to tip in the rebound of Cisar’s shot.

The Chiefs conclude a busy weekend with a Sunday nighter in Portland. Spokane is next in the Arena on Dec. 3, with the Kelowna Rockets.

, DataTimes