Cirjak’s Time Of Year Is Near When The Stakes Get High, The Chiefs’ Right Winger Knows How To Elevate His Game

It’s the final week of the regular season. The Prince George Cougars come in Sunday for their last Western Hockey League game.

For them, it’s over, finally.

For John Cirjak, it’s just beginning.

Cirjak has this knack. The Chiefs right winger saves the best for last. The higher the stakes, the higher the profile.

The Chiefs have three important games this week. The playoffs start March 22.

Keep an eye on the Chiefs’ No. 21.

“Ever since I’ve been here, Jack has been a money guy,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said Tuesday. “If he played basketball, he’d want that last shot. The bigger the game, the better he plays.”

Cirjak’s playoff numbers in the spring of 1995 show a young man with an appetite for the decisive act: 11 postseason games, 11 assists - the first spectacular - and four goals.

“He’s a guy you can tell, ‘Hey Jack, we need one now,’ and he finds a way to get it done,” Babcock said. “Where some guys tighten up, he likes the pressure.”

There are nights when he skates by without notice. Even on big nights, Cirjak’s quick strikes can fly by without appreciation.

For example, his first goal in last year’s playoffs:

Jay Bertsch is motoring across the red line with the Tri-City Americans in pursuit. Cirjak, with the puck against the wall, turns without seeming to look and fires backhanded.

The puck takes off 6 inches above the ice, a frisbee on a frozen rope destined for the tape of Bertsch’s stick.

Bertsch goes top shelf for the goal.

It’s a play where superior vision and anticipation conjures up good fortune.

“I guess I was kind of lucky,” Cirjak said. “I knew Bertsch was in the vicinity, but I didn’t really know where his tape was when I passed.”

Cirjak savors the timely pass the way Jackie Gleason savored a good steak. But junior hockey is a steady diet of surprise and adjustment. Demands change. Roles are refined.

On Jan. 25, when the Chiefs traded for center Jan Hrdina. Cirjak’s role changed. Until then he was creating opportunity. He still does, but Hrdina’s arrival put Cirjak on the right wing, where he’s asked to create less and finish more.

“John’s playing on the wall now,” said Babcock, who sends the Chiefs out tonight against the Kelowna Rockets. “Jan is such a good passer, we need John to shoot the puck more. We want him to try to score rather than set up.”

“I’ve been more of a playmaker,” Cirjak said. “I’m on a line with Jan and Joe Cardarelli, who are great snipers. I find the open ice and key those guys. Hopefully they bury it.”

Babcock has had to remind Cirjak that he, too, can finish.

“If I’m coming down on a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2, I tend to look for the pass, or an opening to make some room for the other guys. I feel better inside if I make the great pass for the guy to score, than actually scoring myself,” Cirjak said.

As part of a veteran core that is rewriting the club record book, Cirjak says he’ll do what it takes. Of all the club records that have fallen, Cirjak is most proud of Spokane’s 98 points in the standings, one more than the 1991 Memorial Cup championship team registered.

This is a team that was picked to finish fifth in the West by “Hockey News.” If you’re surprised, well, you have company. John Cirjak didn’t see it coming, either.

“I knew we’d be up there - we had some proven goal-scorers from the year before - but to come as far as we have, yeah, I’m a little bit surprised,” he said. “Especially with our young guys - Derek Schutz, (Ty) Jones and (Kris) Graf. They’ve really stepped up for us. If we have somebody out, somebody else steps in and takes over.”

Lately Greg Leeb is among the missing. It was Jason Podollan just before and just after Christmas. Before that, it was Cardarelli. Jared Hope had to return home, knocked out by concussions.

And yet the beat goes on.

“After the first two months, I saw that we had all the tools,” Cirjak said. “Then it was just a matter of how hard we wanted to work to get better. First place takes a lot of work, to get there and stay there.”

That’s just the half of it.

Playoffs loom.

Cirjak needs no reminding.

His work is just beginning.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE CIRJAK FILE Hometown: Burnaby, British Columbia 6-2, 186 Birthdate: Feb. 10, 1977 Right wing 22 goals, 39 assists, 6 game-winning goals (2nd on the club)