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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tri-City Gets Drop On Chiefs Spokane Will Try To Get Even In Game 2 Tonight In Coliseum

At least the Spokane Chiefs don’t have a lot of time to stew over Monday night’s 5-2 playoff loss to Tri-City.

They resume their Highway 395 series tonight at 7 in the Coliseum hoping to even the Western Hockey League West Division semifinal with the Americans at one apiece.

That and more.

The Chiefs are looking for a jump start after a sub-ordinary first period here cost them a game.

The Chiefs were due for a crash and it came with a rush in front of 2,821 at Tri-City Coliseum.

They were outshot 19-7 and outscored 3-0 in the first 20 minutes.

Terry Ryan scored two of the Americans’ three first-period goals, the second a mildly controversial one, but what would a Tri-City-Spokane game be without a little controversy, besides different?

Crashing the net, Ryan bowled over goal and goalie on his way to pumping the Americans’ lead to 2-0.

Incensed, Chiefs goaltender Jarrod Daniel, who’d had ice chips sprayed in his face a minute before, broke his stick over the goal and drew a misconduct at 12:50 of the period.

“I was in the crease but I got pushed right into the puck and it went into the net,” Ryan said. “It was a legal goal in anybody’s book.”

Ryan, the co-star of Tri-City’s explosive first line with center Daymond Langkow, had put Tri-City up 1-0 after Alexandre Boikov drove the puck off Spokane’s Daniel and Ryan - camped out on the doorstep - banged in the rebound at 6:37.

In the second period, with Daniel back in form, John Cirjak and Joe Cardarelli - the Burnaby, British Columbia 17-year-olds who twice teamed up to score game-winners last week - got the Chiefs on the board.

Cirjak took Cardarelli’s pass an beat Tri-City goaltender Brian Boucher low to the stick side on a slap shot with 1 second remaining in a Chiefs’ power play.

Trouble erupted with 8:55 left.

Tri-City’s Olson took Spokane’s Greg Leeb over the boards, helmetfirst, into the Tri-City bench.

Olson went overboard and others angrily jumped in.

Tri-City coach Bob Loucks had a grip on Leeb’s stick. Spokane’s Scott Fletcher plowed into the Americans’ bench, perhaps with the thought of rescuing Leeb.

Spokane’s Jay Bertsch left the penalty box to tie up Tri-City tough guy Rob Butz.

When all was said and done, Spokane was shorthanded for 4 minutes.

The Chiefs killed off the penalty, controlled the play the rest of the way and struck again with Jeremy Stasiuk sneaking behind Tri-City defenseman Ryan Marsh to tap in his second playoff goal at 18:05 of the third.

Down 3-2, the Chiefs pulled Daniel after a timeout and the Americans’ Chad Cabana scored into the empty net with 1:04 left.

Even that was controversial.

The Americans were guilty of icing the puck and the goal should have been waved off, Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said.

Langkow made it 5-2 with 16 seconds left, taking a Chiefs giveaway and wristing in his seventh goal of the playoffs.

Loucks, who required stitches when his foot was sliced by one of his players’ skates, said Olson was wrong for taking Leeb into the bench.

But he said Leeb retaliated by clipping Ryan and Loucks himself with his stick.

“I said. ‘nobody’s touching you, step out of the box,’ so he hit me with the damn thing,” Loucks said. “That’s chicken.”

When Spokane general manager Tim Speltz - within earshot - reminded the Tri-City coach he was being quoted, Loucks said, “Fine.

“Timmy, if you were watching the play you’d know what he did,” Loucks said. “Don’t be sticking up for a little jerk like that.”

Babcock’s reaction was, “There’s no sense looking at that. The bottom line to tonight’s hockey game was that they did a better job of preparing for the first period.

“They outworked us in the first frame. We bit and scrambled and fought our way back and got in the game. It was unfortunate because I really thought the linesman made a mistake on the icing call before their fourth goal.

“In my mind, it was blatant icing, but we let ourselves get in a desperation situation.”

Americans 5, Chiefs 2

Spokane 0 1 1 - 2 Tri-City 3 0 2 - 5

First period - 1, T-C, Ryan 4 ( Cabana, Boikov) 6:37 (power play); 2, T- C, Ryan 5 (Boikov, Langkow) 12:50 (pp); 3, T-C, Thompson 1 (Mark Hurley) 16:26. Key penalties - Gillam, Spo, 6:34; Briske, T-C, 7:57; Boschman, Spo, 11:23; Daniel, Spo, misconduct (served by Podollan) 12:50; Langkow, T-C, 17:46.

Second period - 4, Spo, Cirjak ( Cardarelli) 15:02 (pp). Key penalties - Podollan, Spo, 4:58; Kriz, T-C, 13:03; Olson, T-C, 16:29.

Third period - 5, Spo, Stasiuk 2 (Gillam, Cardarelli) 18:05; 6, T-C, Cabana 2 (Ryan) 18:56 (empty net); 7, T- C, Langkow 7 (unassisted) 19:43. Key penalties - Boschman, Spo, 1:06; Leonov, Spo, 8:24; Hamilton, Spo, double minor, 11:05; Ascroft, T-C, 16:06.

Power play opp. - Spokane 2 of 6, Tri-City 2 of 7.Saves - Daniel, Spo, 16-7-13-36, Lemanowicz, Spo, 0-x-x-0. Boucher, T-C, 7-10-14-31.A-2,821