Starting Over At Age 18, Whitfield Still Dazzling

It’s opening night in Kennewick and Trent Whitfield is forechecking, killing off a penalty, badgering a Tri-City American until the puck is bobbled and he’s on it.

The goaltender - Tri-City’s Brian Boucher, arguably the toughest in the Western Hockey League - is swiftly at the mercy of Whitfield’s instinctive moves.

When on the breakaway, Whitfield finishes the rush by depositing the puck in the back of the net. We see him at his best.

We see the glory.

There’s a price attached to glory that we don’t see, the dues that players in the developmental stages learn to pay.

Trent Whitfield paid his early in his career, as a 17-year-old WHL rookie a year ago.

The quickest of the Spokane Chiefs, Whitfield was in Seattle for the final exhibition game of last September, streaking past the blue line when a Seattle player stuck out a knee.

The Chiefs center took the shot on the inside of his own knee and went down, hoping the searing pain would somehow go away.

“I wanted to keep playing, but it hurt so bad I could hardly see,” Whitfield remembers.

Small wonder. He had a torn medial collateral ligament. The less technical term is a blown knee.

“It was a long, painful bus ride home that night,” Whitfield said. “I was just starting to get rolling and all of a sudden it was gone.

“At the time, we thought it would be two weeks, max,” he said. “The doc said I would be out 3-4 weeks, but after the tests, it ended up to be about two months. They had to cut it open and fix it up.”

Whitfield became a prominent, but hardly a singular, name on the casualty list. The Chiefs sagged under the weight of injury.

“There was nothing I could do but just sit up with the crowd and watch,” he said.

As Christmas came and went, Whitfield was worse than the forgotten man. He was an unknown, a nameless player of formidable potential with nothing to do but wait for the knee to come around.

His return was a factor in Spokane’s strong second half. Now, with a full preseason behind him, he’s the leading scorer (three goals, five assists) on a club that’s off to a 2-1 start. He’ll center an explosive second line tonight with Greg Leeb on the left and Randy Favaro on the right wing when the Chiefs resume their rivalry with the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Arena.

Whitfield on the loose is bad news for goaltenders.

“I’m glad he’s on our team,” coach Mike Babcock says. “So are our defensemen.”

Careful not to over-analyze a scoring chance, Whitfield says, “Hockey is instinct. I mean, the more you think, the more mistakes you make. If you think too much, you tend to freeze up, screw up.

“When you’re on a breakaway, you always want to make sure you get a shot on net. Always. Patience is the key. Wait for the opening to come to you. Make the goalie make the first move and then take advantage of it.”

Taking advantage of a goalie is a talent that cropped up in Alameda, Whitfield’s home town, a hamlet of about 250 in southeastern Saskatchewan, a 20-hour drive from Spokane (“I know everyone and everyone knows me,” he says).

Nobody from Alameda, Whitfield suspects, has come this far in hockey. Certainly no one has gone as far as Whitfield is likely to go.

He was on the high side of the action Saturday night, the Chiefs’ penalty-marred rout of Tri-City in the Arena.

Look beyond the penalties and the eight fights that dragged on in the Chiefs’ 7-2 win and you see a Chiefs club that was inspired to dominance.

Tri-City never had a chance.

The violence came as no great surprise.

“We play Tri-City so many times (12 in the regular season) that it was bound to happen,” Whitfield said. “Guys get under other guys’ skin. There’s a hate there. It just came out, more because of us.

“We were so excited, so intense with 10,400 fans, that guys got out of control. But, at the same time, it was good that they stepped in and did their jobs.”

If the Chiefs maintain their current pace of 69.7 penalty minutes a game, Whitfield will spend a lot of time trying to snuff the opposition’s power play. But even when a Chief takes a penalty and the club is left to skate short-handed, Whitfield is a threat. He has the team’s one short-handed goal - that beauty on opening night in Tri-City on Sept. 23.

“Knowing you have a great defense back there late, you can afford to take chances offensively,’ he said.

It beats sitting in the stands with a blown knee.

“Last year I got the late start and had to feel my way around the league,” Whitfield said. “I know what to expect now.

“Now, it’s just come to the rink and go.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo