Whitfield Pours In Three Goals As Chiefs Defeat Ams Again
Bob Loucks must be sick of it by now - sick of the streak, sick of the sameness, sick of the name.
Trent Whitfield.
Twenty-four hours after his off-night against Seattle, Whitfield validated his selection as Western Hockey League player of the month with three goals in the Spokane Chiefs’ 6-1 spanking of the Loucks-coached TriCity Americans.
It was the Chiefs’ fifth straight win over their closest Western Hockey League neighbor in front of a 10,455 sellout in the Arena.
Whitfield’s third goal was the hardest for Loucks to swallow, coming short-handed, with the Americans on the power play, but the greater concern has to be goal output.
The Ams have generated all of five goals against Spokane, losing 4-1, 4-1, 3-1, 4-1 and now 6-1.
It’s the reason they’ve spent the season in last place.
Credit that to Whitfield, John Cirjak and Joe Cardarelli, Spokane’s trio of 19-year-olds who keep cropping up in victories over Tri-City.
After the Americans jumped out 1-0 on Dan Smith’s power-play goal, Cirjak tied the game with his 12th goal of the year, then set up the game-winner with a slick pass to Cardarelli, whose hard slapshot from the slot found the back of the net before goaltender Aron Baker registered any recognition that Cardarelli was home alone.
It was Cardarelli’s 12th point in his last four games.
Whitfield, who had game-winning goals in two previous wins over Tri-City, registered his 14th, 15th and 16th goals of the year against the American’s backup netminder.
Baker started after Brian Boucher was scratched from the lineup.
The reason?
“That stays in the dressing room,” Loucks said after his team slipped to 4-14-1. “We don’t need to talk about that.”
Loucks cut to the bottom line of this one-sided series that will bring the two clubs together another 11 times.
“Spokane has a good team and we’re not competitive with them,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to be competitive with them.”
If Loucks found little to like, Whitfield summoned some feeling for what the Ams are going through.
“They’re frustrated,” Whitfield said, “but they’re getting better. Our goaltenders are coming up with some big saves against them and after that they sit back a little bit and watch us play. They’re a young team that will learn to work through the frustration.
“I had a rough night last night and I wanted to bounce back. I had a couple more chances but I got three and I’m happy with that.”
With Friday night’s 6-4 loss fresh in their minds, the Chiefs (13-6-2) are in Seattle to meet the Thunderbirds again tonight at 6 on their way east. They don’t return to the Arena until the Prince George Cougars come in here on Nov. 20.
“We’re definitely looking forward to Seattle,” Whitfield said. “They came at us hard, big-time, on Friday night. We’re out to get them.”
This was a satisfying win for Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, not only because his team remained comfortably in front in the WHL West, but because for only the second time they gave up the game’s opening goal and came back to win. They were 1-4 in games in which the opposition scored first.
“We want to go to Seattle and make up for the disaster we had with them at home,” said Babcock.
Chiefs 6, Americans 1
Tri-City 1 0 0 - 1
Spokane 2 1 3 - 6
First period - 1, TC, Smith 2 (Ascroft, Hurley), 8:56 (pp). 2, Spo, Cirjak 12 (Bertsch), 12:55. 3, Spo, Cardarelli 7 (Cirjak, Ference), 15:14. Key penalties - Lane, Spo, :16; Hamilton, Spo, 2:10; Komarniski, TC, 3:02; Gervais, TC, 5:03; Magarrell, Spo, 7:20; Rossiter, Spo, 16:24; Gyori, TC, 17:28; Cisar, Spo, 18:23.
Second period - 4, Spo, Whitfield 14 (Leeb, Jones), 7:24. Key penalties - Anderson, TC, 11:40.
Third period - 5, Spo, Whitfield 15, 3:16. 6, Spo, Mikhailov 7 (Evans, Haley), 11:30. 7, Spo, Whitfield 16 (Leeb), 12:31 (sh). Key penalties - Rossiter, Spo, 6:44; Smyth, Spo, 11:47; Cisar, Spo, 12:31; Hurley, TC, misconduct, 18:53.
Power-play opp. Tri-City 1 of 8; Spokane 0 of 4. Saves - Tri-City, Baker 11-9-7-27. Spokane, Magliarditi 6-3-9-18. A - 10,455.
, DataTimes