Chiefs Return Home To Red-Carpet Treatment Members Of Canada’s Gold-Medal-Winning World Junior Team Honored With Banquets

For two weeks they belonged to their country. Now their towns get them back.

Hugh Hamilton and Trent Whitfield, the two Spokane Chiefs who brought back gold medals from the World Junior Tournament in Geneva, Switzerland, will be honored Wednesday night at hometown banquets.

Whitfield will greet the people of Alameda, Saskatchewan, a community of 317 about 20 miles from the North Dakota border.

The gathering, appropriately, is scheduled for the local ice rink.

In Saskatchewan, 40 miles north of Saskatoon, Hamilton will be the featured guest at a dinner at Lions Hall in Leask (pop. 442).

Chiefs coach Mike Babcock led Team Canada to its fifth straight championship. Playing seven games in nine nights, the Canadians extended their undefeated streak in this event to 28 games dating to 1993.

“The people here make you feel great,” said Hamilton, 19, the Chiefs’ captain. “I cut their grass when I was little. I played with their sons and made fun of their daughters. Now they’re treating me like royalty.

“And it’s not just the people from our town,” Hamilton added. “They’re coming to the dinner from a bunch of towns, from all over the place. Everybody and their dog.”

Babcock was much the same behind the bench in Switzerland as he is in Spokane, Hamilton said.

“He still gave you the evil eye,” Hamilton said. “If he didn’t think you were playing hard he’d tell you to take a seat at the end of the bench and think about it for a couple of shifts.”

“He’s a lot harder on us (in Spokane),” Whitfield said, “but he had the same stern look on his face over there. You know ‘Babs.’ You only see him smile when things go wrong.”

Not universally. Babcock was smiling Monday when he got off the phone with his father, Mike, in Saskatoon.

“Here’s how big this is in Canada,” the coach said. “My dad got a standing ovation at Mass Sunday.”

Babcock returned to Spokane eager to see his wife, Renee, daughter Ali and son Mike. He’s been away for nearly a month.

They saw him - on TV. The World Junior Tournament is the highest-rated programing carried by TSN, Canada’s all-sports network.

Babcock, Whitfield and Hamilton got a taste of their elevated status upon arriving Sunday in Toronto, where a press conference was set up.

“They were singing the national anthem when we came in,” Hamilton said. “People just wanted to shake your hand.”

All three say they’ll never forget the feeling in the locker room before games and between periods.

“You look across the room knowing you’re doing it for your country,” Hamilton said. “The only word that comes close is awesome.”

Hometown support began to build as the Canadian team struggled early as it fought its way through the round-robin. Both players received faxes signed by just about every resident of their hometowns.

“They put it up on bulletin boards in town and at school,” Hamilton said. “It was six pages of signatures and messages. Some are people I don’t even know.”

“Every time I put the jersey on I felt the adrenaline rush,” said Whitfield, whose strongest contribution came as a first-line checking winger.

The Canadians had to play through a pair of ties in the round-robin before beating the talented Russians in the semifinals and the U.S. for the championship.

“I played a lot on the power play early (in the tournament), but I didn’t do that much with it and by the end I was on the penalty kill,” said Hamilton, who went to camp as the 10th defenseman, played his way on the team and wound up rotating with the top four D-men. “With that much talent, it wasn’t hard to find somebody else (to put) on the power play.”

Whitfield, who celebrated Christmas with his family Monday night, said, “I felt I played about as well as I could. I got a lot of ice time in every situation.

“The games were way faster. The European teams fly around the ice. With their speed and the bigger ice surfaces, it was a totally different game, but we adjusted.”

Babcock said the Russians had the most talent of a talented field.

“The Swedes usually finish second,” he said. “They were eighth. The Russians were big and fast and skilled. We won because of heart.”

And style.

“It was our banging and grinding and our determination,” Whitfield said. “We had some incredibly skilled players and got great goal-tending from Marc Denis (from Chicoutime, Quebec). But we didn’t have the skill to play the Russians in a skating game.”

The three Chiefs will take the week off before rejoining the club Saturday night for Spokane’s game in the Arena against the Kelowna Rockets.

The experience for Babcock was loaded with memories and pressure.

“You carry the the pride of your nation,” he said. “I’d like to win the gold medal again, but in the Canadian program if you lose they kick you out and if you win they kick you out.

“The difference is, when you win they still talk to you.”

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