Chiefs May Soon Trade To Drop Extra 20-Year-Old
Captain Joel Boschman will be in street clothes tonight when the Spokane Chiefs try to retain first place in the Western Hockey League West Division.
Boschman sits because the Chiefs can dress only three of their four 20-year-old players. The three playing against Portland tonight at the Arena are Trent Whitfield, Greg Leeb and Perry Johnson.
Johnson will sit out Monday night’s game in Kamloops, when the Chiefs play their first of four straight on the road. The Chiefs have until Nov. 1 to cut to the league-mandated maximum of three 20-year-olds.
“Everybody is waiting for something to happen - they’d like something to happen,” coach Mike Babcock said Thursday. “It’s not an easy situation.”
Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz said a deal is “brewing but nothing will happen at least until next week.”
Babcock said he’s happy with the effort of his club that, at 4-1, leads the division. Spokane’s only loss came at home last week to these same Winter Hawks (4-2).
“Portland has run our show lately,” Babcock said. “They’ve beaten us enough in the last year that we better do something about it.”
Babcock said he expects no suspensions out of the Chiefs’ win over the Kelowna Rockets here Wednesday. Kelowna’s Todd Fedoruk ended up in the Chiefs bench during a line brawl inside the final minute.
“The linesman should have guided him past our bench,” Babcock said. “It’s not like he jumped in and stayed there. He knew it was a bad situation and got out.”
Actually, “He got pushed out,” Babcock added, but nothing punishable by a suspension happened while Fedoruk was paying his surprise visit to the Chiefs bench.
That game pushed both teams in front of Seattle as the most penalized clubs in the league. Kelowna has averaged 40.8 minutes in the box, Spokane 40.4. Portland is the least-penalized team in the WHL at 18.7.
Notes
Marian Cisar and Ty Jones rank among the WHL’s top 10 in points on the power play. Former Chief John Cirjak is tied for the league lead with 11 points on the power play… . Cisar is tied for fifth in the league in scoring with 13 points in five games… . Jones finds out on Dec. 1 if he’ll skate with Team USA at the World Junior Tournament in Helsinki… . Chiefs defenseman Brad Ference has a shot at opposing Jones at the WJT with perennial gold medal-winning Team Canada… . Ference is only three points off the WHL lead in points by a defenseman… . Ron Grimard leads the Chiefs in plus/minus at plus-6. The Chiefs have scored six more goals than they’ve allowed with Grimard on the ice.
Bruce Hamilton, who played for the Chiefs in the early 1980s when the club was a senior amateur organization, says a re-zoning process is under way leading to the construction of a $22 million, 6,000-seat arena for his Kelowna Rockets. The hoped-for completed date is Christmas 1998…. Hamilton, commenting on the growing rivalry with the Chiefs: “I don’t think the romance has gotten any better.”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: On the ice Tonight: Portland at Spokane, 7:05