Babcock’s Chiefs Win Spokane Turns Back Regina In Shockey’s Return To Spokane

It was a long Saturday night for Parry Shockey in the building he helped inaugurate.

It was another milestone for Mike Babcock.

The two friends and former associates took divergent moods into the night after Babcock’s Spokane Chiefs held off Shockey’s Regina Pats 4-3 before 10,455 in the Arena.

It was a rude homecoming for Shockey, who for 2-1/2 seasons worked as an assistant here and for a brief time in 1994 served as the Chiefs’ interim head coach.

Before the Pats rallied with two late goals to send a few shivers through the Chiefs’ ninth sell-out crowd of the season, Shockey was watching one of his club’s forgettable efforts.

Behind the other bench, Babcock was on the way to carving another notch in his impressive resume. The win was Spokane’s 40th of the season. Only three Chiefs teams in the 13 seasons the club has played in Spokane have won 40 or more.

Two of them this and the ‘95-96 club that won a franchise-record 50 in the regular-season were coached by Babcock. The other won a Memorial Cup after winning 48 regular-season games seven years ago.

The consistency in Babcock’s four seasons is unprecedented.

Credit the latest 40 to another stifling two-way effort, and to the rising brilliance of Trent Whitfield, who had a hand in all four Spokane goals. The 20-year-old center took special delight in logging two goals and two assists against former comrades Shockey and John Cirjak, the Regina center who for four seasons was a fixture in Spokane.

Cirjak was sent to Regina in September for Perry Johnson.

“You always want to play hard against good friends,” Whitfield said. “I just wanted to make sure I outworked him (Cirjak).”

Spokane is 40-20-4 with eight games left before the playoffs. Regina fell to 37-20-5.

There was good news for the Chiefs before the game. Surgery has been waved off, at least for now, for Kyle Rossiter, who suffered a shoulder separation Wednesday. The 17-year-old defense man said he’ll skate in 2-3 weeks and return to action in 4-6 weeks.

NHL scouts are “concerned about my shoulder,” Rossiter said. “I assured them I’d be ready for the playoffs.”

As he did Friday night in a win over Seattle, Whitfield gave the Chiefs an early lead, skating through the Pats defense, bouncing off hits on his way through the slot and beating goaltender Ryan Hoople with a quick wrist shot 55 seconds into the game.

Cam Severson, who wound up with a pair of goals and an assist, made it 2-0 with his ninth goal as a Chief, 32nd of the season.Brett Lysak got the Pats on the board at 12:02 of the second period with a power-play goal.

Whitfield hiked the lead to 3-1, using another pick for the one-on-one shot on Hoople that resulted in his 34th goal of the season.

Whitfield’s second goal came at 4:39 of the third period. A goaltender interference call on Regina’s Ronald Petrovicky occurred at 5:08. It put the Chiefs on the power play that led to the game-winner.

Severson’s shot rebounded to Schutz, who scored on the rebound at 6:50.

Boyd Kane later took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play - the result of a stick infraction against Spokane’s Brad Ference - to score, leaving the Pats down two.

David Maruca scored with 2:53 left but the Chiefs held on.

, DataTimes