Dan Weaver

A knight to remember. Medicine Hat goaltender Scott Buhler uses his leg pad to turn back a shot by Spokane's Ty Jones (11) as Jared Smyth (17) of the Chiefs waits for a rebound during Spokane's 5-0 victory Wednesday night. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

FROM SPORTS MENU C2 (Saturday, January 31, 1997): Replay The population of Estevan, Saskatchewan, is 10,240. An incorrect figure was reported in Wednesday's editions. 1. Miller's '97-'98 stats include a 3.2 GAA and .886 saves percentage. 2. The pressure is on Aren Miller as Chiefs prepare for Memorial Cup. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Speltz

Kelowna's Rory McDade puts the stick to Spokane's Brandin Cote during the Chiefs' 4-1 loss to the Rockets Saturday in the Arena. Photo by Jason Clark/The Spokesman-Review

Leeb

The owner of Spokane's hockey and baseball properties is looking forward to expanded coverage on a global scale following an agreement with the KXLY broadcast group announced Monday. Chiefs hockey, Indians baseball, Spokane Shadow soccer and Greater Spokane League sports will be tied into one broadcast organization under a three-year partnership between KXLY and Brett Sports and Entertainment.

The chief executive officer at Playfair Race Course says he's confident the Spokane track will have a 1998 season. Don Johnson has asked the Washington Horse Racing Commission for 43 days of on-site racing in Spokane, from Sept. 6 to Nov. 24. The commission withheld approval of the dates at its December meeting, citing an investigation that shows Playfair has operated in conflict with orders issued in late 1996.

1. Ty Jones on hockey: "We've done stuff at our age that people don't do in their whole lifetimes." 2. The Chiefs' Ty Jones (11) learned that the physical play he's used to in the U.S. wasn't the norm at the World Junior Tournament in Europe. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 3. Jones always plays tough, and often hears about it. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Mike Babcock has of late referred to his hockey club as that well-oiled machine. With all the distractions of the past month, with seven players coming and going to international tournaments, he was joking.

Tickets go on sale today for the U.S.-Ireland boxing dual, the latest headline event booked into the Arena. The event is scheduled for March 13. Toby Steward of the Spokane promoting firm Star USA said the U.S. team will consist of six top-ranked Americans and six No.2-ranked boxers in 12 Olympic weight classes.

Portland goalie Brent Belecki gets a stick in front of Ty Jones' (11) first-period shot and denies Brandin Cote (10) a rebound shot. The Chiefs eventually wore down Belecki in a 4-2 victory. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

The negative fallout from Team Canada's flop in the World Junior Tournament is still a hot topic up north. After winning five straight gold medals, Team Canada managed only 13 goals in eight games and failed to reach the medal round in Helsinki. Canada last failed to bring home a medal in the 1992 tournament.

The Spokane Chiefs weren't the only no-shows at the Arena Saturday night. Even their mascot skipped the 8-2 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds. Boomer, the Chiefs moosey-looking cheerleader who's failed to show up for work the last two nights, faces an uncertain future with the Western Hockey League club. If it's any consolation, the guy who wears the Boomer suit didn't miss much this time. It took Seattle's Mark Parrish only 18 minutes to rig the Arena for silent running. Parrish's three first-period goals erased an early Chiefs' lead and took a sellout crowd of 10,455 out of the game early. To their credit, most of the faithful hung around through the Chiefs' worst loss of the season. The teams have to do it all over again tonight at 5:05 in Seattle. A blowout was probably inevitable. Playing their second game in as many nights, the Chiefs were without seven players still in transit from international tournaments. Spokane is 3-3-2 since a corps of key players started checking out for holiday tournaments in mid-December. The single Spokane high - and it was a beauty - was Trent Whitfield's short-handed goal that should lead off his team's '97-98 highlight film. The T-Birds were on the power play when Whitfield separated Matt Demarski from the puck at the Chiefs blue line and sent it the other way. Seattle goaltender Jeff Blair came way out to challenge Whitfield but broke his stick trying to play the puck off the boards. Whitfield picked up the puck and blew by the goalie, who, in exasperation, threw what was left of his paddle at the Chiefs captain as he skated in for the empty-net goal. Enter Parrish, the 20-year-old former St. Cloud (Minn.) State College star, who extended his scoring streak to 12 games with his 26th, 27th and 28th goals of the year. "That's one thing we wanted to do - not make the crowd be any part of the game at all," Parrish said. "That was a big part of it." The T-Birds, who came in frustrated over poor special-teams play, were almost unstoppable on the power play, scoring on 5 of 9 chances with the extra attacker. They also killed off 9 of 10 Spokane power-play opportunities. Credit some of that to the Chiefs' manpower problems - Whitfield and Greg Leeb saw only 3 minutes of third-period ice time - but this is an improving Seattle club that could be making waves come playoff time. "Since Christmas, we've had a few good games like this," Thunderbirds coach Don Nachbaur said. "We expected more of our personnel but we're coming. The power play is starting to click now that DiRo (Torrey DiRoberto) is coming around (from abdominal surgery)." DiRoberto is a big part of the T-Bird penalty kill that set the tone early. "I felt the air go out of the bag when we killed the 5-on-3," Nachbaur said, referring to the two-man advantage Spokane had for 1:44 early in the game. The Chiefs had two other brief first-period, 5-on-3 power-play chances but couldn't score. "It gave us confidence," Nachbaur said. "Shortly after we got to full strength, we go on the power play and score. Parrish is going to be a great pro. He's got sweet hands and good speed, and he plays with grit." Jamie Pollock and DiRoberto also had three-point nights for the T-Birds (17-17-4). The Chiefs slipped to 26-12-3. "It was a tough game for us in the fact that the referee (Darryl Davis) was very involved," said Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, who was turned back in his bid for his 200th WHL victory. "He put us on the power play a whole bunch at the start. We had some big chances and didn't put it in the back of the net. We knew it (power-play chances) was coming the other way. "We haven't taken many penalties since the guys have been away, but the ref wanted a game like that and that's how he made it. It hurt us, and they dominated by scoring on the power play nearly every chance they had."

It doesn't seem to matter who shows up, or who doesn't. The Spokane Chiefs are still kings of late-night hockey. Playing without seven players who were finishing up international commitments Friday night, down a goal after two periods, the Chiefs rallied behind Trent Whitfield's hat trick to hand the Prince George Cougars their first loss when they led after 40 minutes.

You really didn't expect, or even want, complete neutrality, did you? At least it took a highly charged personal experience to crack Bob Griese's exterior objectivity. When Griese - the analyst on ABC's coverage of the Rose Bowl - dissolved into tears at the announcement that his quarterback son Brian was Most Valuable Player, it was TV at its immediate and intimate best.

What if six years ago somebody told you that O.J. Simpson would be tried for murder, that Magic Johnson would turn up HIV positive and retire, that Northwestern, Oregon and Washington State would play in the Rose Bowl, that Toronto would have pro basketball and Morrisville, N.C., would be in the NHL? What if somebody suggested that the Mariners would draw 3 million the same year that Mike Price would be coach of the year? Yo, doof. HOW can you SAY that?

Jones

1. Every night before bedtime, Dorian Boose makes sure his 1-year-old son, Taylor, receives a bath and quality time with his father. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. On their way to the Rose Bowl, the Cougars banked on plays like Dorian Boose's tackle of Oregon's Saladin McCullough to defeat the Ducks before 43,000 at Eugene's Autzen Stadium. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Boose's support network includes his wife, Brenda, and his son Taylor. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Stanford beat Long Beach State and earned another shot at Penn State in Saturday's NCAA championship game after coach Don Shaw stopped over-coaching. At least that's the impression the Stanford coach left after his team came back to eliminate Long Beach. "Long Beach played some great defense and we were a little out of sorts (in a Game 1 loss)," Shaw said. "I may have been to blame for part of that. We started a rotation we don't always start in.

1. Ference 2. Komarniski

Spokane won't see its hockey club again for another week and a half, until Jan. 2. Trent Whitfield made sure Sunday night that the Spokane Chiefs won't be forgotten in their absence. With Whitfield and his 20-year-old skate mate Greg Leeb at their finest in a furious third period, the Chiefs kept the Seattle Thunderbirds bottled up in their own zone for the better part of the final 20 minutes and through five minutes of overtime to salvage a 3-3 Western Hockey League tie. It was as sweet and improbable a no-decision as Chiefs coach Mike Babcock could remember. Four of his stars - Brad Ference, Zenith Komarnis ki, Ty Jones and Marian Cisar - were off for World Junior Tournament tryouts. A fifth, Perry Johnson, is out with a shoulder injury. The Chiefs compounded their manpower shortage by taking a couple of ill-advised penalties early and falling behind 3-0. Enter Whitfield, who did everything, including a passable imitation of former teammate Darren Sinclair, who made a living scoring from his knees. Whitfield brought the Chiefs to within a goal in the third period with a one-handed swipe of the puck from his knees in front of the net. The goal on the rebound of a Dan Vandermeer shot from the point with 16:09 left in regulation put the Chiefs on the road to their second overtime tie in as many nights. Leeb took it from there with his 20th goal of the year with 5:02 left. "With all our guys gone that's a great point for us," Whitfield said. "We had a bunch of young guys who had to step up, and they did. Rossy (Kyle Rossiter) was big on the defensive end." He was, just as Whitfield and Leeb were huge in the attack zone. "The rebound was sitting there," Whitfield said of his power-play goal. "The only way I could get there was to dive for it. I dove, poked at it and fortunately it went in for me." It was the kind of effort to make a coach forget that it's December, with all its holiday distractions. "Five of our best eight players weren't here," Babcock said, "yet our guys worked very hard. It's amazing what energy does for you. You can talk about Whitfield, he was outstanding, but (Brandin) Cote and (Marc) Brown and (Lynn) Loyns and (Justin) Ossachuk and (Josh) Maser -everybody - played a part." The T-Birds shoved the Chiefs in an early hole. Bret DeCecco scored five minutes into the game. Jame Pollock followed nine minutes later. Both goals came on the power play and seemed to put a premature end to the Chiefs' only Sunday night game at home. When Torrey DiRoberto put Seattle up 3-0 just 49 seconds into the second period, the Chiefs needed a break. They got it late in the period when Seattle's Rod LeRoux tried to clear the puck with the T-Birds on the penalty kill. LeRoux's pass hit Spokane's Curtis Suter in the skate and bounded into the net for a Chiefs power-play goal. It woke up the crowd and seemed to invite the Chiefs to the party. The Chiefs tied it when Whitfield, working hard to get free, let a shot go from the left circle. Leeb going hard to the net buried the rebound. Rudkowsky, who stopped 40 of 41 shots in a 4-1 win over Spokane on Nov. 26, had no chance.

Given the circumstances, a 1-1 tie with the Swift Current Broncos is an achievement. With a patched-up defense led by Dan Vandermeer and their top scorer knocked out of action in the second period, the Spokane Chiefs salvaged an overtime tie with the Western Hockey League East Division leader Saturday in the Arena. The Bronocs had won twice in their last three visits to Spokane, and were 20-0 this season when leading after two periods. They led this one after two, 1-0.

Their short-handed phase starts tonight. The Spokane Chiefs will be without two of their top four defensemen when the Western Hockey League club takes on the East Division-leading Swift Current Broncos in the Arena. Brad Ference and Zenith Komarniski left Thursday for selection camp with Team Canada, hoping to play for their country in the World Junior Tournament. Tryouts started Friday in Kitchener, Ontario.

Ty Jones and the Spokane Chiefs - devastating on the power play Wednesday night - debunked the time-worn belief that there's no such thing as a free lunch. One of six Chiefs with multiple-point games, Jones had two goals and two assists in Spokane's 8-4 throttling of the Red Deer Rebels.