Dan Weaver

Hockey is a lot like the weather in Spokane. If you don't like it, stick around a few hours and it'll change. Twenty-four hours after the Tri-City Americans crushed the Spokane Chiefs, the Chiefs took their revenge Saturday night in the Arena with a 9-3 victory over the Americans. It wasn't art. It wasn't even terrific sport. It was a drawn-out, wrenching, penalty-marred 3 hours and 5 minutes, but it capped the most tumultuous week in Chiefs history. Packed into seven days were the crash of the team bus, the distractions of Wednesday night's all-star game here, the trade of the team's 20-year-old goaltender, the arrival of three new players and Friday night's 10-4 humbling loss in Kennewick. "We've never had a week like that since I've been here," said Tim Speltz, in his seventh season as Chiefs general manager. After all that happened it was if the Chiefs were sworn to win, if only to put some positive spin on all they had to put behind them. Nobody embodied the turnaround more than goaltender Aren Miller, who swept aside 22 of 25 shots one night after getting torched with five third-period goals the night before in Kennewick. "I knew I was terrible last night - everyone knew," Miller said. "But maybe it was good to get the bad game and the bad goals out of the way right away and move on." Miller in recent weeks had been in a backup role to Marc Magliarditi. But at the Western Hockey League trade deadline on Friday the Chiefs sent Magliarditi to the Red Deer Rebels, convinced that their future lies with Miller. "I gave him (Miller) the player-of-the-game puck for us, because he did bounce back," Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. "I hated to see that last goal (Brent Ascroft's second of the game for the Americans, with 1:04 to go) because at that point he was playing back in his net, not challenging, and he hadn't done that all night.

If the Tri-City Americans' 10-4 win over the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night had been a football game in search of a theme, it might have gone down as the Ho-Hum Bowl. The season's 10th meeting between the Western Hockey League neighbors was for the most part a forgettable exercise, save for a significant development at trade deadline earlier in the day. It was the first game in a new direction, the first of the season without some question about who's the starter in goal. That was settled earlier in the day when the Chiefs sent 20-year-old Marc Magliarditi to the Red Deer Rebels for a fourth-round pick in the '98 bantam draft. The deal means the Chiefs will sink or swim with 18-year-old Aren Miller between the pipes.

There was no For Sale sign hanging around Brian Boucher's neck Wednesday at lunch. The all-star goaltender - the focus of trade talk this week as Friday's Western Hockey League trading deadline approaches - said he's more than willing to stay in Tri-City, where the Ams are coming around after a horrible start.

Josh Holden (21) and Dmitri Nabokov of the Eastern Conference box in the Western Conference's Zenith Komarniski during a first-period battle for the puck. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Not even Parry Shockey at his most optimistic would have bothered to dream up this script. It still seems a little far out, Shockey's move in one season from obscure assistant to all-star head coach.

Spokane Braves hockey coach Gary Braun, right, hopes he has prepared his son, Jonathan, to stand on his own. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Trent Whitfield's goal was just one in a long string Saturday night, but it spoke volumes about how far the wagon might roll on one healthy wheel. The wheel - Whitfield's ankle - is strong again and so are the Chiefs. In a 7-1 romp over the Kelowna Rockets, they flashed the suffocating forecheck that marked some of their big early season wins when they comfortably led the Western Hockey League West.

It's homecoming tonight in the Arena. Spokane Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, captain Hugh Hamilton and center Trent Whitfield, who helped Team Canada win the World Junior Tournament championship over the holiday break, return to a club that has performed surprisingly well in their absence.

Inland Northwest horsemen will have the state's off-track betting markets to themselves Friday when racing resumes at Playfair Race Course. That's the positive spin on another cancellation announced Wednesday at Emerald Downs. Friday's card at the Auburn track was called off because of insufficient entries, Playfair publicist Tom Harris said.

1. Whitfield 2. Hamilton

John Cirjak wasted no time Saturday night validating his selection to the Western Hockey League West Division all-star squad. One night after he was named to play in the Jan. 22 all-star game, the Spokane Chiefs' 19-year-old center scored two goals and assisted on a third in a 5-4 comeback win over the Kamloops Blazers.

And they're off 1. Spectators line the rail Friday to watch the finish of a race at Playfair Race Course. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Some took shelter from the cold and watched Friday's races at Playfair in enclosed comfort. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Five Spokane Chiefs, including team scoring leader John Cirjak, were named Friday to the 20-man Western Hockey League West Division all-star team. The all-star game - officially the Cavanaugh's WHL All-Star Game presented by G&B; Select-A-Seat and Air BC - is scheduled for Wednesday night, Jan. 22, at the Arena.

Spokane Chiefs center Trent Whitfield and defenseman Hugh Hamilton will be named to the West squad today when Western Hockey League all-star teams are announced at an Arena press conference. Other Spokane players are expected to be included in the Jan. 22 game in Spokane, but Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz would confirm only Whitfield and Hamilton, who are playing in the World Junior Tournament with Team Canada.

They're really going to do it this time. Playfair Race Course will launch its first winter season in history today with wagering on 16 races - seven local events plus the nine-race simulcast from Emerald Downs in Auburn. It's the state's first experiment with dual-card simulcasting.

1. Jay Bertsch was no stranger to the glass during his days as a fight-ready Spokane Chief. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jay Bertsch was effective with the stick, as evidenced by this goal against Tri-City last March. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 3. Bertsch mixes it up against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane story is scheduled to fill a segment of Friday's NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. The 5:30 p.m. broadcast (Channel 6 in Spokane) will carry the story of Brad Rothrock, a Spokane man working in Rwanda. Rothrock and his family in Spokane led a community effort to round up basketballs and other athletic equipment for shipment to the embattled African nation.

The Spokane Chiefs said goodbye to Jay Bertsch and the Tri-City Americans almost in the same breath Saturday night. Bertsch, the Chiefs' alternate captain who was forced to retire from hockey this week with repeated head injuries, was honored in an emotional pregame ceremony before 8,568 at the Arena. Forty-five seconds later, John Cirjak scored the first of Spokane's six goals and the Chiefs were on their way to a happy ending to an otherwise disappointing first half of the Western Hockey League season.

Chad Little hopes to return to '95 form. File/The Spokesman-Review

Jay Bertsch, veteran right wing and alternate captain of the Spokane Chiefs, retired Thursday on the advice of his doctors. Bertsch, 20, suffers from trauma-induced migraines that had progressed to where there was a possibility of significant damage if he continued to play, Chiefs athletic therapist T.D. Forss said. Bertsch, from Lethbridge, Alberta, told Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz that he was interested in getting on with his education. "When you've done something your whole life and suddenly you're not able to do it anymore, it's tough," Bertsch said. "It's disheartening but I'm glad there's no permanent damage."

1. Hamilton 2. Whitfield

The Spokane Chiefs will wind up the first half of their Western Hockey League season Saturday night with a problem that annually runs through the league just before Christmas. Absenteeism. The Chiefs' game with Tri-City at 7:05 in the Arena is as prominent for who won't be there as for who will. That doesn't necessarily make for a bad show. The Chiefs were short-handed Saturday night when they beat Prince Albert in what was an entertaining game. But neither the Chiefs nor the Tri-City Americans are close to full strength. Even the Americans' broadcaster and media relations director Ian Furness has other plans that night. Chiefs coach Mike Babcock is running the Canadian team that leaves Toronto today for the World Junior Tournament in Geneva, Switzerland. The Chiefs find out early this morning if center Trent Whitfield and defenseman Hugh Hamilton are on the 2 p.m. (Pacific time) flight to Switzerland with him.

The Spokane Chiefs turned back both the Prince Albert Raiders and the flu bug that has swept through the club, making Brett Cox a winner Saturday night in his first game as a Western Hockey League interim head coach. Cox wasted no time deflecting credit for Spokane's 4-1 win before 7,119 in the Arena. The first star, he said, was goaltender Marc Magliarditi, who rejected 27 of Prince Albert's 28 shots to register his first win in more than a month.

Opening day at Playfair Race Course has been delayed a week to Dec. 27 to ensure that a safety rail is in place and to allow the state racing commission time to inspect it. "Opening on the 20th was still a possibility, but the 27th is more reasonable," track publicist Tom Harris said Friday. "Work is going on late into the night. They've installed about a fourth of the necessary posts." While work goes on, horsemen and track officials await an announcement on 1997 racing dates. The commission's executive secretary, Bruce Batson, said the commission's rulings should go out by midweek.