Dan Weaver

The Spokane Chiefs picked up two points in the Western Hockey League West standings Saturday night. Better yet, nobody in the Arena was killed by flying glass. The Chiefs exploded about 6 minutes after the glass in front of section 115 did. The game a 5-1 Chiefs' win over the Tri-City Americans was held up 14 minutes for repairs after players from both sides went into the boards 4 minutes into the game. The hard but routine hit blew out a section of Plexiglas. Fans in the lower rows of seats next to the Tri-City bench were showered with glass. Some suffered what club officials said were minor cuts that required Band-Aids. The Americans could use more than a Band-Aid. The Ams - no great shakes to begin with - are a hurting hockey club. Rookie sniper Scott Gomez is still out with a shoulder injury. Veteran defenseman Chris Anderson, slashed in last week's Seattle game, is sidelined with a broken jaw.

1. A battle for first place. Spokane's Marian Cisar tries in vain to poke the puck past Portland goalie Brent Belecki in Friday night's contest at the Arena. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. Chiefs goalie Aren Miller and center Greg Leeb battle with Portland's Todd Robinson. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Terms of the contract stand. The Voice of the Cougars, Bob Robertson, won't be heard on New Year's Day in Spokane, when Washington State plays its biggest football game in 67 years. Instead of Robertson and analyst Paul Sorensen on New Year's Day, the Spokane radio market will get ESPN's team of Charlie Steiner and Todd Christensen.

Tonight's Portland-Spokane date in the Arena shapes up as the most interesting, if not the most important, game thus far in the Western Hockey League season. You can make a case for that. Mike Babcock says he can't.

It took four lead changes, one bizarre goal and the game-winner from a left winger who hadn't found the back of the net since opening night, but the Spokane Chiefs woke up this morning in first place in the Western Hockey League West. They beat the Kelowna Rockets 5-4 to take the division lead by two points with only six games remaining before the holiday break. Spokane left wing Jared Smyth stuck a setup pass from Kris Graf past goaltender Jordan Watt with 4:27 left for his first goal since Sept. 27. With it, the Chiefs improved to 21-8-1 - two points up on the Portland Winter Hawks and Prince George Cougars heading into Friday night's Spokane-Portland game here. "I'm just excited I scored - I haven't scored in a while," Smyth said. "I finally buried one. We struggled but battled back. That's what this team's all about." The puck was in the corner with "two of our guys on it," Smyth recounted. "Graf made a great pass out to me in the slot." Smyth got the shot off just before he was taken out by Kelowna's Ryan Wade. "When you score you don't feel those things," Smyth said. "It's when you don't score you feel it. I've had lots of opportunities. Hopefully, this will get things rolling for me."

Washington State and Michigan are four weeks away from their Rose Bowl confrontation but a pretty good game has already heated up between broadcast rivals. Radio rights to the Jan. 1 game belong to ESPN and its affiliate stations, which in Spokane is KGA. That puts KXLY, the Cougar station in Spokane, on the sidelines except for pre-game and post-game programming.

Three Spokane Chiefs have a shot at playing for their national teams at the World Junior Tournament, and a fourth is a lock. Defenseman Zenith Komarniski and Brad Ference are among 31 players who were invited Monday to Team Canada's five-day selection camp in Kitchener, Ontario. The perennial champion Canadians will cut to 22 prior to the tournament Dec. 25-Jan. 3 in Helsinki. Camp runs from Dec. 12-17. Forward Ty Jones is one of 28 players who received invitations to Team USA's tryout camp Dec. 14-18 in Hackensack, N.J. The American team will also trim to 22 players.

Zenith Komarniski still adjusting to playing for rival Spokane Chiefs. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

This is the one series in hockey that could take a page from pro football and throw in the 2-minute warning. That way they could clear the building while the Spokane Chiefs and Seattle Thunderbirds cleared the air. For teams that have only met twice this season, they've developed many differences.

Rypien

Mike Babcock breaks the long Western Hockey League season into 12-game segments. When the second segment ends tonight in the Arena with Babcock's Spokane Chiefs taking on the Seattle Thunderbirds, the coach can take a satisfied look at what's come down with a third of the season in the books. "The first two (segments) have been positive," Babcock said. "Our team has really come to play on the majority of nights, and yet there are a lot of things we need to improve. There's a long, long way to go." Chiefs fans should get a better read on defenseman Zenith Komarniski, whose recent hip pointer is the latest in a series of physical ailments.

They're the hottest road club in the Western Hockey League, by far. Coming off another successful trip, the Spokane Chiefs find themselves tied for first in the West this week, largely due to their 9-2 record away from the Arena. Although they're a lukewarm 7-4-1 at home, there's a lot to like about the Chiefs a quarter of the way into the season.

The Spokane Chiefs are good enough to win the Memorial Cup. That's the opinion of no less an authority than Bob Lowes, coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings. Lowes addressed Spokane's chances Saturday night in the Arena after the Chiefs erased a 4-1 deficit to beat Lowes' club 6-5. "They would want to win the division and the league to earn the right to be there, but even if Spokane doesn't do that they could win the Memorial Cup, based on it being in Spokane, and based on their being good enough," Lowes said.

It's the only scheduled Spokane stop for the Brandon Wheat Kings but Saturday night's thriller in the Arena - a 6-5 Chiefs win - may just be the appetizer. The Wheaties are good enough to play their way back here. The champion of the Western Hockey League will join the Chiefs and two other championship teams in May for the Memorial Cup tournament.

Waiting to pounce. Spokane's Trent Whitfield (14) is ready for the rebound, but Curtis Suter's second goal beats Calgary goalie Alexandre Fomitchev for a 2-1 Chiefs lead. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. The Chiefs' Marian Cisar is deadly from point-blank range, as Western Hockey League goaltenders have discovered. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. (photo of Marian Cisar)

The picture Sunday was everything that's right, and disturbing, about the business of horse racing. A race at Santa Anita Park, the Yellow Ribbon Stakes, had customers at Playfair Race Course glued to TV monitors. As they debated what they had just witnessed - a spectacular race that included a near-spill involving the finest jockeys and the fastest fillies and mares in the country - most were oblivious to the approaching start of the night's local race card.

Zenith Komarniski is coming. The big trade Spokane Chiefs fans have expected in this Memorial Cup season was sprung Monday, when Spokane general manager Tim Speltz acquired the all-star defenseman from the Tri-City Americans. The Chiefs sent center Blake Evans and defenseman Regan Darby to Tri-City for the 19-year-old Komarniski, an impact player from Vegreville, Alberta, known throughout the Western Hockey League for his versatility.

Thirty-six seconds left Saturday night. Game tied, puck loose in front of the net, bodies and sticks flying around, 9,913 in the Arena up and screaming. Just the kind of drama that's cast perfectly for Trent Whitfield. Whitfield scored from out of that mad scramble to pull the Spokane Chiefs past the Kamloops Blazers 4-3.

Maybe it's the curse of Joel Boschman. Maybe this is how the hockey gods punish a team for trading their captain. How else to explain not only another loss at home, but a shutout loss to a team playing its third game in four nights? With Boschman in Red Deer, Alberta, where he was traded Thursday, the Spokane Chiefs suffered their first shutout loss at home since May 1996. Evan Lindsay swatted aside 46 shots - 23 in the third period - in the Prince Albert Raiders' 1-0 win over the Chiefs before 4,804. Spokane's fourth loss in little more than a month in the Arena was sealed early in the third period when P.A.'s Cam Severson came out of the penalty box, found himself alone with the puck at center ice and walked in on goaltender Aren Miller. Severson's 11th goal of the year came 3:45 into the period. His shot cleared Miller's blocker pad on the way up and in. It was all Lindsay needed to keep the Raider resurgence in gear. "It was a surprise to see that happen but Seever gets a ton of chances out there," Lindsay said. "He's a great player. The team played really well - kept lots of shots to the outside and let me see them." The closest the Chiefs came to getting on the board was on a 10-second flurry late in the second period when Greg Leeb, Marian Cisar and Perry Johnson had chances in front of the net. "Leeb poke checked one around me but a D-man happened to be there to block a shot away," Lindsay said. "That was pretty close." The Chiefs (9-5-1) outshot Prince Albert 46-17 but lost a chance to vault over second-place Portland and move into a first-place tie with Prince George in the otherwise idle Western Hockey League West. Spokane is 4-4-1 at home heading into tonight's date in the Arena with the Kamloops Blazers. Despite the lack of goals, to a hockey purist it was an enjoyable evening, even to the coach who lost. "It was as close to a playoff game, with their grit on defense, that we've seen this year," Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. "I don't think we were flat. They rode their goaltender's back, but their desperation was outstanding. We were on them pretty good at times. "They played with a lot of confidence in front of their goalie. They got one chance down the stretch and won the game." That's how it goes when you're hot. "The whole road trip has been like this," said Lindsay, a second-round draft choice of the NHL Calgary Flames. "We struggled a ton at the start. We were 1-6 and blowing games at the end, but we pulled out a couple, and ever since our confidence is up. The team's ridin' high." The Raiders (7-8-1) had a two-man advantage for 24 seconds at the end of a scoreless first period, but Spokane's Trent Whitfield, Derek Schutz and Perry Johnson stopped the power play. That's part of a continuing pattern, the Chiefs great on the penalty kill and punchless on the power play. They did nothing with their four power-play opportunities and are three of their last 52. The Chiefs play their third game in four nights tonight, then continue a busy weekend with a Sunday game in Seattle at 5. Prince Albert 1, Spokane 0 Prince Albert 0 0 1 - 1 Spokane 0 0 0 - 0 First period - None. Key penalties - Baker, PA, 6:00; Grimard, Spo, 10:57; Forth, Spo, 17:51; Ference, Spo, 19:27. Second period - None. Key penalties - Brown, Spo, 8:12; Jacobson, PA, 9:48; Seeley, PA, 13:30. Third period - 1, Prince Albert, Severson 11 (Paget), 3:45. Key penalties - Severson, PA, 1:37. Power-play opp. - Prince Albert 0 of 4; Spokane 0 of 4. Saves - Prince Albert, Lindsay 13-10-23-46. Spokane, Miller 6-6-4-16. A - 4,804.

The Spokane Chiefs traded their captain, Joel Boschman, Thursday to get down to the Western Hockey League maximum of three 20-year-old players. The Chiefs sent Boschman to the Red Deer Rebels for a third-round pick in the '98 bantam draft. The draft choice will probably be used in a future deal to upgrade this year's club, Chiefs general manager Tim Speltz said.

There were, in the first 33 seconds Wednesday night, two off-side passes, three shots whiffed, two sticks dropped, one icing called and a pratfall, when Spokane's Brad Ference went down in front of the Chiefs net. The next 19 minutes weren't a lot prettier. Nope, the Arena hasn't exactly been home sweet home for the Spokane Chiefs. But the Chiefs went some distance to rectify that, righting their shaky start in plenty of time to win on home ice for only the fourth time all year and the first time in three weeks.

Ference

This was the hardest kind of loss to swallow. Trent Whitfield turned the Tri-City Americans' one positive - their power play - against them Saturday night. The Chiefs beat the Ams 3-2 on two Whitfield goals. One came shorthanded. The other was a third-period game-winner with Spokane on the power play.