Dan Weaver

Bob Rickard was at the top of the Arena Stairs, reducing a heart full of boiling emotions to a single word. "Destiny," he said Friday night after his son, the coach, and grandson, the star, helped the Republic Tigers to a community first. The Tigers came from behind to beat the Darrington Loggers 61-60 in the semifinals of the boys State B tournament, thanks to Jason Baldwin's two free throws with 1.9 seconds left. Baldwin's clutch shooting sent the Tigers delegation - 15 Rickards and practically the whole town of Republic - into celebrations of unrestrained joy. Although the Tigers girls team won the 1981 State B Championship, this is the first trip to the finals for the Republic Boys. "I think I could go ahead and die now and be happy," said Laura Rickard, mother of Republic coach Rory Rickard and the 68-year-old grandmother of Tigers star Mark Rickard, who had his third strong game Friday night in this 55th State B tournament. "I don't know who isn't here," said her husband, Bob. "I've seen guys I never would have believed I'd see here. Dick Perry is probably 83 years old. When he came up the aisle I said, 'My gawd.' I don't know that I've ever seen him at a ball game." Perry, a Republic attorney, wasn't alone. Others came to bask in the Tigers' glory. Bill Belling flew up from Yuma, Ariz. He plans to return after tonight's game, Rickard said. Walt Cornelius drove school bus for 18 of the 30 years he lived in Republic. At one time he drove the team bus. "I sure would have loved driving the bus for those guys," Cornelius said. "I love it." "It's a great thing for Republic," said Bob Rickard, who now lives in Spokane. "I'm really happy for the town." Even the ones left behind in the Ferry County community of 2,500 in the mountain and tree country 115 miles north of Spokane were tuned in. Deanna Nichols, the county 911 dispatcher, followed the game on radio. Kris Bauer had the night shift at the Hitch'In Post Tavern. "We weren't very busy tonight," she said. "Most of the town is down there. My family is. "We probably had 40 people in here tonight listening to it. Everybody was stressin' pretty hard when we were behind late in the game. "When those last shots went in everybody went crazy, yippin' and yellin'." One catalyst of all the commotion is Mark Rickard, a versatile 6-foot-2 senior whose last 32 minutes of serious basketball tonight will go a long way in deciding a state championship. To an 18-year-old who's paid as much attention to the game as he has, that's bittersweet. His biggest game is probably his last. Rickard will leave Republic High in the spring with a resume of achievement - valedictorian of his class, leader on the first boys team in school history to come this far, promsing baseball player and football star. Rickard ran with the changing seasons, the long haul of high school sped along by success. The next chapter of his life is playing baseball or football and keeping up with studies at "one of the lcoal colleges," he said. It's an exciting and daunting time. For Rickard there'll be other games in other sports, but nothing will test him quite like playing his last game at state with friends for life. Never will the same dozen friends pointing for the same single objective be as close as they are today. Rickard's grade-point average, by the way, is even better than his 18.4 season scoreing average. It's just under a perfect 4.0. He made his family happy a long time ago. After all he's done this is just the frosting. But how sweet it is. "The kids never did quit," Bob Rickard, Mark's grandfather, was saying as he headed for the Arena exit. "They just keep going and going." Like it's their destiny.

Bob Rickard was at the top of the Arena stairs, reducing a heart full of boiling emotions to a single word. "Destiny," he said Friday night after his son, the coach, and grandson, the star, helped the Republic Tigers to a community first.

Republic's Jason Baldwin eyes the hoop over defense by Manson's Sean Jeffries. Baldwin scored 17 in Tigers' quarterfinal win. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

1. B's start with a bang. A Tacoma Baptist turnover brought occupants of the Republic bench to their feet, just in time to celebrate Jason Baldwin's game-winning shot for the Tigers. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Ben Durrant rejects the shot of Clallam Bay's Calem Duncan (33) as ACH prevails 73-52. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Damon Huard may be finished as a passer but the former University of Washington quarterback has kicked off a new career, carrying the ball for billionaire Paul Allen. Huard is in Spokane to rally support for a new stadium for the Seattle Seahawks.

Tom Rendall put the puck in the net with the 1967 Spokane Jets. File photo

1. Bundled up against the cold, Mark Richardson and his daughter, Kaitlyn, look over winter horse racing activity at Spokane's Playfair Race Course. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Martin

It's a Pizza Hut promotion but this delivery came from Little Cisar. With four goals in a 7-1 win over the Tri-City Americans Saturday night, Marian Cisar sent 10,455 Spokane Chiefs fans home happy, with ticket stubs worth free pizza.

Everybody has a sponsor and a promotion for its power play. Here it's called a Tri-City Snickers power play, after the candy bar, not for the fact that usually the Tri-City power play is a joke. Aptly named, as it turned out, for the power play was sweet Friday night for the Tri-City Americans. Down 2-0, the Americans stormed back with five goals - three on the power play - to beat the Spokane Chiefs 5-2 and remain in the hunt for the final playoff spot in the Western Hockey League West. When the two clubs resume their interminable series tonight with their 15th game at 7 in the Arena, the Chiefs will still be in third place, thanks to Kelowna's 5-4 loss to Kamloops Friday night. And the Americans will still be 12 points behind for a playoff berth, since sixth-place Prince George held off Portland 5-3. But at least the Americans haven't quit after a disastrous February in which they went 2-9-2. "It's to the point where we have to win games," Americans defenseman Chris Anderson said, "and tonight everybody realized it." After Joe Cardarelli put the Chiefs up by two with his 30th and 31st goals of the season, the Americans - losers of their previous seven games and winless in their last 11 - began to take advantage of Spokane penalties and rebounds that caromed off Chiefs goaltender Aren Miller. Mike Hurley scored on the wrap-around with 2 minutes left in the first period. Ken McKay policed up a rebound off Miller's chest and put it in the back of an empty net to tie it 3:53 into the second. Both came on the power play. Kris Waltze rebounded Peter Sachl's drive at 6:43 of the second period for the game-winner. Craig Stahl scored on yet another rebound with the Americans on the power play at 14:09 of the second, and Brent Ascroft playing in his 197th consecutive game closed with his 24th goal of the year 5:29 into the third period. The Ams improved to 19-38-6 without standout defenseman Zenith Komarniski (groin injury) - the quarterback of their power play - and Scott McCallum (flu). They were also without key forwards Roman Pylner (shoulder) and Jody Lapeyre, who for religious reasons does not play on Friday nights. The patchwork lineup Bob Loucks threw together was good enough to give him his 100th win in his third season as Tri-City coach. It was also good enough to beat the Chiefs, who came out flying and quickly went flat without captain Hugh Hamilton, who might have been in position to pick up some of the rebounds that led to Tri-City power-play goals. "Hayser (Darrell Hay) and Flynn (Chris, both 16-year-old defensemen) did a real good job back there (on the point of the power play)," Anderson said. "With Ascroft shooting the puck all the time, we banged 'em in. They weren't pretty goals but they went in." Hamilton took a puck to the toes and another to the ankle in Tuesday night's game in Prince George and has a swollen foot. The Chiefs jumped on the fragile Americans early, Cardarelli drilling his first from the left circle over the blocker of goaltender Aaron Baker with Spokane on the power play. Cardarelli scored again at 14:56 and the Chiefs seemed to have the Ams on the ropes. But the Americans cashed in on three of their 10 power-play chances while the Chiefs, who fell back to .500 at 30-30-4, were only 1 of 5. Chiefs coach Mike Babcock kept his team in the locker room for more than 25 minutes after the game and was unavailable for comment. Loucks said, "We needed it - we needed this a long time ago, actually. When we were down 2-0 I didn't think we were playing that badly. Their first goal was on the power play that came from what I thought was a very bad call (a roughing on McKay) that put us down. The shots were 11-11 in the first period and we're down 2-0. It's not like they outplayed us territorially." Americans 5, Chiefs 2 Spokane 2 0 0 - 2 Tri-City 1 3 1 - 5 First period-1, Spokane, Cardarelli 30 (Jones, Ference), 2:32 (pp). 2, Spokane, Cardarelli 31 (Evans, Cisar), 14:56. 3, Tri-City, Hurley 33 (Stahl, Gyori), 18:00 (pp). Key penalties-McKay, TC, 1:14; Waltze, TC, 7:05; Jones, Spo, 8:43; Schutz, Spo, 12:34; Leeb, Spo, 16:31. Second period-4, Tri-City, McKay 15 (Orr, Smith), 3:53 (pp). 5, Tri-City, Waltze 3 (Sachl, Legault), 6:43. 6, Tri-City, Stahl 21 (Ascroft), 14:09 (pp). Key penalties-Dewaele, Spo, 2:11; Hay, TC, 8:20; Cisar, Spo, 11:40; Lane, Spo, 14:02; Ference, Spo, 14:39; Dewaele, Spo, 16:26. Third period-7, Tri-City, Ascroft 24 (McKay), 5:29. Key penalties- Whitfield, Spo, :08; Flynn, TC, 14:10; Suter, Spo, 17:59. Power-play opp.-Spokane 1 of 5; Tri-City 3 of 10. Saves-Spokane, Miller 10-13-9-32. Tri-City, Baker 10-10-15-35. A-4,978.

Three seasons, three distinctly different teams. There was the young Spokane Chiefs that Mike Babcock inherited in 1994, the team that overachieved. There was the seasoned veterans he took to the Western Hockey League West Division championship a year ago. And there is this team, the one in transition, searching for momentum.

At last, that rarity of Spokane Chiefs' rarities of late, a finish. Down a goal in the third period, the Chiefs got two goals from Trent Whitfield Friday night to turn back the Prince George Cougars 6-4 in the Arena. The Cougars had taken the lead with four unanswered goals until Adam Magarrell tied it for the Chiefs with his fourth goal of the season 4 minutes into the third. Whitfield scored the at 9:59, hacking at the puck twice before punching it between the pads of goaltender Scott Myers. Whitfield added his 30th of the year inside the final minute. Ronald Petrovicky had a three-point night for the Cougars, with two goals and an assist. Slovokian countryman Marian Cisar of the Chiefs, also had three points. Jared Smyth, Blake Evans, Marc Brown and Curtis Suter - rookies and mostly strangers to the scoring summary - had a hand in first-period scoring plays. Smyth's slap shot from the top of the left circle sailed over Myers' glove 3 minutes into the game. It was the 17-year-old left winger's first WHL goal. Cisar took a feed from Chad Reich, got Myers down and beat him with the backhand to give the Chiefs a two-goal lead. Going hard to the net to pick up his own rebound, Evans scored his third goal to put the Chiefs up 3-0. The Cougars stormed back with four, led by Petrovicky.

The Spokane Chiefs play host to Moose Jaw at the Arena at 7 p.m. At last, that rarity of Spokane Chiefs' rarities of late, a driving finish. Down a goal in the third period Friday night, the Chiefs rallied behind standout play at the blue line by Adam Magarrell and the crunch-time scoring of Trent Whitfield to turn back the Prince George Cougars 6-4. The Cougs scored four unanswered goals to lead 4-3 early in the third period, before Whitfield registered his 29th and 30th goals of the year to keep the Chiefs (29-27-4) in third place in the Western Hockey League West heading into tonight's 7:05 visit by the Moose Jaw Warriors.

1. Sticking with it. Spokane Chiefs forward Chad Reich, left, has traveled over half a continent in pursuit of his hockey dreams. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Reich<

Like a journeyman heavyweight, the longer the Kamloops Blazers slipped the knockout punch, the longer they hung on the ropes and refused to go down, the more dangerous they became. Out-shot and out-chanced through 60 minutes Wednesday night, the Blazers saved their best for last - a wrist shot by Chris St. Croix from the high slot in overtime that gave them a 3-2, come-from-behind win over the Spokane Chiefs before 5,817 in the Arena.

The Spokane Chiefs will open the Western Hockey League playoffs on the road next month no matter where they finish in the regular season. The Shrine Circus is booked in the Arena from March 20-23, the opening weekend of the WHL postseason.

Mike Babcock and his staff of assistants could spend the rest of the winter trying to solve all the riddles the Spokane Chiefs leave in their wake. But there is one consistency after 58 games of this hockey season. When the heat comes on, so does John Cirjak. Sir Jack - the ace of crunch time - did it again Saturday night before another sellout of 10,455 in the Arena.

Spokane goalie Aren Miller and teammate Kirk Dewaele double up to defend Portland's Marty Standish in the first period. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Bobby Brett, who has a knack of turning struggling sports franchises into gold mines, wants to step up to the big leagues. The owner of the Spokane Chiefs hockey team and Indians baseball team confirmed Thursday that his partnership group again has its eye on the Kansas City Royals. The American League baseball club, controlled by executors of a charitable trust, will examine proposals from prospective buyers in October, at the conclusion of the season, Brett said.

Trenton Cross had a career night in Cal State Northridge's 78-75 Big Sky Conference men's basketball victory over the Eastern Washington Eagles Thursday night in Cheney, but give the key assist to Walter Payton. Payton, the former football great, met Cal State Northridge coach Bobby Braswell in the lobby of the Red Lion Hotel Wednesday night. An introductory conversation turned into an offer by Payton to speak to Braswell's team after Payton had delivered his featured remarks at the Greater Spokane Sports Association banquet.

It's news, and yet it's the same old story. The Spokane Chiefs are short-handed. Again.

He was as cool as the ice he skated on, but before he took off on his penalty shot, Greg Leeb understood fully the odds against him and what was on the line in the Spokane Chiefs' 5-2 win over the Tri-City Americans. His shot would come against one of junior hockey's top goaltenders, Brian Boucher. Miss and the momentum would shift to the Ams, who had rallied from a two-goal deficit to trail 2-1 early in the third period.

1. Since his return to the Chiefs, Trent Whitfield has encountered few obstacles, scoring nine goals in just nine games. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Whitfield

Lemanowicz

(From Replay, February 4, 1997:) Prince George beat the Spokane Chiefs 5-4 in regulation, not overtime as the headline incorrectly stated in Monday's editions. The Prince George Cougars slip one past Chiefs goaltender Aren Miller in Spokane's 5-4 loss at the Arena. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review