Two Big Helpings Of Early Leads Enough To Choke On

The Spokane Chiefs cordially invite you after the fact to the final game in the Melancholyseum.

Regrets only.

Well, OK, the Chiefs’ 6-5 loss to the Tri-City Americans in their best-of-23 Western Hockey League series Friday night wasn’t, technically, the last game on Spokane ice. Yet. You dogged optimists will make them count every last goal in Game 5 tonight in Kennewick before there’s any sort of a surrender and good for you.

Still, regrets only.

The Chiefs’ singular regret in the fast-approaching off-season will be their fact-finding mission into how large a lead can grow and still not be considered safe. Heretofore, they had confined their research to the prime numbers - one, two, three - but on Friday made an unhappy graduation to composites.

Had the 3-0 and 4-0 head starts the Chiefs have had these past two games been the trampoline to the blowouts that could have ensued against a shell-shocked backup goaltender, Spokane would be up 3-1 in the series and shopping by phone for a good deal on a team meal in Kamloops.

As it is, the Chiefs are a game away from elimination and coach Mike Babcock is testing the depths of his candor while doing a Fred Astaire around the C word.

The C-h word. The C-h-o-k-e word.

“In the third period, we were so tight we couldn’t skate,” Babcock acknowledged. “We looked like an inexperienced hockey team that didn’t handle the pressure.”

It was difficult to decide how that tightness manifested itself most distinctly - in allowing goals with a man advantage and while changing lines, or in the bevy of just-wide, just-high, just-missed shots aimed in the general direction of Tri-City goalie - and there is little reason to remember this name - David Trofimenkoff.

Trofimenkoff made some commendable saves, but more often the Chiefs saved him the bother.

“He played well,” Babcock allowed, “but at the end, we weren’t very efficient around the net. When we got it, we were banging it someplace. There were some guys with good hands who were finding a way to turn that puck into a hand grenade.”

No kidding. The Chiefs couldn’t even yank goaltender Jerrod Daniel in the last minute for the obligatory desperation rush because they couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone.

It must be said that as frantic as the Chiefs appeared in periods 2 and 3, the Americans were their match in the first 20 minutes. Three of Spokane’s four goals that period came on the power play.

But the Chiefs were living just as dangerously, killing off five Tri-City advantages before 16-year-old winger Mike Haley laid a little violence on Americans defenseman Zenith Komarniski - winning the fight by unanimous decision but getting two well-earned minors in the process. The Americans converted on both and suddenly the Chiefs’ collars needed alteration.

Play hard, but play smart.

“The fact is, there’s been too many specialty teams on the ice for both sides,” said Tri-City coach Bob Loucks. “But we’re making our mistakes early and they’re making theirs late.”

Theoretically, it’s supposed to be easier to play with a 4-0 lead - but maybe that’s only in baseball, where the pitcher with the lead doesn’t have to be so fine.

Besides, isn’t this team that’s played more one-goal games than anyone else in the WHL?

“We talked about that and that it’s been like playoff hockey for us all year,” said Babcock. “But the bottom line is we’re in the second round and guys are thinking, ‘If we can just get past this, we’re in the division finals.”’

There is something else - the fact that, aside from the very impressive exception of 20-year-old Jeremy Stasiuk, the Chiefs are being carried by their 17-year-olds. Greg Leeb, John Cirjak, Trent Whitfield and Hugh Hamilton have scored nearly half of the Spokane goals in this series.

It’s a greedy time of year. Two months ago, there was no reason to think Spokane’s run in the playoffs would last this long - and a month before that a mere appearance seemed doubtful. Then the Chiefs got better - and how the expectations grew.

Sure, they can win in Kennewick. Anything can happen.

Regrettably, the Chiefs have proved it two games running.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review