Tri-City Ends Chiefs’ Season Tough Call Costs Spokane
Trent Whitfield’s desperate 35-foot slap with 1:08 to go pulled the Spokane Chiefs into an improbable overtime Thursday night.
But after Whitfield and the Chiefs rallied for three goals in the third period to tie their Western Hockey League West Division semifinal at 4 in regulation, the issue went back to Terry Ryan in overtime.
Ryan’s goal 11:02 into sudden death overtime carried the Tri-City Americans to a 5-4 win and on to uncharted territory.
The Americans are on their way to Kamloops for Game 1 of the Western Hockey League West Division finals - a first in the Americans’ seven-year history.
“I shot it at the net - just directed it at the net figuring anything at the net had a chance - and luckily it went in,” Ryan said. “Nothing fancy.”
The floater - a wrist shot from about 30 feet out - went in low, on Spokane goaltender Jarrod Daniel’s glove side.
Spokane’s season, which had taken on a storybook quality, is over. Tri-City won this Highway 395 series 4 games to 3 but after 23 meetings between these Eastern Washington rivals it’s still not clear if the best team survived.
Spokane came as close as a team can come.
Sean Gillam’s shot from just inside the blue line with 11:46 left in overtime went in off Tri City defenseman Ryan Brown’s shinguard, but the apparent game-winner for the Chiefs was waved off for being directed in by a skate.
Chiefs coach Mike Babcock disputed the call, but he didn’t let it spoil the final moment of a season that was still gathering steam when it ended.
“We thought the goal was in,” Babcock said.
Television replay showed the puck went off Brown’s shinguard into the net for what should have been a legal goal.
“It was a great series. It’s unfortunate that people instead of talking about a great game will talk about the goal (that didn’t count).”
The Americans initially played the last game of the division semifinals Thursday night like a crap shoot, rolling a big 11 in 7 and riding it all the way to Kamloops.
No. 11 - Tri-City’s Daymond Langkow - came up winners in Game 7.
Langkow scored three goals and was in control of a key second period.
The Tri-Cities Coliseum crowd was in it from the start, when the Americans were led on the ice by goaltender Brian Boucher, injured in Game 2 and idle since then.
Showing no signs of his layoff with a sprained knee, Boucher had 36 saves including a couple of key stops in the third period when the Americans tightened up and were reduced to dumping the puck the length of the ice and fighting off Spokane attackers.
The Chiefs called on an old friend, the first period, to dig Tri-City an early hole for the sixth straight game in this series, jumping up 1-0 on Whitfield’s sixth post-season goal.
Whitfield was on the scoring end of a Langkow turnover in the Americans’ zone with the Chiefs’ power-play unit on.
Spokane’s Greg Leeb shoveled it to Whitfield for a blast from the left point that made it 1-0 Spokane.
Langkow appeared to score with 2:46 left in the first period - replays showed the puck getting by Daniel virtually unnoticed before bouncing out - but it was no-goal.
Langkow got one that did count at 1:44 of the second, tying it at 1. Two minutes later, the WHL scoring champion put the Americans up 2-1.
Spokane 1 0 3 0 - 4 Tri-City 0 3 1 1 - 5
First period - 1, Spo, Whitfield 6 (Leeb, Stasiuk) 14:15 (power play). Key penalties - Ascroft, T-C, :21; Magarrell, Spo, 8:12; Hurley, T-C, 12:35; Podollan, Spo, 16:30.
Second period - 2, T-C, Langkow 8 (Ryan) 1:44; 3, T-C, Langkow 9 ( Ascroft) 3:45 (pp); 4, T-C, Cabana 6 ( Ascroft, Kriz) 17:28 (pp). Key penalties - Thompson, T-C, 8:16; Haley, Spo, 16:39.
Third period - 5, Spo, Hamilton 3 (unassisted) 10:57; 6, T-C, Langkow 10 (Ryan) 12:15; 7, Spo, Cardarelli 4 ( Cirjak, Leonov) 13:08; 8, Spo, Whitfield (Cirjak) 18:52 (short-handed). Key penalties - Gillam, Spo, 16:55.
Overtime - 9, T-C, Ryan 10 ( Hurley) 11:02. Key penalties - None.
Power plays opp.- Spo, 1-4; T-C, 2-4. Saves - Daniel, Spo 11-17-17-45; Boucher, T-C, 14-10-12-36. A - 5,211