First Place Puts Chiefs In The Holiday Spirit Leeb Scores Four Goals As Spokane Skates Past Kamloops

The Spokane Chiefs head home for Christmas today as the best in the Western Hockey League West.

Greg Leeb wasn’t the whole story of Sunday night’s 7-1 win over the Kamloops Blazers but, with linemate John Cirjak, he was pretty much the whole show.

Leeb lit up a crowd of 6,362 with four goals, running his season total to a team-high 23, as the Chiefs ran the perennial West Division-champion Blazers out of the Arena.

That in itself isn’t much of a statement, not with the Blazers reeling with four stars off with the Canadian World Junior Tournament team. Without WHL scoring leader Hnat Domenichelli, the league’s No. 3 scorer Jarome Iginla and top defensemen Nolan Baumgartner and Jason Holland, Kamloops lost its fourth straight game for the first time in more than three years.

What’s indisputable is the Chiefs’ vexing domination of this proud franchise.

Spokane swept the Blazers four straight in the first half of the season, no more convincingly than this.

And what Leeb, Cirjak (with a goal and four assists) and Sean Gillam (three assists) didn’t do with the puck, Scott Fletcher and Kris Graf did with their fists, adding injury to insult by battering Rob Skrlac and Steve Albrecht.

The game ended with players on both sides trading punches.

“It started when Skrlac was sent off the bench to fight Fletch,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said of an incident 7:23 into the third period. “After that, they got the ball rolling (the fights going), and we just went along with it.”

If the Chiefs didn’t get the message across, the fans made sure the point was made, taking up the chant of “We’re No. 1.”

“We go home positive,” Babcock said, “and that’s real important.” Spokane (23-9-3), one of only two WHL teams with losses still in single digits, is unbeaten in 10 games.

Cirjak pushed his scoring streak to nine games with his first five-point night - he’d never had a four-point outing as a Chief - as Spokane went to 15-3-2 at home and remained unbeaten in December with a 6-0-2 record for the month.

The Chiefs haven’t lost since Nov. 26.

Leeb’s first four-goal game was the finesse in a night that was atypical in the Spokane-Kamloops rivalry - atypical in that the two clubs often play quick, relatively painless games.

“How many teams have gone into Kamloops and got hammered 15-1 and 10-1?” Babcock wondered.

” We didn’t try to run the score up. We did take advantage of a short-staffed hockey team, but you have to take advantage of whoever you can, whenever you can. That’s the game.”

Leeb had his first goal 5:32 into the game and had the hat trick completed at 11:21 of the second period - 4-1/2 minutes before registering his career-first fourth goal.

The last was the prettiest.

“I drove wide, went in on the goaltender (Randy Petruk) and put it behind his leg,” Leeb said. “It’s a nice Christmas present.”

Cirjak assisted on three of Leeb’s four goals.

“All I had to do was pick the openings and Cirjak found me,” Leeb said. “He played a great game. Randy (Favaro) created space out there and it worked out good for me.”

Donnie Kinney tied it 36 seconds into the second period, but Cirjak answered with the game-winning goal - unassisted - 27 seconds later, followed by three consecutive strikes from Leeb.

Ty Jones notched his first WHL goal in the third period. Martin Cerven closed the scoring at 8:08 of the third.

The fighters took it from there.

“When you play in Spokane, it’s going to be physical,” Kamloops coach Ed Dempsey said. “I think that maybe they thought they could push us around a little and we wanted to make sure that we stood up to them.”

Chiefs 7, Blazers 1

Kamloops 0 1 0 - 1 Spokane 1 4 2 - 7

First period - 1, Spo, Leeb 21 (Cirjak, Gillam) 5:32 (power play). Key penalties - Rishaug, Kam, 4:33; Jones, Spo, 6:29; Gillam, Spo, 15:15.

Second period - 2, Kam, Kinney 8 (Maudie, Lukowich, :36; 3, Spo, Cirjak 17 (unassisted) 1:03; 4, Spo, Leeb 22 (Cirjak, Gillam) 3:27 (pp); 5, Spo, Leeb 23 (Favaro, Cirjak) 11:21; 6, Spo, Leeb 24 (Sinclair) 15:52. Key penalties - Rishaug, Kam, 2:23; Gans, Spo, 7:29; Oldenborger, Kam, 12:54; Maudie, Kam, 17:16; Spo bench, delay, 18:51.

Third period - 7, Spo, Jones 1 (Cirjak, Gillam) 4:01; 8, Spo, Cerven 4 (Leeb, Hamilton) 8:08 (pp). Key penalties - Skrlac, Kam, 1:36; Skrlac, Kam, 7:27; Leonov, Spo, 9:01; Lemanowicz, Spo, 15:42.

Power plays - Kamloops 0-6. Spokane 3-6. Saves - Petruk, Kam, 10-12-16-38; Lemanowicz, Spo, 8-5-17-30.

A - 6,362.

, DataTimes