Chiefs Play Giveaway, 7-3 Mindless Spokane Allows Kamloops To Take Fast Track

Even in the bleakest periods of the last two months, the Spokane Chiefs have played harder and smarter than a typical last-place hockey club.

Saturday night they were a typical last-place hockey club, neither tough nor particularly intelligent.

Taking ill-advised penalties that sent the potent Kamloops Blazers on 10 power plays, the Chiefs rolled over before 5,121 at the Coliseum, 7-3.

The Blazers (29-10-3) played a 4-4 tie with Seattle on Friday night, jumped on a midnight bus for an 8-hour trek from Kamloops and still played with more jump in the third period than the Chiefs.

“It was the worst I’ve seen us this year as far as try,” Spokane coach Mike Babcock said. “We had nothing in the third period.”

The Blazers outshot the Chiefs 17-5 in the final period. In all, Kamloops riddled Spokane with four power-play goals.

Spokane was sent reeling to its fourth straight loss heading into a 6 o’clock Coliseum date tonight with the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Chiefs (11-28-1) got a game- opening goal from captain Bryan McCabe, playing in his homecoming after leading Team Canada to a gold medal in the World Junior Championships.

But Darcy Tucker answered with two goals and an assist as Kamloops (29-10-3) ran away in the third.

Tucker and McCabe were teammates at the World Juniors.

“Tucker stepped up and led us,” Kamloops coach Don Hay said. “It was a challenge for him, going up against McCabe - a guy he was really close to the last three weeks.”

Tucker fired the puck off Spokane goaltender Jarrod Daniel, then tucked in the rebound for his first goal to put the Blazers up 2-1 early in a busy second period.

His second strike was off the wall - literally - after the game had turned into a rout. The puck took a Kamloops bounce off the boards and skidded out to Tucker, who cleaned up a shot off Daniel’s pads for his 37th goal.

“Back to the Western League,” Tucker smiled, “back to unpacking my own bag when I get to the rink. We got the cushy treatment (at the World Juniors) - eight or nine trainers, six or seven stick boys. Now it’s back to reality.”

Comparing the Chiefs today to the Spokane team that twice beat Kamloops in October, Tucker said, “They can match us with their first couple of lines but on our bench we’ve got guys with the experience of winning a Memorial Cup. We have more depth.”

Five different players scored for the Blazers.

Spokane’s Jeremy Stasiuk had a goal and an assist to extend his scoring streak to six games.

Greg Leeb recorded Spokane’s other goal.

After McCabe followed Stasiuk’s blast for the rebound and the leadoff goal, the Blazers tied it with the help of a Spokane giveaway.

The puck slipped away from Spokane’s Sean Gillam and wound up on the stick of the Blazers’ Donald Kinney, whose quick wrist shot beat Daniel at 11:48 of the first.

McCabe took a roughing penalty at the conclusion of the first period to activate the Kamloops power play to start the second.

Just when discipline was called for, Spokane’s Jason Podollan was sent off for checking from behind 20 seconds into the period. The Blazers had a 5-3 advantage in manpower that Tucker converted into his first goal.

The Chiefs boobed it up again later in the period when a McCabe penalty was compounded by a Stasiuk elbow infraction that again gave the Blazers five skaters to the Chiefs’ three.

Again it led to a goal. Shane Doan scored to make it 4-2, Kamloops.

Blazers 7, Chiefs 3 Kamloops 1 3 3 - 7 Spokane 1 2 0 - 3

First period - 1, Spokane, McCabe 9 (Stasiuk, Cardarelli) 9:34. 2, Kamloops, Kinney 9 (Maudie, Vologjaninov) 11:48. Key penalties - Gillam (Spo) 3:33; Nash (Kam) 13:38; Baumgartner (Kam) 18:31; McCabe (Spo) 20:00.

Second period - 3, Kamloops, Tucker 36 (Keller, Baumgartner) 1:43 (pp). 4, Kamloops, Iginla 19 (Nash) 2:43. 5, Spokane, Stasiuk 14 (Cardarelli) 3:24. 6, Kamloops, Doan 19 (Baumgartner, Tucker) 4:55 (pp). 7, Spokane, Leeb 14 10:25. Key penalties - Podollan (Spo) :20; McCabe (Spo) 3:45; Stasiuk (Spo) 4:23; Sawyer (Spo), Stasiuk (Spo) misconduct 8:55; Doan (Kam) 9:01; Nash (Kam) 16:33; Lukowich (Kam) 19:20.

Third period - 8, Kamloops, Nash 19 (Huska, Keller) 4:50. 9, Kamloops, Tucker 37 (Lukowich) 9:36 (pp). 10, Kamloops, Domenichelli 27 (Tucker, Keller) 15:57 (pp). Key penalties - Gillam (Spo) :56; Gillam (Spo) 8:07; Whitfield (Spo) 15:28.

Saves - Kamloops, Branch 8-8-5-21. Spokane, Daniel 6-10-14-30.

A - 5,171.