Hail To Chiefs’ Hamilton Entering His Third Whl Season, Defenseman Hugh Hamilton Is Ready To Go

It was the first game of the Western Hockey League playoffs and Hugh Hamilton was on fire.

When he touched the puck, it found the back of the net. When he nudged it to a teammate, it found the back of the net.

Hamilton had missed 12 games with a broken wrist, one of a score of reasons why the Spokane Chiefs struggled as 1994 came and went. By January the Chiefs were last in the West.

But come March, on the night of Hugh Hamilton’s 5-point binge, the Spokane Chiefs were beating the Tri-City Americans 9-5 in Game One of the first round.

The club would win three of four first-round games and eliminate the Tacoma Rockets. Eventually, the Chiefs would take Tri-City to a decisive and flawed seventh game of the division semifinals.

Spokane lost that one 5-4 in Kennewick after scoring what should have been the winning goal in overtime. The goal was waved off - incorrectly, replays confirmed - by the referee.

The Americans went on to win the series but the point was established. The Spokane Chiefs were no longer the doormats of January.

They were in the spring under first-year coach Mike Babcock playing as well as any club in junior hockey.

On the first night of the playoffs, when Hamilton was so vital in the rush, his mother, Pam, was at home in Leask, Sask., bolting from room to room as the broadcast of the Chiefs vs. Tri-City game from Spokane came and faded.

Mrs. Hamilton was following the game on KGA, once known as the 50,000-watt flame-thrower. KGA carries Chiefs games across time zones and area codes of the Canadian prairie, to the Hamilton household a 16-hour drive from Spokane.

“My dad was somewhere with my brother Bill, playing hockey,” Hamilton said last week, before heading out for a nine-day look-see at pro camp with the Hartford Whalers. “Mom was at home, running from radio to radio trying to get the game on 1510. They get the best reception when they drive out in the country but she was stuck at home. The only pieces of the game she got was when I got a point.”

For a while that meant she got the whole picture.

Her son the defenseman was the story.

“She heard the first four points,” Hamilton said. “A neighbor called when I got my fifth point. It was a pretty exciting time. My best friend, Leyton Clark, who’s going to the University of Calgary - his family called. When I got my first goal a couple of the other neighbors called.”

Games should come in clearer this year. Hugh’s dad, Dennis Hamilton, put up a 40-foot tower over the summer to better receive the broadcasts.

“The tower is right beside the house,” Hamilton said. “If it doesn’t work dad says it’s a good fire escape.”

Hamilton says he’s surprised not only that the folks back home can follow his career but that they’d want to.

“I guess I’m the little-town kid who grew up cutting everybody’s grass,” he said. “It makes you feel good that they care.”

The 113th player to go in the ‘95 NHL entry draft, Hamilton was looking forward to his introduction to the Hartford Whalers, knowing that he’ll be back here for a third season in the Western Hockey League.

“I’ll open some eyes there next year,” he said. “There are some openings there. They traded (young defenseman) Chris Pronger (to St. Louis). Just give me a pair of skates and a stick. My foot’s in the door.”

Going in the fifth round of the draft, Hamilton said with a shrug, “was a little discouraging, watching some people go ahead of you, some people I thought I was a little better than. But I’m glad I went to Hartford. As for the fifth round, I deserved what I got. I didn’t work on my body a whole lot after my first year here (1993-94).

“The fifth round is justice.”

Although the Chiefs were denied their place in the division finals what could not be denied was the respect they earned in February and March .

Some of the magic is simply explained.

Key players - Hamilton among them - went down with injuries.

As some of the injured were playing themselves into game shape the Chiefs sent captain Bryan McCabe to Brandon for defenseman Adam Magarrell and future picks.

That move in the first week of February was the turning point of the season, Hamilton said.

McCabe, the Chiefs captain, the heart and soul of the club, one of the heroes of Canada’s undefeated romp through the World Junior Championships, was impossible to replace with one player.

But the Chiefs got better collectively.

Hamilton’s game is transition - dig the puck out of the defensive zone, push it up and occasionally - sometimes more than occasionally - put it on net.

Hamilton was 11th in scoring among WHL defensemen in the playoffs with eight points in 11 games. All but two of the 10 D-men who scored more playoff points than Hamilton had more games. Only defenseman Chris Armstrong of Moose Jaw, who had 14 points in 10 games, and Saskatoon’s Lee Sorochan who scored 11, also in 10 playoff games, scored more in fewer playoff games.

The scoring was a bonus. Hamilton showed up for camp this season eight pounds heavier, hoping that the muscle and another year’s experience - he turns 19 in February - will make him stronger in the defensive zone.

“I wasn’t a strong player the last couple of years,” he said. “I like that extra boost I’m getting in the corners, just to be able to pin a guy in the corners, just to hold them there.”

Hamilton, who has his high school diploma, will continue work at Ferris High School this year with an eye on a college degree that eventually will allow him to teach.

“You don’t have your mom and dad kicking your butt to study so you have to be motivated,” he said. “It’s not much different than going to school after work every day. You can go out with the guys every night or you can stay home and do homework.”

He thinks about that for a minute and breaks into a grin.

“Actually you can do both,” he said. “There’s a happy medium.”

When the Whalers send him back, Hamilton says he’ll be ready.

“I’ll be back to rock and roll,” he promised. “I’m looking forward to it. This building (the new arena) is amazing. We’re going to surprise some people this year.”

“The Arena is great,” Hamilton said, “but I’ll miss the boards in the old Barn. They were perfect for a skinny guy like me. You bounced right off.”

Bouncing back was a theme last year, both for Hamilton and the team.

“This is going to be fun,” he said. “This is the year.”

Notes

The Chiefs have sent 16-year-old defenseman Curtis Suitor out to play AAA midget hockey in North Battleford, Sask. … Rookie center Derek Schutz, who took a shot to the thigh and limped off the ice Sunday in the Chiefs 7-4 exhibition win over Seattle, is back at practice. The hope is he’ll be able to play in the last two preseason games on the road with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. … Even if goal-scoring forward Jason Podollan doesn’t make it with the Florida Panthers the NHL club has alerted the Chiefs to the likelihood that Podollan will miss the Chiefs opener Sept. 23 at Tri-City.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo