Thunderbirds Cut To The Chase Chiefs Can’t Keep Up With Marleau As Seattle Extends Spokane’s Slide
The results were ugly - the Spokane Chiefs’ fifth straight loss Saturday night wasn’t all that close - but the show wasn’t bad.
Seattle’s Patrick Marleau is a treat no matter what side you’re on.
Marleau, the 17-year-old center who’ll probably be the first Western Hockey League player taken in next summer’s NHL entry draft, showed just why before 8,953 in the Arena.
With his great speed, Marleau scored the opening and closing goals, and in between assisted on another in the Thunderbirds’ 5-2 Western Hockey League win.
Consider it a message.
Although only 17, Marleau is as good a forward as there is in junior hockey right now. But when the world’s best under-20-year-olds convene in Switzerland the day after Christmas for the World Junior Tournament, Marleau won’t be among them.
The reigning champion Canadian team rarely looks at a 17-year-old, but Marleau couldn’t help but feel a little slighted when he was passed over.
So it was no coincidence that on this night Marleau put on a clinic in front of Chiefs coach Mike Babcock, who leaves after Wednesday night’s rematch here with Seattle to take over Team Canada. In fairness to both the young star and Babcock, the junior national team coach, Marleau doesn’t seem steamed about it. Just disappointed. He got off to a slow start when evaluations were made. He knows Babcock’s vote is only one of a number of factors in the selection process.
If it’s any consolation, Marleau made a deep impression on Babcock, who will pass on this observation to the other coaches and officials in the Canadian hockey hierarchy: “The way he’s playing now, he’s a man out there, with boys.”
It doesn’t matter that the boys are two and three years older.
If someone gets hurt in the weeklong final tryout camp that starts next week, Babcock said, “Maybe he (Marleau) gets a chance. After what I saw tonight why not? He was outstanding.”
Marleau said, “If I had gotten off to a good start I’d expect to be there. The bad start didn’t help me any.”
Marleau got Seattle’s fourth win over Spokane started when he took the puck from Spokane’s Adam Magarrell at the T-Birds blue line. He left the Chiefs power-play unit in his spray on the way to beating goaltender Arern Miller on the breakaway. The short-handed goal - Marleau’s 24th goal of the year - put Seattle up 1-0 midway through the first period.
The Chiefs answered with a short-handed goal of their own when Ty Jones - another 17-year-old who will go high in the draft - stripped Shane Belter of the puck off the wall and put it top shelf off the breakaway from the right wing.
The T-Birds scored twice in a minute and a half of the second period to go up 3-1. Paul Ferone took advantage of a Chiefs turnover in the Spokane zone to score at 2:56 of the second. Nick Szadkowski made it a two-goal Seattle lead when he stuffed in his own rebound for his first WHL score. It stood as the game-winner.
The Chiefs closed to 3-2 on Joe Cardarelli’s 16th of the year midway through the second, but in the third period Rick Berry scored on the Seattle power play and Marleau added the exclamation point, finishing a 2-1 break started by Kris Cantu.
The T-Birds moved to 4-2 against the reeling Chiefs and held second place in the West without two injured top-line players - Jeremy Reich and Bret Dececco.
“We’re just finding ways to win right now,” Seattle coach Don Nachbaur said. “We have some guys - Marleau and Martin Cerven - who are on top of their game. The turning point was the power-play goal in the third period (Berry’s wraparound that made it 4-2). We couldn’t muster anything on the power play before that.”
The Chiefs killed a 5-minute score-at-will power play and later snuffed a 4-minute double minor. The penalty-killers did their part.
The finishers, the goal-scorers who played so big last year, are struggling.
Their most effective player heading into tonight’s 6 o’clock game in the Rose Garden with the Portland Winter Hawks is Jones, who turned in his third standout game in as many nights.
T-Birds 5, Chiefs 2
Seattle 1 2 2 - 5
Spokane 1 1 0 - 2
First period - 1, Sea, Marleau 24, 9:50 (sh). 2, Spo, Jones 8, 16:05 (sh). Key penalties - Cantu, Sea, 1:26; Cisar, Spo, 5:09; Leroux, Sea, 8:32; Mikhailov, Spo, high sticking major, game misconduct, 13:59; Ference, Spo, 19:01.
Second period - 3, Sea, Ferone 10 (Cantu, Marleau), 2:56. 4, Sea, Szadkowski 1 (DiRoberto, Kuokkanen), 4:31. 5, Spo, Cardarelli 16 (Schutz, Magarrell), 10:12. Key penalties - Haley, Spo, double minor, 5:34; Cerven, Sea, 15:32.
Third period - 6, Sea, Berry 5 (DiRoberto, Willis), 4:55 (pp). 7, Sea, Marleau 25 (Cantu, Ferone), 15:41. Key penalties - Bertsch, Spo, 3:18; Berry, Sea, 17:08.
Missed penalty shot - Willis, Sea. Power-play opp. - Seattle 1 of 6; Spokane 0 of 4. Saves - Seattle, Rudkowsky 9-9-12-30. Spokane, Miller 6-13-9-28. A - 8,953.
, DataTimes