Ill Chiefs Grab Win For Interim Coach Magliarditi Nearly Shuts Down Prince Albert

The Spokane Chiefs turned back both the Prince Albert Raiders and the flu bug that has swept through the club, making Brett Cox a winner Saturday night in his first game as a Western Hockey League interim head coach.

Cox wasted no time deflecting credit for Spokane’s 4-1 win before 7,119 in the Arena.

The first star, he said, was goaltender Marc Magliarditi, who rejected 27 of Prince Albert’s 28 shots to register his first win in more than a month.

Magliarditi, who last beat Tri-City here on Nov. 9, “made the early stops that gave us an opportunity to get in the game and win,” said Cox, whose choice for second star went to “all 15 skaters in there (the locker room). “It was everybody tonight,” said the 29-year-old assistant coach, who’s subbing for Mike Babcock while Babcock runs Team Canada at the World Junior Tournament.

Cox, who’ll serve as head coach through Jan. 5, started with 15 skaters but was down to 14 when Joe Cardarelli was forced to leave after the first period with the crud that combined with injuries has eroded the depth.

Trent Whitfield and Hugh Hamilton are off with Babcock in Kitchener, Ontario, with the Canadian world junior team. Kris Graf, Jared Smyth, Mike Haley and Jay Bertsch are sick or injured, some both.

Bertsch, for example, recently suffered another migraine and is scheduled to undergo tests at the University of Washington, his future in hockey clearly in question.

Through all the adversity Babcock would have admired the way his short-handed team blended strong goaltending with a strong finish. He said before he left that the Chiefs would play more relaxed with him gone. He was right.

“Everybody’s been kind of nervous,” said right wing Ty Jones, who scored the game-winner despite the lingering affects of flu. “Babs has been on us pretty hard. Cox made us feel a lot looser out there.

“But I really think we just got tired of losing.” The 17-year-old Jones, whose father, Terry, is down from Eagle River, Alaska to see his son, has 11 goals. Six have come in his last five games.

“Babs has told me to believe in what I have,” said Jones, the 6-3, 210-pound second-year player who of late has busted the net for rebounds. “I’ve been getting my confidence back. Tonight I wasn’t 100 percent, but I don’t think anybody out there was. I tried to put it out of my mind. My dad has been here since I started my scoring streak. I should probably keep him down here.”

The Chiefs (16-18-3) were winless in their last seven games. They wrap up the first half of the season Saturday night here with the Tri-City Americans.

Goals by Derek Schutz and Marian Cisar 16 seconds apart in the third period were the late hits on the Raiders (15-20-3), who were losing their fourth game in five nights.

The Chiefs pounced on the club with the league’s worst penalty-killing record on the road early when John Cirjak deflected a Brad Ference shot from the point past Blaine Russell at 7:40 of the first period.

The Clubs traded second-period goals, Jones scoring at 2:31 to make it 2-0, Prince Al answering with Cory Morgan’s strike at 10:23.

It remained 2-1 until the Schutz-Cisar outburst at 6:15 and 6:31 of the third.

Russell said he thought the Cisar goal should have been waved off.

“I thought he (Cisar) got the stick up,” said Russell, who had 19 third-period saves to save the Raiders from another rout. Prince Albert lost 7-2 Friday night in Seattle.

As for the Chiefs, Russell said, “It’s pretty much the same hard-working team. They’re good on the power play, which pretty much killed us tonight. And Magliarditi was strong.”

Chiefs 4, Raiders 1

Prince Albert 0 1 0 - 1

Spokane 1 1 2 - 4

First period - 1, Spo, Cirjak 19 (Magarrell, Cardarelli) 7:40 (power play). Key penalties - Halverson, PA, 7:24; Magarrell, Spo, 9:38; Ference, Spo, 12:42.

Second period - 2, Spo, Jones 11 (Leeb, Lane) 2:31. 3, PA, Morgan 2 (Hogue, Van Drunen) 10:23. Key penalties - Menhart, PA, :29; Suter, Spo, 6:28; Boschman, Spo, 16:01; Issel, PA, 17:28.

Third period - 4, Spo, Schutz 14 (Cirjak, Boschman) 6:15. 5, Spo, Cisar 14 (Mikhailov, Cirjak) 6:31. Key penalties - Kellett, PA, :23; Morgan, PA, 5:38; Kellett, PA, 11:39; Magarrell, Spo, 12:02; Brunel, PA, 15:19; Cisar, Spo, 16:15.

Power plays - PA 0 of 6. Spokane 1 of 7. Saves - Prince Albert, Russell 7-12-19-38. Spokane, Magliarditi 9-11-7-27. A-7,119

, DataTimes