Chiefs Win In Farewell To Bertsch

The Spokane Chiefs said goodbye to Jay Bertsch and the Tri-City Americans almost in the same breath Saturday night.

Bertsch, the Chiefs’ alternate captain who was forced to retire from hockey this week with repeated head injuries, was honored in an emotional pregame ceremony before 8,568 at the Arena.

Forty-five seconds later, John Cirjak scored the first of Spokane’s six goals and the Chiefs were on their way to a happy ending to an otherwise disappointing first half of the Western Hockey League season.

The 6-2 victory was the Chiefs’ second consecutive, their first win streak since Nov. 2-3 when they slammed Brandon and Seattle on back-to-back nights.

They now take 10 days off over Christmas, still in third place in the WHL West at 17-18-3. Their next action will be Dec. 31, when they play the annual New Year’s Eve game at Tri-City.

After Cirjak put the Chiefs on the board with a wrist shot from the right circle, rookie Curtis Suter deflected Joel Boschman’s shot from the right point past Tri-City goaltender Aaron Baker. A minute and a half after Suter’s first WHL goal, Spokane jumped up 3-0 on Ty Jones’ tip in the slot with the Chiefs on the power play.

That goal, the game-winner, came on the Chiefs’ seventh shot. Three goals in seven shots, all in the first 10:30, was the payoff for coming out hard.

Credit that to Bertsch, who watched in street clothes while the club won one for him. Bertsch said before the game that doctors made the decision for him. A specialist at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle warned that additional head injuries could lead to permanent damage.

“We played for him, knowing he’d kill to be in any one of our jerseys,” said Spokane goaltender Marc Magliarditi, who swept aside 29 of Tri-City’s 31 shots. “We owed it to him. He got the game puck and he deserved it.”

The Chiefs played through some pain to beat Tri-City for the sixth time in eight tries, said interim coach Brett Cox, who is 2-0 since taking over for Mike Babcock. Babcock is heading the Canadian team at the World Junior Tournament.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you’re playing for a purpose,” Cox said. “There were a lot of guys banged up who fought through it, bottom line because they wanted to play for Bertschie.”

Both clubs played with notable absentees.

Baker was subbing for Tri-City regular Brian Boucher, who’s off with Team USA at the WJT. The Ams also were without defenseman Zenith Komarniski, among the cuts at the Canadian team’s selection camp.

Babcock and two key players - captain Hugh Hamilton and center Trent Whitfield - are with Team Canada in Geneva.

The players they left behind stopped the losing.

Prominent among them is left wing Greg Leeb, who had another four-point night in the final game of the first half. A year ago, Leeb had four goals in the game before the break.

When he slammed home the rebound off Derek Schutz’ shot at 1:41 of the second period - his 13th goal of the year - the Chiefs went up 4-0.

With three assists, Leeb took over the club lead at 30.

Down four goals, Baker tightened up while the Ams outplayed the Chiefs over the last two periods, but the jump-start from the Bertsch ceremony was enough to keep the Ams searching for ways to score.

Chiefs 6, Americans 2

Tri-City 0 1 1 - 2 Spokane 3 2 1 - 6

First period - 1, Spo, Cirjak 20 (Haley, Magliarditi), :45. 2, Spo, Suter 1 (Boschman, Cirjak), 8:39. 3, Spo, Jones 12 (Magarrell, Leeb), 10:30 (pp). Key penalties - Leeb, Spo, 3:12; Flynn, TC, 9:25; Ference, Spo, 15:11.

Second period - 4, Spo, Leeb 13 (Schutz, Jones), 1:41. 5, TC, Ascroft 15 (Stahl), 6:15. 6, Spo, Jones 13 (Ference, Leeb), 11:01. Key penalties - Pylner, TC, 1:58; Haley, Spo, 4:14; Cisar, Spo, 12:09; Flynn, TC, 17:42; Cisar, Spo, 17:50.

Third period - 7, TC, Gyori 17 (Smith), 5:23. 8, Spo, Boschman 1 (Leeb), 9:20. Key penalties - Boschman, Spo, 9:39; Brown, Spo, 13:50.

Power-play opp. - Tri-City 0 of 7; Spokane 1 of 3. Saves - Tri-City, Baker 8-9-6-23. Spokane, Magliarditi 6-11-12-29. A - 8,568.

, DataTimes