Maxwell’s Return Triumphant Rugged Hurricanes Put The Body To Chiefs In 2-1 Victory

Carrying out Bryan Maxwell’s standing orders to take the body and hit everything that moves, the over-achieving Lethbridge Hurricanes made Maxwell’s return to Spokane a triumphant one Wednesday night.

Maxwell, the former coach of the Spokane Chiefs, watched with 5,752 in the Arena as his Canes blanketed Spokane 2-1.

The Hurricanes played the perfect road game, finishing check after check, taking away the middle, pushing the Chiefs outside and pinning them to the walls while making two goals stand up, all in the toughest venue in the Western Hockey League.

What did slip through the Hurricanes’ defensive curtain ran headlong into goaltender David Brumby, who stopped 29 of the Chiefs’ 30 shots.

“Our guy (David Lemanowicz) was good,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “Their guy stood on his head.”

Most of Brumby’s acrobatics in front of the net were reserved for the third period, when the Chiefs outshot the Canes 14-6.

Until then, for the longer part of 40 minutes, Boomer the mascot out-performed the Chiefs’ tied-up forwards.

If hockey was this exciting every night, more people would go to basketball games.

Midway into the third period, down 2-0, Joe Cardarelli caught up with the rebound of a slap shot off the boards. It was launched by Sean Gillam from the point of the power play. Cardarelli drove it in with his backhand for the goal that averted a shutout.

The Chiefs have never been blanked in their new building. Their last shutout loss at home came March 8, when Tacoma beat them 1-0 in the Coliseum.

Mark Smith scored the second goal for the Hurricanes, the game-winner at 4:31 of the third period.

Smith split the defense, scooting by Spokane’s John Shockey for the shot that got by Lemanowicz on the goaltender’s stick side.

The Chiefs lost for only the sixth time at home, where they’re 22-6-2.

Maxwell, who coached the Chiefs to the ‘91 Memorial Cup, expressed his feelings with a brief word and a long smile.

“Awesome,” he said after the Hurricanes bounced back from Sunday night’s 8-2 home loss to Portland to win for the 26th time against 28 losses and two ties. Maxwell assumed control of the Lethbridge franchise in November, after the Hurricanes got off to a 1-8 start at home.

He said he missed hearing the warm applause his name evoked in pregame ceremonies.

“Somebody told me about it later,” said Maxwell, who resigned in Spokane on Jan. 22, 1994. “I appreciate that. The fans here are great.”

The Chiefs were short on veteran forwards, and it showed. They were without the injured Jan Hrdina (groin) and Greg Leeb (knee), and the suspended Randy Favaro and Jay Bertsch. Favaro was serving the second game of a two-game suspension for an accumulation of game misconducts, the latest coming on Friday night in Tri-City. Bertsch was sitting out a one-game suspension after being cited for leaving the bench to fight Sunday night in Kamloops.

The Chiefs (37-18-3) fell back into a tie with Kamloops in the loss column in the West Division heading into a Friday night date in Kelowna and a Saturday night game here with Kamloops.

Leeb could suit up this weekend, but Hrdina is expected to miss at least another five to seven days.

The Hurricanes made it rough on Jason Podollan, twice sending the alternate captain off the ice in pain, once with an elbow and once with what appeared to be the butt of a stick.

“You always pick out key guys to play hard against, Babcock said. For us it was Byron Ritchie (Lethbridge scoring leader who was kept off scoreboard.)”

Hurricanes 2, Chiefs 1

Lethbridge 1 0 1 - 2

Spokane 0 0 1 - 1

First period - 1, Leth, Brigley 30 (unassisted) 18:28 (shorthanded). Key penalties - Jones, Spo, 4:01; Shockey, Spo, 10:38; Bayrack, Le, 16:10; Josephson, Le, 18:18.

Second period - No scoring. Key penalties - Magarrell, Spo, 1:00; Grieco, Le, 12:40; O’Grady, Leth, 13:02.

Third period - 2, Leth, Smith 9 (Novotny) 4:31; 3, Spo, Cardarelli 19 (Gillam, Whitfield) 10:03 (power play). Key penalties - Magarrell, Spo, 4:41; Purinton, Le, 9:10.

Power plays - Lethbridge: 0-4; Spokane: 1-5

Saves - Brumby, Leth: 10-6-13-29. Lemanowicz, Spokane: 10-9-5-24. A - 5,752

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo