Spokane, Kamloops Skate To Tie

Scott Reid and David Lemanowicz refused to lose Saturday night.

The rival goaltenders - Reid of the Kamloops Blazers, Lemanowicz of the Spokane Chiefs - matched each other save for save in a wild and scoreless overtime that ended in a 3-3 tie and let everybody go home with a little piece of what they wanted.

The Chiefs (38-18-4) were able to celebrate an undefeated regular season against the Blazers, who haven’t beaten Spokane in 11 games dating to Jan. 28, 1994. Spokane wound up the season an astonishing 7-0-1 in eight meetings with Kamloops, the two-time defending Memorial Cup champion.

If they meet again, it’ll be in the playoffs.

The Blazers (39-18-2) could put a positive spin on it as well. By salvaging one point for the tie, they left town clinging to first place in the Western Hockey League West Division.

The 10,528 who jammed into the building saw one of those rare athletic events that started fast and picked up momentum.

After Reid stopped 38 shots - six in OT - and Lemanowicz swept aside 36 including eight in the extra session, both teams were ready for some down time. The Chiefs didn’t drag into town until 5:30 Saturday morning from Kelowna. The Blazers, driving in from a Friday night game at Portland, showed up in Spokane an hour later.

“Both teams were exhausted,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “As the teams got more fatigued, there were more turnovers, more odd-man situations and therefore better rushes. When you had the puck you were fine but when you didn’t, everybody was panicking a little bit.

“Still, it’s a real honor for us to go 7-0-1 against them.”

The Chiefs led 1-0. Kamloops rallied to take 2-1 and 3-2 leads.

The Chiefs tied it at 3 at 9:09 of the third period on Trent Whitfield’s 30th goal of the season and his third in two games. Sean Gillam put a shot on and Whitfield scored with the rebound from out of a scramble in front of the net.

A moment later, he was dumped to the ice by Kamloops defenseman Brad Holland.

Emotions ran high for 70 minutes.

Through it all, the goaltenders were diving, swatting, kicking and sticking the puck back at their attackers.

“Mr. Reid was excellent tonight,” Lemanowicz said. “He made some great stops in overtime. We had a lot of great chances and he kept them in the game.

“That kind of got me going. Watching what he was doing, I told myself I wasn’t going to be the guy to let my team lose. My stops weren’t as difficult as his, but I was sharp enough to pull out a tie.

“There was great flow to the game. All in all, it was probably the best game of the year.”

Hnat Domenichelli assisted on three Blazers goals.

Whitfield was the gun for the Chiefs with a goal, an assist and the press box vote as the game’s first star. Dmitri Leonov and Joel Boschman also scored for the Chiefs, Boschman getting his first goal in the Arena on a 58-foot slap shot on a feed from Randy Favaro.

Jarome Iginla, Bob Maudie and Brad Lukowich scored for Kamloops.

Chiefs 3, Blazers 3

Kamloops 1 1 1 0 - 3

Spokane 1 1 1 0 - 3

First period-1, Spokane, Leonov 28 (Whitfield, Sinclair), 1:51 (pp). 2, Kamloops, Iginla 52 (Domenichelli, Keller), 3:55 (pp). Key penalties-Ainsworth, Kam, 1:20; Podollan, Spo, 2:43; Magarrell, Spo, 9:55; Lukowich, Kam, 12:35; Deadmarsh, Kam, 18:36.

Second period-3, Kamloops, Maudie 33 (Domenichelli, Lukowich), 7:18. 4, Spokane, Boschman 3 (Schutz, Favaro), 18:04. Key penalties-Gillam, Spo, 4:12; Smart, Kam, 8:04.

Third period-5, Kamloops, Lukowich 11 (Maudie, Domenichelli), 6:04 (pp). 6, Spokane, Whitfield 30 (Gillam, Favaro), 9:09. Key penalties-Favaro, Spo, 4:27; Domenichelli, Kam, 18:24.

Overtime-None. Key penalties-None.

Power-play opp.-Kamloops 2 of 4; Spokane 1 of 5.Saves- Kamloops, Reid 11-14-7-6-38. Spokane, Lemanowicz 3-13-12-8-36.A-10,582.

, DataTimes