Whitfield Delivers Hat Trick As Chiefs Flatten Americans Spokane Heads For Kamloops After Second Win In Two Nights

Trent Whitfield headed to Kamloops Saturday night working on a career weekend.

Twenty-four hours after his five-point night separated the Spokane Chiefs from the Portland Winter Hawks, Whitfield tossed the hat trick at the reeling Tri-City Americans in front of 9,316 at the Arena.

Whitfield’s fifth, sixth and seventh goals of the season staked the Chiefs to a 4-1 Western Hockey League win, their second in as many nights and fourth straight in this 16-game series with the Americans (1-8-1).

The Chiefs will try to make it three wins in three nights with a 6 o’clock outing tonight in Kamloops.

After two explosive games, on a weekend in which he’s either on the ice or on the bus, Whitfield said he isn’t the least bit tired.

“When things are going well you can go forever, you know?” he said.

With eight points in two nights Whitfield has scored or assisted on 18 of Spokane’s 33 goals this season. As he goes, so go the 7-3 Chiefs, who picked up two points on WHL West Division leader Prince George, a 7-4 loser at Prince Albert.

The Chiefs started fast and ended this one early, aided by the young Americans, who at times had trouble staying out of their own way, occasionally falling over one another in futile pursuit of Whitfield, Greg Leeb and Marian Cisar.

Whitfield struck twice in the first 8 minutes - the first on a rebound at 4:31 with the Chiefs on the power play, the second at 8:02 on a feed from John Cirjak. Neither put 18-year-old goaltender Aaron Baker in trouble with management. Getting beat by Whitfield was no disgrace.

But by the time Cisar scored short-handed from the right faceoff circle, an unassisted goal with 7:25 left in the first period, the Chiefs had put three of their first eight shots past the young goaltender. That was enough for Tri-City coach Bob Loucks.

In came 20-year-old starter Brian Boucher, who slapped away 29 of the 30 shots the Chiefs put on him.

Boucher allowed only a power-play goal by Whitfield at 2:30 of the second period, but the damage had been done before he came on.

Tri-City has had trouble finding the back of the net all year. The Chiefs have allowed only two third-period goals all season. They weren’t going to cave in late in this one, not with goaltender Marc Magliarditi playing as well as he has all year. Magliarditi rejected 24 of 25 shots.

Zenith Komarniski scored Tri-City’s goal on the power-play, the Americans’ only breakthrough in 10 power-play chances.

The Ams were just plain bad, evidenced by Loucks keeping them behind closed doors for 35 minutes after the game. But if Portland can’t stop Whitfield in Portland, the last-place Americans weren’t going to do it in Spokane.

He’s back, back on a line with Greg Leeb and promising Ty Jones.

Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said Whitfield and Leeb can expect to be split up down the road, but the Chiefs needed a lift this weekend and that connection was a tonic to what had been a struggling attack.

Besides, Jones benefits from having to keep up with his swift and skilled linemates.

“Having ‘Leeber’ on his line makes a huge difference to ‘Whitter’,” Babcock said. “Trent would be the first to tell you that. They played together for two years. But it’s really important that eventually we’re balanced. We’re not balanced right now. The other thing is, we think Ty Jones is an unbelievable player. We just have to get him to play with pace. Playing with those two guys he has to play with pace or he’s two lines behind.”

The third goal was Whitfield’s personal favorite.

“My one-timer from the point,” he said of the goal on the power play. “I’ve been working on those a lot in practice, but I haven’t been connecting. Finally I got a hold of one. I was happy with that.”

Babcock said defenseman Chris Lane has had a good weekend with strong games in Portland and here.

“And it was good for Mags (Magliarditi) to get a win so he can kick back and play the way this kid can play.

“It’s a big weekend for us if we can go into Kamloops and be successful.”

Chiefs 4, Americans 1

Tri-City 1 0 0 - 1

Spokane 3 1 0 - 4

First period - 1, Spo, Whitfield 5 (Jones, Hamilton), 4:31 (pp). 2, Spo, Whitfield 6 (Cirjak, Boschman), 8:02. 3, Spo, Cisar 6, 4:35 (sh) 12:35. 4, TC, Komarniski 1 (Zavediuk, Sachl), 17:54 (pp). Key penalties - Thompson, TC, 3:27; Cirjak, Spo, 5:53; Milne, Spo, 9:24; Magarrell, Spo, 11:27; Boschman, Spo, 16:06; Graf, Spo, 19:40.

Second period - 5, Spo, Whitfield 7 (Hamilton, Leeb), 2:30 (pp). Key penalties - Stahl, TC, 2:20; Boschman, Spo, 2:38; Leeb, Spo, 7:47; Cisar, Spo, 11:43; Graf, Spo, 14:13; Komarniski, TC, 16:49; Cisar, misconduct (playing without a helmet), 19:26.

Third Period - None. Key penalties - Suter, Spo, 3:02; Legault, TC, 12:09; Legault, TC, 14:21.

Power-play opp. - Tri-City 1 of 10; Spokane 2 of 4. Saves - TriCity, Baker 5—x—x-5, Boucher 4-11-14-29. Spokane, 6-9-9-24. A - 9,316.

, DataTimes