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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Beep! Beep! It’s Leeb Chiefs’ Roadrunner Freezes Defensemen With His Quickness

The best of what he does passes by in a blur.

His series-winning goal Monday night in claustrophobic Kelowna Memorial Arena is this week’s lesson.

Greg Leeb picked up the puck that night with Derek Diener under a full head of steam and in pursuit at the red line. Diener is 6-foot-6, Leeb more than a shade under his listed 5-9.

The chase ended just inside the blue line when Leeb threw on the brakes and Diener went flying by, a hockey version of Wile E. Coyote.

With a quick plant, Leeb, the roadrunner, bought some space in the cramped Kelowna rink, where for three brutal games he had been a target. Even trained eyes were still shifting away from Diener when Leeb wheeled into a tight turn and snapped a shot at goaltender Aaron MacDonald.

Before the goalie could react, the puck was in the net and the goal judge’s lamp was on.

Chiefs 3, Rockets 1.

It stood as the game- and series-winning goal for the Spokane Chiefs.

For six games the Rockets had swarmed Leeb. Twenty-six seconds into Monday night’s second period, a 6-2, 203-pound defenseman named Karol Betik threw himself into the Chiefs’ left winger. Leeb crumbled. Blown up is the term.

Four and a half minutes later it was payback time. Leeb was stickhandling across center ice on the way to getting off the shot that effectively ended the first-round series.

He’s back at it tonight in the Arena in Game 1 of the Western Hockey League West Division semifinals with the Prince George Cougars.

Leeb smiles at the recollection of the wrap-up game of the Kelowna playoffs.

“With Diener under a full head of steam I knew I wasn’t going to beat him to the net,” he said. “I was looking for someone to pass to. You put it on net and good things sometimes happen. Maybe it bounces off somebody and goes into the net.”

If the shot was a happy accident, the move was all-Leeb. Pure gift. Nature dealt him every tool but size.

He was an accomplished badminton player growing up in Red Deer, Alberta. He wasn’t much of a pull hitter in baseball, but he could bunt the opposition crazy. He knows his way around a golf course.

And he’s taller than Theoren Fleury.

Fleury, the Calgary Flames right winger who goes 5-6, is the point of the argument that bigger isn’t necessarily better.

Leeb’s mother, Carol, says her son is “at least 2-2-1/2 inches taller than I am, and I’m 5-5.

“So I’m giving him 5-7-1/2,” she added.

It’s a well-defined 5-7-1/2. Leeb has had his body fat tested and remembers it coming back at “10 percent or less.”

More than one WHL team has choked on a diet of this shrimp.

If the WHL recognized parents of the year, Carol and Don Leeb would rate consideration. They have two sons in the playoffs.

It’s conceivable that Greg, 19, and 17-year-old Brad, of the Red Deer Rebels, could meet in the league finals. Although that’s an upset or two away, the Leebs could make it a family affair.

Brad is bigger, about 5-10 and 170 pounds, and is, or will be, stronger. Greg is gifted.

How else do you describe a player who every year is rated by his peers as the West’s most irritating player, while receiving the most sportsmanslike award from his own team?

His dad has an interesting take on the most irritating label.

“Because he’s small he’s looked at as a challenge,” Don Leeb said. “What 6-3 guy likes to be shown up by a 5-foot-whatever like he is?”

The Leebs delight in the skills of their eldest son but talk proudest of his everynight courage. Throwing himself around out there, giving and taking, skating among the trees, requires some grit.

Such resolve wasn’t lost on Spokane’s chief scout Ray Dudra, who pitched Leeb’s qualities to GM Tim Speltz and coach Mike Babcock. To everybody else, Greg Leeb was just too darn small.

His hometown Red Deer Rebels invited him to rookie camp at 15 and afterwards politely thanked him for coming. He played midgets the following season and was again invited to camp with the Rebs.

Invitations also came from the Rockets and the Swift Current Broncos, but the good news came from one of the dads on the local midget team. It was Chris Mason’s father - the same Chris Mason who’ll start in goal tonight for Prince George.

Mason and Leeb were teammates on the way up. The senior Mason told Leeb that he’d been placed on Spokane’s 50-man protected list.

Mindful of his first WHL camp, Leeb, as a 17-year-old rookie, ignored Babcock’s entreaties to bring everything he owned with him to Spokane.

“He wasn’t prepared to stay,” Carol Leeb said. “He took nothing. He thought he was coming home. I ended up taking his stuff down about a week or two after he was there.

“We were thrilled. We just hope that there’s somebody else (at the pro level) who will look at him like Mr. Dudra did.”

Passed over in the bantam draft at 15, skipped over in the NHL draft last year, Leeb tries to make the hockey world wise to the size of his contributions. He does it the one way he knows how.

Spectacularly.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHL playoffs Prince George vs. Spokane (Best-of-5) Today: at Spokane, 7:05 p.m. Saturday: Prince George at Spokane Monday: Spokane at Prince George Tuesday: Spokane at Prince George* Thursday: Prince George at Spokane* *-if necessary

This sidebar appeared with the story: WHL playoffs Prince George vs. Spokane (Best-of-5) Today: at Spokane, 7:05 p.m. Saturday: Prince George at Spokane Monday: Spokane at Prince George Tuesday: Spokane at Prince George* Thursday: Prince George at Spokane* *-if necessary