Tri-City Sinks New-Look Chiefs Spokane Sends Magliarditi To Red Deer, Hands Goal To 18-Year-Old Miller

If the Tri-City Americans’ 10-4 win over the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night had been a football game in search of a theme, it might have gone down as the Ho-Hum Bowl.

The season’s 10th meeting between the Western Hockey League neighbors was for the most part a forgettable exercise, save for a significant development at trade deadline earlier in the day.

It was the first game in a new direction, the first of the season without some question about who’s the starter in goal. That was settled earlier in the day when the Chiefs sent 20-year-old Marc Magliarditi to the Red Deer Rebels for a fourth-round pick in the ‘98 bantam draft.

The deal means the Chiefs will sink or swim with 18-year-old Aren Miller between the pipes.

They spent the waning moments of this one bouncing on the bottom.

The Americans fired 10 shots on goal in the third period. Five found the back of the net.

The Chiefs don’t have time to brood over their fourth loss in five games to the rebounding Americans. The clubs renew their 16-game series tonight at 7 in the Arena.

Magliarditi had won eight of his last 11 starts but failed to distance himself from Miller, now the undisputed starter.

“Marc was on a roll for us but we feel that with the Memorial Cup coming up (the Chiefs are in it next year as the host team) we had to give Aren the ball and let him run with it,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “We’ll sit back and grin and bear it, or be happy with it.”

Friday night it was grin and bear it, despite three points by Spokane’s Trent Whitfield, who cut the lead to 5-4 47 seconds into the third period with his second goal of the game and 23rd of the year.

The Americans responded with their five-goal barrage to improve to 11-8-2 at home in front of 4,706 at Tri-City Coliseum. Kris Graf staked the Chiefs to a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the season on his first shift in seven weeks. Graf was making his first start since breaking his hand Dec. 1.

The Americans rallied to lead 2-1 after one period on goals by Joey Bastien - only his third of the year - and Dan Smith.

John Cirak pulled the Chiefs even with his team-high 27th goal, but Shawn Gervais and Ken McKay answered for the Ams, McKay scoring back-to-back to boost the Ams’ lead to 5-2.

Whitfield made it 5-3 after two periods. Whitfield rebounded his own play started by Marian Cisar, who pulled the puck from Gervais and fed it cross-ice to Whitfield in the high slot.

But Mike Hurley scored a minute later and the rout was on.

The Chiefs suited two new players - Chad Reich, obtained this week from the Edmonton Ice - and backup goaltender Nolan McDonald, a 19-year-old free agent who early in the year refused to report to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec League had traded him.

Also on Friday, Spokane traded for defenseman Kirk Dewaele, who should arrive in time for tonight’s rematch. Dewaele, 20, comes in with two goals and 19 assists with the expansion team in Edmonton.

Reich, who has some speed, will scrap. Dewaele is a puck-carrying defenseman. McDonald will back Miller.

“We felt Dewaele as a third or fourth D-man will be a much better player here than he was in Edmonton,” Babcock said. “We gave up a fourth round (bantam) pick and and got a fifth-round pick back (from Edmonton). We didn’t give up a whole bunch to hurt our hockey club, and we think we got stronger this year.”

Babcock said the best part of Friday was that Seattle and Portland, the two clubs ahead of Spokane (23-23-2), did nothing to improve as the trade deadline passed.

Notes

The hardest worker at Friday’s WHL trade deadline was former Chiefs coach Bryan Maxwell, director of operations in Lethbridge. The Hurricanes landed the prize of the week in defenseman Chris Phillips, late of the Prince Albert Raiders. Maxwell also bought some scoring pop from Prince Albert in right wing Shane Willis. Both Phillips and Willis starred for the Eastern Conference in Wednesday night’s all-star game in Spokane. The ‘Canes, who now have a dozen 19-year-olds, also brought in 17-year-old blue-liner Dylan Kemp and former Chiefs goaltender Blaine Russell in the deal with Prince Albert. Lethbridge sent 16-year-old center David Cameron, left wing Cam Severson and 17-year-old D-man Richard Seely to P.A. “Bryan did a heck of a job with that trade,” Tri-City coach Bob Loucks said… . The biggest non-move Friday was the Americans’ decision to retain Brian Boucher. “For us to trade Brian, the deal would have had to be so good that we couldn’t turn it down,” Louks said.

Americans 10, Chiefs 4

Spokane 1 2 1 - 4 Tri-City 2 3 5 - 10

First period - 1, Spokane, Graf 2 (Jones), 3:22. 2, Tri-City, Bastien 3 (Smith), 8:08. 3, TriCity, Smith 5 (Hurley, Gyori), 14:07. Key penalties - Ference, Spo, 1:02; Graf, Spo, 5:46; Gervais, TC, 9:50; Cisar, Spo, 10:17.

Second period - 4, Spokane, Cirjak 27 (Whitfield, Cardarelli), 2:13 (pp). 5, Tri-City, Gervais 7 (Komarniski), 5:51. 6, Tri-City, McKay 8 (Ascroft, Orr), 11:23. 7, Tri-City, McKay 9 (Pylner, Smith), 16:18. 8, Spokane, Whitfield 22 (Cisar), 17:55. Key penalties - Komarniski, TC, 2:04; Haley, Spo, 2:27.

Third period - 9, Spokane, Whitfield 23 (Leeb, Jones), :47. 10, Tri-City, Hurley 24 (Ascroft, Anderson), 1:48. 11, Tri-City, Komarniski 10, 3:36. 12, Tri-City, Gyori 22 (Pylner, Hurley), 12:04 (pp). 13, Tri-City, Pylner 4 (Flynn), 15:13. 14, Tri-City, Bastien 4 (Thompson), 18:42. Key penalties - Brown, Spo, 8:08; Haley, Spo, 11:12.

Power-play opp. - Spokane 1 of 2; Tri-City 1 of 5. Saves - Spokane, Miller 11-15-5-31. TriCity, Boucher 14-6-10-30. A - 4,706.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition