Chiefs Go To Cam A Lot, Collect 5-0 Victory

The Spokane Chiefs had three days to put together a game plan for the Medicine Hat Tigers. Reduced to the basics, they simply went to Cam a lot.

Playing in his fifth game with Spokane since his Jan. 15 trade with the Prince Albert Raiders, Cam Severson had a four-point night - three goals and an assist - in the Chiefs’ 5-0 slump-busting win.

Spokane broke a three-game losing streak and held second place in the Western Hockey League West with a record-setting defensive effort. The Chiefs limited Medicine Hat to 11 shots, breaking their 2-year-old club record of 13.

An Arena crowd of 5,578 got an early glimpse of the versatility coach Mike Babcock has at hand following a series of trades and five months of pointing the franchise for the stretch run, the playoffs and the Memorial Cup. The five skaters who started - Severson, Trent Whitfield, Rick Berry, Perry Johnson and Zenith Komarniski - weren’t here when the season started.

Berry, normally a defenseman who was acquired last week from Seattle, started on the left wing with Severson on the right side and Whitfield in the middle. It’s a line that may work down the stretch as the Chiefs try to hold off the third-place Prince George Cougars in the jockeying for home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

Look for Komarniski to get a shot at forward as well.

“I can’t get the five D-men (Komarniski, Berry, Brad Ference, Kyle Rossiter and Johnson) out in the first two shifts,” Babcock said. “I want those physical guys out there as much as I can.”

Severson needed less than 2 minutes to score the game-winner. Alone between the circles, he took a pass from rookie Cole Fischer and beat goaltender Scott Buhler at 1:51 of the opening period.

“That was a nice pass from Fish, kind of a no-look pass,” Severson said. “I was just going to the net.”

Five minutes later he deflected Komarniski’s wicked slap shot from the point on the power play into the net.

“That’s my job on the power play, to get my body in front and tip anything into the net when I get a chance,” said Severson, who has 26 goals. He was the leading scorer in Prince Albert.

“It’s been a battle the last four games to get the puck in the net,” he said. “It’s a confidence builder to finally get some points in front of the hometown fans, to show them why they traded for me.”

Severson assisted on Ty Jones’ goal a minute into the second period and 1:17 later completed the hat trick, his second of the season and third of his career. It was the second 4-point night of his WHL career that started in Kamloops.

“It’s nice to see Cam Severson get untracked in Spokane,” said Babcock, whose club improved to 33-16-3. “He’s not close to as good as he’s going to be - there’s still some things we’ve got to do there - but he’s a big, strong (6-2, 215) guy that we didn’t have. He’s going to be a horse here.”

Severson, a left-handed shooter, said starting on the right side with Berry and Whitfield was “kind of a surprise but I guess he wanted Rick and me to set the tone. Rick threw some really nice body checks his first game here (last Saturday night).”

The Chiefs will start newly acquired goaltender David Haun Saturday night against Tri-City in the Arena. The shutout was Aren Miller’s third of the year and seventh of his major junior career.

The Tigers, a 5-4 winner in Tri-City on Tuesday night, fell to 12-36-2.

“They won a big game on their road trip last night and they’re a team that traded the majority of their older guys, so it was going to be hard for them to bounce back,” Babcock said. “Their best player, (captain Jason) Chimera was tired and our guys never gave him any room at all.”

Chiefs 5, Tigers 0

Medicine Hat 0 0 0 -0

Spokane 2 3 0 -5

First period - 1, Spokane, Severson 24 (Fischer, Schutz), 1:51. 2, Spokane, Severson 25 (Komarniski, Berry), 7:09 (pp). Key penalties - Whitfield, Spo, 2:03; Smyth, Spo, 2:28; Sandrock, Spo, 5:31; Severson, Spo, 13:55; Voth, MH, 16:33.

Second period - 3, Spokane, Jones 21 (Leeb, Severson), 1:00. 4, Spokane, Severson 26 (Whitfield, Grimard) 2:17. 5, Spokane, Ference 7 (Schutz, Johnson), 18:41 (pp). Key penalties - Severson, Spo, 2:44; Willie, MH, 5:01; Leeb, Spo, 6:18; Schutz, Spo, 8:38; Brand, MH, 14:30; Jones, Spo, 15:30; St. Marten, MH, 17:20.

Third period - None. Key penalties - Smyth, Spo, 2:54; Severson, Spo, 5:22; Loyns, Spo, 13:11; Kuokkanen, MH, 14:36.

Power plays - Medicine Hat 0 of 11, Spokane 2 of 6. Saves - Medicine Hat, Buhler 10-12-16-38, Spokane, Miller 3-4-4-11.

A - 5,578.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo