Fans Give Standish A Breather

Marty Standish received an unusual reaction at the Arena Sunday afternoon no reaction at all.

Standish is the player Spokane Chiefs fans love to hate.

Even though most of the crowd of 7,877 were Chiefs fans, the Memorial Cup game did not involve Spokane, so there was no reason to get on the little winger.

“If the fans here hate me, it just means I’m doing my job a lot better,” Standish said after Portland’s 6-2 win over Guelph. “It’s just a role I play. I try to be an agitator and get under people’s skin. So if they hate me, that’s good.”

There was a good contingent of Winter Hawks fans in attendance. There also was a good chance many Spokane fans were pulling for Portland, hoping for an all Western Hockey League final next Sunday.

Before then, however, Portland and Spokane meet Thursday to conclude the round robin.

“We had a lot of Portland fans here, we just mostly heard cheers. It will be a lot different when we play Spokane,” Standish said.

Hot stick

Portland winger Bobby Russell came into the Memorial Cup on a roll, scoring the game-winning goals in the final two games of the WHL championship series against Brandon.

He kept it going with the first and last goals Sunday against Guelph. The first one was huge, coming 2:08 into the game after the nervous Hawks drew a penalty 52 seconds into the game.

“We were super nervous. All last night, we couldn’t sleep. The nerves were on us, butterflies, the whole works,” Russell said. “It’s just great that we can get off to a good start. A minute into the game, they’re on the power play. It brought us up a hundred percent and it took them down a ton because no one likes to get scored on on the power play.”

The play appeared harmless as Todd Robinson put a long shot on Chris Madden on the penalty kill.

“It hit his left pad and came right out,” said Russell, who had 10 goals in 16 playoff games. “I just kind of worked my way around the defenseman who was on me and it was just sitting right there with an empty net. I didn’t have to do much at all.”

That was basically all the Winter Hawks needed as they opened a 6-0 lead.

”(Brent) Belecki just stood up after that and he just played great like he usually does,” Russell said of his goalie. “He plays a great game and we don’t think, ‘Wow, he’s awesome.’ We just kind of expect it from him now. He doesn’t play too many bad games and when he does, he never plays two in a row. He’ll be on the whole tournament, I think.”

Bad experience

If experience counted, the Guelph Storm would have to be the Memorial Cup favorite. Six Guelph players participated in the 1996 tournament at Peterborough, Ontario.

Brian Willsie, Jason Jackman, Nick Bootland, Mike Vellinga, Andrew Long and Chris Hajt were on a club that went 0-3 and was outscored 12-2.

They were outscored 8-0 in their 1996 opener and 6-2 in their debut Sunday.

Willsie, Guelph’s leading scorer in the regular season with 45 goals and 76 points, tallied the Storm’s first goal with 3:31 to play.

“Some of us played well and some of us didn’t play very well,” Willsie said. “Those of us that played well tonight have to play well again tomorrow and the rest of us have to step up.”

Long, the Storm’s No. 2 scorer with 29 goals and 69 points, is not playing because of an injury. Bootland is third with 23 goals and 60 points.

The envelope, please

Belecki was named the top goaltender at the WHL awards ceremony in The Met Sunday night.

Spokane defenseman Kyle Rossiter received the Darryl “Doc” Seaman Trophy as Scholastic Player of the Year. Rossiter will graduate from Ferris High next month.

Marian Hossa of Portland was named top rookie.

A complete list of award winners is in the Stat Sheet on Page C6. The WHL winners represent the league at the Canadian Hockey League awards banquet at the Hall of Fame in Toronto on June 24. The CHL represents the Western, Ontario and Quebec leagues.

The WHL announced its Western and Eastern All-Star teams. Spokane put forwards Greg Leeb and Trent Whitfield on the second team for the West. Belecki, Hossa and defenseman Andrew Ference were picked for the first team with Robinson on the second team.