Krymusa Talks Softly, Carries Prolific Stick Chiefs Winger Better At Lighting Lamp Than Impressing Interviewer

His conversations are guarded. Words come out softly, in trickles. Yeah is a complete sentence.

Nothing of what Tim Krymusa has to say goes on another club’s required reading list. His interviews don’t wind up on bulletin boards.

If you ask if we might see another incredible four-goal game from him, like he had in Kelowna a couple of weeks ago, he says, “Oh yeah, I think so, yeah.”

Not quite a tirade, nothing like an outburst, but that’s as much as Tim Krymusa cares to vent on the subject.

Four goals, five words - six if you count “yeah” twice.

Not that that’s bad. Interviews are pretty one-sided, certainly, but not because the left winger from Morden, Manitoba - the son of a Pentecostal pastor there - is surly or selfish.

Besides, it’s not his volume that grabs attention, but the meaning of the points he makes. They can be well-timed, on or off ice.

Three of his 16 goals, for example, are game-winners. Four are listed as insurance goals - the scores that make everybody breathe easier. Winning and insurance goals are the critical strokes of a game.

Krymusa ranks second only to Daniel Bohac among the Chiefs in impact goals.

So it is with the occasional points he makes in conversation. They can be well-timed and well-taken.

It wasn’t that way from the get-go. Despite a religious off-season training regimen - the 190-pound 17-year-old bench pressed 230 pounds 7 times in summer testing - Krymusa was initially as silent on the ice as he can be off it. He struggled early with his scoring touch. His ice time lagged. Talk was that he had to play harder on a consistent basis.

Getting over that hurdle “is all part of maturing,” said the senior at Ferris High School.

Was it goal-production? A hard-work issue?

“A little of both,” Krymusa ventured. “I started off a little slow. Hopefully, that’s behind me now.”

With eight goals in his last seven games, Krymusa is on a tear. He’ll try to lengthen his string of contributions tonight in the Arena when the Chiefs and the Swift Current Broncos tangle in a game of Western Hockey League division leaders.

Asked how the addition of goaltender Jason LaBarbera has changed things in Spokane, Krymusa said, “We feel confident when he’s in net, so maybe we take that extra chance. Like the fourth man jumping in (to the rush).”

Goaltenders are measured by save percentages and goals-against averages, but the great ones can generate offense, too.

Deep into his second season, Krymusa’s career is in transition, from rookie to veteran. After spending last year in last place, he hints that this club has allowed itself to dream.

“I think the M.C. (Memorial Cup) is in the back of everybody’s minds,” he said. “It’s game-by-game but, yeah, I think we match up with (top-ranked) Calgary. I think it showed when we played them here. We stayed right with them.”

He’s had his best games against Kelowna, in part because he has family in the city on Lake Okanagan.

His maternal grandparents, and an uncle and aunt, are among the halfdozen relatives who come out to cheer him on in Kelowna.

If they’re anything like Tim, they don’t make a lot of noise, but he knows where they are.

And as his successes begin to mount, they aren’t the only ones who pay attention to him.

Notes

Joff Kehler is back with the Chiefs, filling in for the injured Matt Keith and Mason Wallin… . Last week’s NASCAR night with the Chiefs, featuring Winston Cup driver Chad Little, raised more than $12,000 for the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. … The Chiefs have scored powerplay goals in 12 of their last 13 games… . The Swift Current Broncos were in town Tuesday, practicing at Ice World in the Valley… Tonight’s Spokane-Swift Current game matches the leaders in the WHL West and East divisions… . After tonight, the Chiefs will play only eight of their final 21 games at home. The major break in the late-season schedule is that their last two meetings with second-place Prince George are in the Arena. … Defenseman Stephen Peat of the Calgary Hitmen was treated and released last week after suffering a stab wound in an altercation at a Calgary night spot. Drinking age in Canada is 19. A 20-year-old man was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of being unlawfully at large, the Calgary Sun reported.