Smith Hits Milestone As Chiefs Romp Left Winger Tops 90-Point Mark In Win

The Spokane Chiefs held on to their narrow lead in the Western Hockey League West in what was a special Saturday night for Tim Smith.

Smith, the Chiefs’ dynamic left winger, had a goal and three assists in Spokane’s 6-3 win over the Tri-City Americans before a sold-out crowd of 10,759 in the Arena.

The Chiefs maintained their game-and-a-half lead over the Prince George Cougars with six regular-season games left, including tonight’s stop in Portland.

Smith became only the third 90-point scorer in coach Mike Babcock’s six seasons here. And with a half-dozen games to work with, Smith is looking forward to breaking 100.

Ray Whitney’s franchise record of 185 set in ‘91 is safe, at least for now. Smith at 18 has one and possibly two more seasons to aim at that.

As for the Babcock-era Chiefs, only Dmitri Leonov in ‘96 and Greg Leeb two years later exceeded 90 in a season.

“Ninety points is a dream,” Smith said, “but with six games left, 100 would be unbelievable. Scoring 100 puts you in elite company.”

Nine Spokane players got on the scoresheet in this, the Chiefs’ 42nd win and their third straight rout of their Highway 395 rival. Derek Schutz had a pair of goals and two assists to run his season total to a career-high 71 points. A postgame review of the scoring pointed to Brent McDonald as Spokane’s other multiple-point scorer. Schutz got an assist that was originally credited to Dan Bohac.

If the Schutz-Smith-McDonald line is on fire, then the Brandin Cote-Lynn Loyns-Tim Krymusa line is at least smoking. It was Cote’s labor-intensive line that sent a 2-2 game after one period on the way to a clear-cut Spokane win.

Skating at the end of a powerful shift, Loyns and Cote teamed up for the game-winner, Loyns getting it by Tri-City netminder Blake Ward for his 19th goal to put the Chiefs up 4-3 after two. “We had a lot of good shifts, grinding it out down low,” Loyns said. “That’s what our line is good at, and some thing we take pride in. We were down in our end when the puck came up the wall from Krymusa. Krymusa chipped the puck out, Coats battled around one of their D-men, fought through him and got the pass over to me.

“I got it on my backhand and just shot it in the net. It was a great play by Cote.”

The Chiefs, who outshot Tri-City 14-5 in the second, broke it open in the third on goals by Schutz and Smith. Locked in a battle with Calgary’s Brad Moran for the WHL assists title, Smith went top shelf with a slap shot from the slot for his 24th goal of the season.

“Goals are always tougher for me to come by (than assists),” Smith said. “I always appreciate it when I score a goal. It made it 6-3. It really sunk ‘em.

“I still got three assists. I’m still on track.”

The clubs split four first-period power-play goals.

Bohac logged his 35th with the Chiefs on a 5-on-3 power play to put Spokane up one. Schutz later jammed a rebound through Ward’s pads.

But Eric Johansson had a hand in two Tri-City first-period goals that put the Americans up briefly. Johansson scored his 23rd and set up Eric Clark’s ninth goal of the year.

The Chiefs needed only 24 seconds of the second period to go up by a goal. Roman Tvrdon notched his 27th with help from Schutz with the Chiefs again on the power play. The Americans tied it 72 seconds later on Tim Green’s goal.

Then came the Americans’ collapse, hastened by the Chiefs’ impressive depth. As the huge crowd did the wave, the Chiefs came on in waves, four lines strong.

“That first line is a handful right now,” said Babcock, who won his 223rd regular-season game in Spokane. With two seasons in Moose Jaw, Babcock is looking for his 280th WHL coaching victory tonight. “We got good production from our fourth liners - Joff Kehler and Matt Keith. They were really physical.”

It was more than the debilitated Americans could handle. Tri-City has lost all three of its 20-year-old players to injury. Some eight players that coach Don Hay counted on back in October are out. Tri-City rotated only four defensemen through most of the game.

For their part the Chiefs seem to be playing as well now as they have all year, playing with confidence through the pressure of a championship race. At the first intermission, Babcock said the Chiefs thought they could “get to another level and I think we showed it.”

Goaltender Jason LaBarbera won his fourth straight over Tri-City, stopping 16 of 19 shots.

“The way we count, we counted only 16 shots,” Babcock pointed out. “When you see 16 shots the problem is you turn into an iceberg and suddenly they get a quality chance. That’s tough for a goaltender.”