Career still on ice

It was quite the scare.

It was Jan. 20, 1997, when the Chiefs were heading back to Spokane from Calgary, Alberta, after a game against the Hitmen.

A quick fan favorite, alternate captain Greg Leeb was playing his third season in a Spokane Chiefs sweater when the bus carrying the team hit a patch of ice and slid off the road into a ditch near Cranbrook, British Columbia.

With the nightmarish bus crash that had claimed nine players from the 1946 Spokane Indians baseball team, this accident brought back familiar feelings to the area. But the Chiefs were lucky. There were only relatively minor injuries, and nobody was killed.

It’s an event Leeb will never forget when reflecting on his four-year career in the Western Hockey League.

“After seeing pictures and footage of the scene, it’s something you look back on and you’re just thankful,” said Leeb, who played for the Chiefs from 1994-98. “It really puts things into perspective, especially at that age. It just changed your outlook on life.”

Two days later, Leeb was back on the ice playing in the WHL All-Star game, which was played in Spokane that year.

During his career in Spokane, he was part of several important milestones in the Chiefs’ rich history.

As a rookie, he played in the final game within the walls of the old Boone Street Barn before the Veterans Memorial Arena went up in 1995. The following season, 1995-96, the Chiefs were playing in the new Arena.

They won 50 games that year and advanced to the WHL finals in one of the most exciting playoff series in franchise history. Down three games to none to division-rival Portland, the Chiefs won the next three to set up a deciding seventh game, which the Chiefs hosted.

With a sold-out building and, Leeb recalled, thousands of towels spinning in the crowd, Darren Sinclair found the net in overtime to send Spokane into the WHL finals – only to lose in five games to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

After leading the Chiefs in scoring the next two seasons, Leeb went to NHL camp as a free agent and signed shortly thereafter with the Dallas Stars. He spent two seasons playing for Kalamazoo, Mich., in the International Hockey League. In 2001, while skating for the Stars’ affiliate in Salt Lake City, Leeb was called up to the big stage twice.

“It was pretty much a whirlwind,” said Leeb, 30. “Both times I got notice that morning, so I’d go, not knowing how long I was going to be staying. I just remember showing up for the games after a couple of plane rides, I’d get ready, play, and then both times I was sent right back.”

Did it leave him hungry for more?

“Every player wants more, but just to have that experience and opportunity, though, was great for me and exciting for my family as well,” he said.

To this day, Leeb hasn’t lost his appetite for playing hockey.

He and his wife of six years, Krystalyn, live in Germany, where Leeb has played since 2002. He spent his first season with the Augsburg Panthers and has played for the Nurnberg Ice Tigers the last five years.

“Coming over, it was definitely an adjustment,” said Leeb. “I had to adjust to the culture and a little bit to the way hockey is played over here, but since then I’ve traveled and seen parts of Europe that I don’t know if I would have seen otherwise.”

Halfway across the world, Leeb fondly remembers his days as a Chief.

“I have great memories from every season,” he said. “That first year definitely had its moments, as well as the next year with the crash.

“And then there are some games that stick out and memories off the ice, too, so it’s not just one thing. I have great memories of playing in Spokane.”