Winter Hawks Turn Aside Chiefs, Retain First Spokane Stymied By Portland Goaltender

Don’t let the score - 3-1, Portland - fool you. This one was closer than that. A scoreless tie would have been a more fitting ending to this Western Hockey League game.

With goalies Chris Wickenheiser of Portland and Aren Miller of Spokane stealing the spotlight, the Winter Hawks and Chiefs entertained 8,923 fans in Memorial Coliseum on Friday night.

Todd Robinson added two goals and an assist to the career-high five points he scored Wednesday (four goals and an assist) as the Winter Hawks stretched their West Division lead to three points.

The Chiefs, who have lost five in a row on the road, are in a second-place tie with Seattle, a 12-1 winner over Edmonton.

Spokane, which has lost three of four to Portland this season, gets a rematch tonight at 7 in the Spokane Arena. Expect to find Wickenheiser and Miller back between the pipes. Their play warrants an encore.

Wickenheiser, a bargain-basement pickup after being cut loose by Red Deer, turned in a brand-name performance, stopping 40 of the 41 shots the injury-reduced Chiefs sent his way.

Joe Cardarelli was the only one to dent his armor, deflecting a Brad Ference shot into the back of the net at 16:09 of the first period on a power play for his third goal in two nights.

Miller was nearly as spectacular. He turned aside 39 shots. Portland’s final goal, Robinson’s second and 17th of the season, went into an open net with 6 seconds to play after some maneuvering by Spokane coach Mike Babcock had the goalie off the ice for an extra late-game attacker.

Portland struck quickly as Robinson set up Bobby Russell at 2:02 of the first, then connected himself on a power play less than 6 minutes later.

Babcock’s timeout settled the Chiefs.

Spokane was without regulars Joel Boschman (groin), Curtis Suter (concussion), Jay Bertsch (infection) and Trent Whitfield (ankle).