The Spokane Chiefs start the second half of the Western Hockey League season in a couple of days with a home-and-home series with the Seattle Thunderbirds. We took the opportunity to get to know Spokane native Tyler Alos, a second-year center with the T-birds who sees his role explanding. Included are a bunch of notes that point out how hot the Chiefs were heading into the Christmas break, getting their with a milestone win for coach Don Nachbaur and goalie James Reid.

Back from a day off and a Christmas party to real news - Spokane Chiefs captain Jared Cowen named an alternate captain for Team Canada in the upcoming World Junior Tournament in Buffalo, N.Y., beginning the day after Christmas.

Correspondent Steve Christilaw brought home a winner at the Arena, the Chiefs headed to Christmas break with a 4-0 win over Vancouver. On Friday, all the Chiefs’ streaks, power plays, games with points, ended in a 2-0 loss at Everett, a tough break for backup goalie Mac Engle trying to get his first win.

With 45 seconds left in overtime, Travis Toomey collected a drop shot between the circles and beat James Reid to give Seattle a 5-4 win over Spokane, ending the Chiefs’ six-game Western Hockey League winning streak. The Chiefs still picked up a point in the 12th straight game, but they also blew a 3-0 lead. Former Chief Burke Gallimore had three goals and assisted on the game winner. Other stars were Mitch Holmberg, with a goal and two assists, and Brenden Kichton with two goals. Long box below. Here is the story.

It’s official, Spokane Chiefs captain Jared Cowen is named to Team Canada for the World Junior tournament.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs hammered Seattle last night (box score below) with a rematch in the Arena tonight. There was some fisticuffs so it might be interesting to see how tonight’s game goes if the Chiefs get a big lead. Remeber, after this weekend there are 9 days off for Christmas and the first two games back - a home & home with the Thunderbirds. Not sure Seattle will react kindly to seeing a five-point deficit jump to 13 in such a short period of time. The emphasis for Spokane is team, eight players scored in the 8-2 romp … but it’s a perfect coach Nachbaur romp, it was close until the 5-goal third period, which gives him a chance to keep his team’s attention.

Former Spokane Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter has found a new home in Boise with the Idaho Steelhead. We touched bases with Sauter, above in a Steelhead photo by Jeff Foley,  last week for a story in this morning’s newspaper

Go to Dubnation and hit the link for magazine for some good reading about the WHL, including a story about Spokane Chiefs captain Jared Cowen. The red-hot Chiefs are at Seattle tonight with the teams squaring off at the Arena on Wednesday. They also play a home-and-home next week on the matching days.

I knew the Spokane Chiefs were hot, a 10-5 win over Kamloops ran their winning streak to five and before that they handled league-leading Portland 9-3. But I didn’t know they were quite that hot. Keep

Spokane Chiefs, behind Dominik Uher’s hat trick and six points from acting captain Tyler Johnson, beat Kamloops 10-5. It’s the second straight trip to Spokane the Blazers give up 10. Uher and Johnson were the first two stars, Brady Gaudet, a 16-year old D-man for Kamloops, who had a hat trick in the second period, was the third star. Here is the game story, long box is below.

It was teddy bear toss in Vancouver, spoiled  by the Spokane Chiefs when Blake Gal was the only one of six shooters to score in the shoot-out. That’s four wins in a row for the Chiefs heading into a home game tonight against Kamloops.

A year ago Jared Spurgeon was playing hockey for the Spokane Chiefs and fighting for his professional life. He had been drafted by wasn’t signed. He had a great season, got a free agent try-out with Minnesota, was invited to camp, signed a contract and sent to Houston in the AHL. He’s already in the NHL and getting noticed, as this story by Kent Youngblood of The Minneapolis Star-Tribune suggests.

Meanwhile, the Tri-City Americans made a big trade.

With captain Jared Cowen headed off to Toronto for Team Canada tryouts for the World Junior tournament after Friday’s game in Vancouver and young D Reid Gow slated to be gone after Christmas for a prospects tournament in Canada, the Chiefs picked up a defenseman on Thursday, Davis Vandane, who has played for the Saskatoon Blades. If Cowen makes the team, and he did last year - losing the gold medal game to teammate Tyler Johnson and Team USA - he could miss nine games. The Chiefs have won three in a row after Wednesday’s 9-3 rout of Portland. They are at the Arena on Saturday against Kamloops, a 10-1 loser here in their last visit.

Chiefs roll to 5-0 lead in first period and whip first-place Portland 9-3. Stars are Brenden Kichton, Steve Kuhn and Mike Aviani. Box score reflects corrections, Vanscourt gets another assist and a goal, giving him a four-point night. Here is the story.

The Spokane Chiefs out-worked the team with the best record in the Western Hockey League, recording a 4-3 win over the Portland Winterhawks at the Arena Saturday night, when 7,638 fans contribute more than 4,600 stuffed animals on Teddy Bear Toss night. The stars were 1, Steve Kuhn with two goals, 2, James Reid with 26 saves, and D Brenden Kichton. That ended a 10-game losing streak to Portland in Spokane.

The complete box is below. Here is the story.

Anthony Bardaro scores a power play goal at 3:12 of overtime to give the Spokane Chiefs a 3-2 win over Medicine Hat. Bardaro got third star, Tigers goalie Tyler Bunz, who made 34 saves, was second and Tyler Johnson, with two goals, was first star.But all in all the Chiefs were fortunate, and they know it. Complete box below. Story here.

Spokane Chiefs defenseman Garrett Leedahl retires because of repeated concussions.

As first reported by Gregg Drinnan (see below), former Chief Jared Spurgeon could make his National Hockey League debut tonight for Minnesota. He’ll be wearing No. 26 at Calgary.

The question is, what’s bigger news, that or current Chiefs captain and defenseman Jared Cowen getting invited back to Team Canada tryouts for World Juniors? Cowen was on the silver medal team last year. Training camp in Toronto is Dec. 11-15, which means he is likely to miss six games in the nine days before the WHL Christmas break. That will be painful for the Chiefs.

After two lacklustre periods, the Spokane Chiefs come alive in the third period on a power play goal by Tyler Johnson and a short-handled goal by Matt Marantz (originally credited to Steve Kuhn), but Geordie Wudrick’s second goal, a power play marker 42 seconds into overtime, lifts Kelowna to a 3-2 win. Complete box below. Here is the story.

The Spokane Chiefs are about to faceoff with the Kelowna Rockets in the Arena - without veteran goalie James Reid. Reid was injured Friday night in Kamloops, where the Chiefs lost in a shootout 4-3, 48-hours after crushing the Blazers 10-1 here. Local goalie Branden Amatto, 19, is in uniform as an emergency backup. Mac Engle 0-2-0-1 is making his third start. Despite winning nine of 10, the Rockets are tied with Everett for last in the Western Conference with 26 points, but they are just one point behind three teams, including the Chiefs, and are four points out of second. Stay abreast of the scoring on Twitter, follow SRtrim.

The Spokane Chiefs, after routing Kamloops 10-1 Wednesday night and have the rematch up north tonight.

We had a look at the Chiefs’ second line (Kuhn between Gal and Miller), which is a big help on both ends of the ice.

It seem like a pretty normal hockey game.

Fighting to get out of the basement, the Spokane Chiefs jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead over Kamloops Wednesday night at the Arena. The scored stayed that way until early in the third period when the flood gates opened. The Chiefs scored six goals for a 10-1 lead, highlighted by captain Jared Cowen’s three goals - a rare hat trick for a defenseman.

In fact, it’s just the fourth three-goal game by a Chiefs D-man. Mitch Cornett did it in 1986, also against Kamloops, and Bryan McCabe, who is still skating in the NHL, did it twice in the 1993-94 season, buring Victoria and Tri-City.

The story is here, but because of early deadlines, I had to file before going for interview’s. Cowen’s take on his offenisve outburst and the coach’s thoughts are below.

The Spokane Chiefs are home tonight for their tradition night-before-Thanksgiving Western Hockey League game.

The opponent is Kamloops, which beat Regina in overtime Tuesday night to knock the Chiefs into last place in the Western Division by one point. Last, other than sounding bad, doesn’t mean a whole light with the tight standings. A little run could have the Chiefs into third before the weekend is out. Kelowna comes to the Arena on Saturday. Kamloops jumped from 10th to a tie for sixth.

Early deadlines tonight (something about a great big paper to deliver on Thanksgiving morning and bad weather) means tomorrow’s story won’t have any comments. However, if all goes well, we’ll have more information on Sportslink before the night is over. Now, to go deal with some weather related issues around the house.

You can follow the game and get the link to the story through Twitter at SRtrim.

The Spokane Chiefs played 90 of their last 95 games - or something like that - on the road, but they return to the Arena Wednesday night for a home-and-home with Kamloops (the return is Friday) and face Kelowna on Saturday. It’s the start of a pretty good home stretch until the Christmas break. (Officially 9 of last 11 on road, eight of next 12 at home.)

Even coming off a 1-1-0-1 three-game roadtrip against U.S. Division foes, coach Don Nachbaur wasn’t distressed, the topic of the notebook for Wednesday’s paper. Can’t afford to look back, Kamloops is one point behind the Chiefs in an unbelievably tight Western Division race.