Chiefs At Saskatoon

Time: Tonight at 5:30 PST in Saskatchewan Place.

Records: Spokane (11-5), Saskatoon Blades (8-11).

Radio: KGA-AM (1510). Hockey Tonight with Craig West, 4:30.

Key players: Spokane: D Sean Gillam (3 goals, 18 assists) LW Greg Leeb (13, 7), C Trent Whitfield (13, 15), C/RW Jason Podollan (7, 5), RW John Cirjak (9, 9), RW Randy Favaro (7, 15), D Hugh Hamilton (2, 14), C Darren Sinclair (5, 8), LW Dmitri Leonov (5, 8),GK David Lemanowicz (3.75 goals-against), RW Jay Bertsch (2, 2).

Saskatoon: RW Frank Banham (23 goals, 14 assists), C Mark Deyell (15, 24)), C Clarke Wilm (13, 12), GK Randy Weinberger (3.85 goals-against), D Pavel Kriz (2, 20), LW Paul Buczkowski (4, 12).

At a glance The Spokane story is a tale of two teams. At home the Chiefs are among the WHL’s best. On the road they’re 3-4 after a 2-0 lead slipped away from them Monday night in a 4-2 loss in Prince Albert. The bright spots are Leeb, with 5 goals and an assist in his last 2 games, and Favaro. With a goal and 4 assists in his last 2 outings, Favaro has eclipsed what he did last season. Favaro has 23 points in 15 games. He had 18 points in 66 appearances a year ago. Tonight’s challenge is to sit on Banham, the WHL’s leading scorer who was shut out when the Blades lost here on Oct. 22. There is no letup in sight. Chiefs play Friday night in Brandon, Saturday in Moose Jaw and Sunday in Regina.

Around the league: Dale Marquette is the interim coach of the Prince George Cougars after Doug Hobson was fired on Nov. 3. Hobson was 31-105-6 with the Cougars. Marquette was Hobson’s assistant. Prince George management talked to former Chiefs coach Bryan Maxwell before Maxwell agreed to coach and run hockey operations in Lethbridge.

, DataTimes