Sports in brief: Chiefs will host Wheat Kings

Hockey: The Spokane Chiefs are hosts to the Brandon Wheat Kings tonight.

Tonight’s game will begin a stretch of four games in five nights as the Chiefs will travel to Kelowna on Friday and have a home-and-home series with Portland on Saturday and Sunday.

Brandon visits the Arena for the first time since a 4-3 Spokane win on October 23, 2007.

In their lone meeting last season, Brandon handed the Chiefs a 4-1 loss despite Spokane’s 34-23 shot advantage.

The Chiefs hold a 13-5-1 record in the regular season against the Wheat Kings since the 1995-96 season.

Brandon defeated the Chiefs in a five-game series in the ’95-’96 WHL Finals.

The Wheat Kings will be the host team for this season’s Memorial Cup.

NIC goes for 600th win Friday

Wrestling: North Idaho opens its season Friday with a chance to notch a milestone in the opening match against Montana State- Northern at 7:30 p.m. in NIC’s Christianson Gym.

NIC goes after the program’s 600th win, which includes 13 National Junior College Athletic Association championships, 49 NJCAA individual championships and 194 NJCAA national place-winners.

The program was established in 1969. North Idaho College’s wrestling program holds the most team and individual championships and national place-winners of any wrestling program in the country.

Friday’s match will feature three returning All-Americans: Kamron Jackson and Celic Bell from South Haven, Mich., and Rudi Burtschi from Oakdale, Calif.

Franks signs with CFL team

Football: Defensive back Stanley Franks, a key component on the Spokane Shock’s 2009 ArenaCup championship team, has signed with the practice squad of the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League.

The Lions have two games remaining and are in the CFL playoff hunt. Franks isn’t expected to play in the team’s next game.

Franks, a former Idaho Vandal, had a team-high 97.5 tackles, 18 pass breakups and eight interceptions during the regular season. He also picked off a pass and returned in 48 yards for a touchdown in the Shock’s 74-27 rout of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the title game.

Jim Meehan