Cowen, Johnson rivals for a night

Spokane Chiefs teammates Jared Cowen and Tyler Johnson will be rivals tonight in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when Cowen and Canada take on Johnson and the United States for the gold medal at the world junior hockey championships.

Canada, the five-time defending champion, overcame a 4-2 deficit with 10 minutes to go in regulation on New Year’s Eve to beat the U.S. 5-4 in a shootout in a final preliminary round game.

It is the first world junior final between the countries since the U.S. beat Canada 4-3 in the 2004 gold medal game. Canada has made every final since, and won every one of them.

“It’s great being up here and having people actually know what the world juniors is,” said Johnson, a forward from Liberty Lake, who has three goals and two assists for the U.S.

Cowen, a defenseman, has one assist for Canada.

A third Chief in the tournament, defenseman Stefan Ulmer, had three assists Monday for Austria in a 6-4 loss to Latvia in the ninth-place game.

Finland beat Russia 4-3 for fifth place and the Czech Republic defeated Slovakia 5-2 for seventh in Monday’s other placing games. Sweden and Switzerland play for third place today.

Girls basketball

Kellogg 64, Wallace 18: Shayna Waechter scored 15 points to lead the Wildcats to victory over the visiting neighboring rival Miners in a non-league game.

The Wildcats (9-4), who got scoring from 10 of the 11 who played, led throughout. MacKenzie Dire led Wallace (3-10) with six points, half of them on a 3-pointer.

Bonners Ferry 44, Lake City JV 43: Hallie Payne’s put-back basket with 3 seconds left, off an Emily Pauls miss, gave the Badgers the victory at home.

Erin Hiatt led Bonners (5-6) with 14 points. Jamie Yurick had 12 and Jaida Burgess 11 for the young Timberwolves.