Saturday’s Fan Fest event at the McCarthey Athletic Center felt less like a basketball game and more like a family reunion.

One prolific period has the Spokane Chiefs feeling much better.

It’s a common cliché in hockey that the most important shift in a hockey game is the first shift after a goal. Twice Friday night, the Spokane Chiefs came out flat after a goal and it cost them dearly in a 5-3 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

From staff and wire reports

The Spokane Chiefs earned their first point of the WHL season, but fell to Everett in overtime.

One week ago, the Spokane Arena was decked out as the host of the NHL’s newest entry, the expansion Seattle Kraken, in front of a sellout crowd for a preseason game.

Eastern Washington standout quarterback Eric Barriere did what he does.

From staff and wire reports

Here’s another sign things are getting back to normal: The Spokane Chiefs begin their Western Hockey League season Saturday night at the Spokane Arena when they host the rival Tri-City Americans – and there will be fans in the stands.

From staff and news services

Despite the pandemic, the Spokane Indians had a season to remember. 

Washington State volleyball players had Monday off, fittingly, after working overtime Sunday in a memorable victory over rival Washington. Coach Jen Greeny began playing volleyball in 1991 and coaching the sport in 2000. She’s never been part of a match like Sunday’s five-set thriller. Few have.

Washington State’s Leger-Walker sisters, Krystal and Charlisse, are playing for their native New Zealand this week in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup basketball championships in Amman, Jordan. The tournament runs Monday through Sunday.

A new era of hockey is about to begin in Washington state.

Darkness falls a little earlier every day. The air is getting a little crisper in the evenings. And league play is heating up across the Greater Spokane League and everywhere else across the region.

For a team that lived by Yogi Berra’s saying that “It ain’t over till it’s over,” the end came on a beautiful fall evening when that one last comeback just never materialized.

Spokane plays its best when the odds are longest.

Every game is in must-win territory now.