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If someone is still playing hockey in late May, it’s probably been a good season.

Though it may be hard for them to accept right now, the 2024-25 Spokane Chiefs had a remarkably successful season, one that included record-setting performances, a highlight reel jam-packed with offensive fireworks, and an exciting run through the Western Hockey League playoffs that ended a few wins short of the Memorial Cup.

Ray Whitney knows big games. As a junior player, he won a Western Hockey League championship and a Memorial Cup, then as a pro he won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

All season, the Spokane Chiefs relied on offensive excellence, but ultimately it escaped them when they needed it most. And though there was a late push, in the end it wasn’t enough.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. Achieving something historic usually isn’t. But nobody expected it to be quite this difficult, either.

The Medicine Hat Tigers came into Game 4 at the Spokane Arena quite banged up: consensus 2026 No. 1 NHL draft pick Gavin McKenna missed his second consecutive game with an undisclosed injury, and forwards Cayden Lindstrom and Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll were both scratched as well.

Standing in a suite overlooking the ice at the Arena before Game 3 of the Western Hockey League Championship Series on Tuesday, former Chiefs hockey players Seth Compton, Curtis Kelner and Ryan Letts noted the significance of this reunion.

WHL player of the year and consensus No. 1 overall 2026 NHL draft pick Gavin McKenna was a late scratch for Medicine Hat in Game 3 of the Western Hockey League Championship.

When Justin Falk was traded from the Calgary Hitmen to the Spokane Chiefs early in the 2005-06 Western Hockey League season, it was hardly a lateral move.

The Spokane Chiefs weren’t happy with their performance in Game 1 of the Western Hockey League Championship series, a 4-1 loss in Medicine Hat that was closer than the score appeared – it was a one-goal game in the third period before a bit of a lucky bounce and an empty-net goal.

MEDICINE HAT, Alberta – Spokane Chiefs coach Brad Lauer wondered after Friday’s loss how his team would respond in Game 2.