Dan Weaver

1. Paul Seebeck tunes in to a listener's opinion on The Score. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Depending on who you talk to, says host Dennis Patchin of KXLY, talk radio can be both gratifying and terrifying. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Enders and his wife endured three war-time separations.

The Spokane Chiefs made Blake Evans, a hard-hitting, goal-scoring center from Smiley, Sask., their first pick in the Western Hockey League bantam draft Thursday, then made a deal to cover themselves down the road. The Chiefs sent a second-round pick to the new Calgary Hitmen, who in return agreed not to take a Chiefs player in the May 25 expansion draft.

Referee Dennis LaRue gets in some NHL ice time in a game between the Calgary Flames and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Photo by Dana Fisher/Special to The Spokesman-Review

An amendment to the proposed state budget aimed at lengthening the horse racing season in Spokane is still alive. The amendment attached by State Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, stipulates no money goes to the Washington Horse Racing Commission unless the state's three major racing associations, including Playfair, receive at least 60 days with state-wide simulcasting.

Trent Whitfield's desperate 35-foot slap with 1:08 to go pulled the Spokane Chiefs into an improbable overtime Thursday night. But after Whitfield and the Chiefs rallied for three goals in the third period to tie their Western Hockey League West Division semifinal at 4 in regulation, the issue went back to Terry Ryan in overtime.

Suspended jockey Scott Bergsrud testified Tuesday that his former agent asked him if he was interested in "making some extra money" by withholding his mount in a 1993 race in Spokane. The agent, LeRoy Nelson, is appealing a Washington Horse Racing Commission suspension of his license in a hearing at the state attorney general's office in Spokane. Nelson, of Vancouver, Wash., was one of six who were suspended last June for alleged race fixing at Playfair Race Course in November 1993.

Jason Podollan is congratulated by Spokane teammates after scoring the first of his two goals in the Chiefs' 4-2 home win. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Jockey Scott Bergsrud accepts deal in race-fixing case that will keep him from ever again riding competitively in Washington. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Bergsrud 3. Parker

Will he or won't he? Not even the Tri-City Americans know for sure, or if they do, they aren't talking about it. He is Brian Boucher, the injured Tri-City goaltender, whose absence was felt Saturday night in Kennewick, where the Spokane Chiefs extended the Western Hockey League West Division semifinals with a 9-7 win over the Americans.

Tri-City's Rob Butz (25) celebrates one of his two second-period goals that sent the Americans on their way to a 6-5 come-from-behind win. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

The Tri-City Americans, running precariously close to empty, rallied Wednesday night to stay in the passing lane of the Highway 395 Series. This Western Hockey League West Division semifinal resumes Friday night in the Spokane Coliseum with the Chiefs trailing two games to one.

The Chiefs got their shots against Tri-City, though Greg Leeb's attempt past Tri-City Ryan Marsh didn't go. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Frank Mahovlich spends a couple of minutes dealing with the changes in the game he grew up with before he's leaning back in his chair and throwing up his hands. "You're going to get my blood boiling way too early," he said, laughing. The current of the conversation is rerouted.

At least the Spokane Chiefs don't have a lot of time to stew over Monday night's 5-2 playoff loss to Tri-City. They resume their Highway 395 series tonight at 7 in the Coliseum hoping to even the Western Hockey League West Division semifinal with the Americans at one apiece.

The $18 billion state budget that passed through the Senate Friday includes a provision that could lead to relief for embattled Inland Northwest thoroughbred horse trainers and owners.

The Chiefs' Jay Bertsch, left, keeps pressure on Tacoma's Joel Kwiatkowski as the two engage in a bit of air hockey with the puck. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Tri-City's Daymond Langkow, left, puts the defensive pressure on Spokane's Hugh Hamilton. Special to the Spokesman-Review

The Tri-City Americans have never stepped beyond the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs. Daymond Langkow is beginning to take the plight of the 7-year-old franchise personally.

With time running out on their drive to lengthen the 1995 racing season, Spokane horse people say they'll turn down the rhetoric without sacrificing their resolve. Leaders of the Organization for the Preservation of Horse Racing in the Northwest (OPHRN) met Thursday to talk strategy and vent their frustration - privately - in the wake of a disappointing decision by the Washington Horse Racing Commission. The commission on Tuesday reaffirmed 1995 racing dates at Playfair Race Course that restrict Inland Northwest horsemen to 50 days from Sept. 6 to Nov. 27.

For 20 minutes Saturday night, Spokane flirted with the unrealistic - twice taking first-period leads in a game that could have put the fifth-place Chiefs two games up on the two higher seeds in Round One of the Western Hockey League playoffs. But Vaclav Varada's soft hands played roles in four Tacoma goals, and Todd MacDonald rejected 36 shots as the Rockets came from behind and won going away, 5-2.

When the Spokane Chiefs dealt all-star defenseman Bryan McCabe to the Brandon Wheat Kings on Feb. 2, the universal reaction was that Spokane traded the present for the future. McCabe went to Brandon for defenseman Adam Magarrell and impressive future considerations, including a first- and second-round pick in the bantam draft. The surprise is that, heading into tonight's playoff opener with the Tri-City Americans at the Coliseum, the Chiefs are 13-4-3 since dealing McCabe.

With the stakes raised, will two highly skilled players - Daymond Langkow and Terry Ryan - turn up aces for the Tri-City Americans? Will the Tacoma Rockets falter in March, again?

The co-chairman of a horsemen's organization that is lobbying for an acceptable racing season in Spokane criticized State Sen. Jim West on Saturday. On Monday, West fired back. West was criticized for failing to support legislation backed by the East Side horsemen's group, the Organization for the Preservation of Horse Racing in the Northwest (OPHRN).