Spokane At Tri-City

Time: Tonight at 7:30 in Tri-City Coliseum

Records: Spokane (36-16-3), Tri-City Americans (34-18-2).

Tickets: Fewer than 400 remained as of Thursday afternoon. Americans expect a sellout.

Radio: KGA-AM (1510) 6:30 p.m. Hockey Tonight with Craig West.

Key players: Spokane: C Darren Sinclair (27 goals, 35 assists), C Jason Podollan (26, 16), D Sean Gillam (10, 42), C Trent Whitfield (27, 40), RW John Cirjak (21, 36), D Hugh Hamilton (6, 43), LW Dmitri Leonov (26, 41), RW Randy Favaro (13, 23), GK David Lemanowicz (3.08 goals-against), C Jan Hrdina (22, 34), RW Jay Bertsch (12, 20).

Tri-City: C Daymond Langkow (17 goals, 39 assists), RW Jaroslav Svejkovsky (43, 30), LW Terry Ryan (28, 27), C Brent Ascroft (29, 40), GK Brian Boucher (3.59 goals-against), LW Mark Hurley (26, 40), RW Mike Dubinsky (8, 16), C Boyd Olson (6, 8), D Alexandre Boikov (2, 33), D Byron Briske (9, 31), LW Sean Gervais (14, 19).

At a glance: With Americans trying to break out of a mini-slump and make up ground in the WHL West, the rivalry gets even more intense. Heading into Thursday night’s game with Prince George, T-C had scored only six goals while losing two of its last three games (it won last night, 6-4). As a result, Spokane has opened up breathing room at the top. Chiefs took a 5-4 edge in this series last week with a game-winning goal that has been disputed by Ams coach Bob Loucks. Loucks says Spokane’s decisive goal came as Podollan was interfering with T-C goaltender Boucher. Controversy shouldn’t cloud the real issue. That is that these two are emerging as one-two in the West, but who’s No. 1 is still open to debate.

, DataTimes