Chiefs Chill Winter Hawks, 4-2 Keep Pace With Kamloops In Whl’s West Division Race

The Spokane Chiefs closed out their regular-season series against Portland Wednesday night by bouncing the Winter Hawks 4-2 in front of a Rose Garden crowd of 9,523.

Jan Herdina, Randy Favarro, Demetri Leonov and Joe Cardarelli scored goals for the Chiefs (39-18-4), who retained their share of first place with Kamloops (40-19-2) in the West Division of the Western Hockey League.

Kamloops defeated Swift Current 4-3 Wednesday night.

The win over Portland gave Spokane a 2-2 road split with the Winter Hawks (24-32-3) and a 6-2 overall advantage in their season series.

Portland grabbed an early 1-0 lead when Richard Zednik redirected an Andrew Ference shot past Chiefs goalkeeper David Lemanowicz in the first period. But Spokane answered later in the period with unassisted goals by Herdina, his 23rd, and Favarro, his 15th.

Herdina, in his first game back after missing two weeks with a groin injury, stepped around Portland defensemen Kevin Popp and beat Hawks goalie Brent Belecki for his goal. Favarro scored on a ringing slap shot from left of the circle.

Portland tied it in the second on a goal by Kevin Haupt, but fell behind for good when Leonov scored his 29th goal later in the period.

Cardarelli capped the game’s scoring with a third-period unassisted goal that resulted from a Portland turnover on its own end of the ice.

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WILD WEST Western Hockey League West W L T Pts GF GA Kamloops 40 19 2 82 291 216 Spokane 39 18 4 82 268 202 Tri-City 38 19 2 78 278 209