Koper comes through

Whatever shell Levko Koper lived in during his 15-year-old A-league days in Edmonton, Alberta, has seemingly been shattered.

The 18-year-old Spokane Chiefs forward broke out last season, earning a starring role on Spokane’s hard-checking, two-way line with Tyler Johnson and Justin McCrae and the trio became a key component to Spokane’s Memorial Cup run in May.

Now Koper, still a solid checker, has scored points in all 10 games this season and is leading the Chiefs in scoring.

Koper potted a first-period power-play goal and recorded an assist on Blake Gal’s empty-net power-play goal Wednesday night – Koper’s fifth goal of the season – and the Chiefs extended their lead in the U.S. Division standings with a 5-1 Western Hockey League victory over the Portland Winter Hawks in front of 3,513 fans at the Arena.

“I didn’t really see it (my success) happening two or three years ago, but it’s clicking right now,” Koper said. “Last year I was getting maybe a point every two games, and it started to get better toward the end of the season

‘I definitely feel a lot more pressure this year – not really from any of the coaches, but just from myself.”

With the win, Spokane (7-1-0-2) extended its division lead to four points over the Tri-City Americans (6-3-0-0), though Chiefs coach Hardy Sauter wasn’t entirely thrilled with the way the Chiefs won.

“Sloppy,” Sauter said to describe the overall performance. “We just played good enough to win tonight, really. I thought goalie James (Reid) made a few saves late enough in the game to keep the score where it was. Not the end of the world, and I’m happy with the win, no doubt, but we need to play better going into the weekend.

“As it stood, (Portland) was in the game right until the end.”

A victory might have been a nice way to end the day for the Winter Hawks, whose coaching staff and players have an uncertain future after the league announced the approved sale of the franchise to Calgary-based oil and gas businessman Bill Gallacher.

But the Chiefs proved to be too much.

Koper put Spokane on the board with a power-play goal in the first, and teammate Drayson Bowman patiently skated into the slot and netted another power-play goal in the second period to give Spokane a 2-0 lead.

Portland captain Travis Ehrhardt scored on the power play midway through the second to keep the Winter Hawks within one goal of Spokane, but David Conrad broke open the game again when he scored 4 minutes, 12 seconds into the final period.

Mitch Wahl, fresh off a three-game suspension, scored Spokane’s fourth goal off a Bowman pass and Koper assisted Gal on the final goal of the night.

“I thought it was a good game for us – our power play was good tonight,” Wahl said. “Other than that, I think we played pretty hard and got the pucks deep. Everyone can score on our team right now – it’s not really one guy. Everyone is chipping in.”

The Chiefs continue their three-games-in-four-nights stretch Friday when they host the Kamloops Blazers. Spokane hits the road Saturday to take on the Tri-City Americans.

“(Today) we’ll go through our D-zone coverage a little bit, penalty killing a little bit, and I want to go over some things on the power play,” Sauter said. “Hopefully, we’ll be a little more efficient on Friday.”

Ice chips

Chiefs overage forward Justin McCrae (knee) was reevaluated Monday and said Wednesday he expects to be out at least another 3-4 weeks because of a severely sprained MCL. McCrae has only played in one game this season. … The Brandon (Manitoba) Wheat Kings won hosting rights of the 2010 Memorial Cup, the WHL announced. Three WHL Clubs – Brandon, the Everett Silvertips and the Kelowna Rockets – submitted applications to host the annual Canadian Hockey League championship. This season’s Memorial Cup will be hosted by the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.