Chiefs close on Ams; Tokarski wins 69th

PORTLAND – It was a good night for the Spokane Chiefs.

First, although not in chronological order, the Chiefs collected their seventh straight Western Hockey League road win Friday, 4-1 over the Portland Winter Hawks before 2,939 in Memorial Coliseum.

Second, the Edmonton Oil Kings knocked off the Tri-City Americans 3-2 in Kennewick, enabling the Chiefs (36-16-0-3) to move within four points of first-place Tri-City in the U.S. Division with their 14th victory in 16 games.

And third, Dustin Tokarski is now first – in career wins by a Chiefs goaltender.

Tokarski, in his third season in Spokane, held the Winter Hawks at bay for his 69th career win. He has 25 this season.

Aren Miller set the old mark of 68 from 1996-98.

After Spokane opened a 2-0 lead at 17:10 of the second period on Ondrej Roman’s breakaway goal on a feed from Drayson Bowman with the Chiefs shorthanded, Portland picked it up.

Travis Ehrhardt got a screen to blast a shot from the right circle past Tokarski with the Winter Hawks coming off a power play to get within one 1:33 later. Portland worked over Tokarski with 11 shots in the third.

Tyler Johnson’s power-play goal at 16:54 on a feed from Stefan Ulmer stymied the Hawks, and Brady Calla iced it with an empty-net goal at 19:00.

Justin McCrae scored for Spokane late in the first period.