The "Under New Management" sign has been hung by the Portland Winter Hawks and their 4-1 win on Halloween over the Tri-City Americans has the rest of the league taking notice. Portland earned a victory, their third of the season but second in four games, in the first career game for new head coach for Mike Johnston, a former assistant in the NHL. Johnston was tabbed to replace Rich Kromm as head coach after the sale of the Portland franchise to Bill Gallacher was approved last week by the WHL Board of Governors.
The Chiefs will get the chance to see the re-energized Winter Hawks on Friday night on Coeur d'Alene Casino's Bingo Night. The Spokane Arena will be turned into the Northwest's biggest bingo game as fans have the chance to win "fabulous gifts and prizes" from Coeur d'Alene Casino.
Newly appointed Winter Hawks Assistant GM/Assistant Coach Travis Green is third all-time in Chiefs history with 303 career points in 258 games. Green, whose 137 goals are fourth all-time and 166 assists are third all-time, played from 1986-90 in a Spokane jersey.
It will be the fourth of nine meetings of the year between the two. Five different players scored goals and the Chiefs were 3-5 on the power play and outshot the Hawks 40-32 in a 5-2 Chiefs win in their last match-up on October 15th. Spokane will host the Hawks five times. The Chiefs are 3-0 on the season versus Portland. Ryan Letts scored twice on Friday, October 10th a 6-2 Chiefs win. Dustin Tokarski stopped 40 Portland shots for a shutout on September 20th. Three players scored for Spokane with goals from Brett Barman, Stefan Ulmer and Jared Cowen. Last season, the Chiefs were 8-0-0-1 versus Portland, dropping the final game of the regular season, March 16th, in a 3-2 shootout.
Tickets to all home games are available by calling the Chiefs office at (509) 535-PUCK or TicketsWest at (800) 325-SEAT.
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