The road to Rimouski

For 39 of the first 72 games of the WHL season, the Spokane Chiefs hardly resembled the team that won last season's Memorial Cup. A new coach and new players staked the team to a 22-14-3 record and had them clinging to third place, just ahead of the Kelowna Rockets. Spokane was about 10 points behind the hated Tri-City Americans and was losing ground.

Enter Brady Calla and re-enter Ondrej Roman.

After winning the game prior to the acquisition of these two stars, Spokane hasn't lost with Calla and Roman in the lineup. Now, Spokane stands at 35-14-3 with three games in hand on the Ams and just six points back.

During their 11-game winning streak, Spokane has outscored opponents 53-10, including 9-1, 6-0 and 6-0 victories in their last three contests, two of which were against playoff teams to be.

They have the reigning Player of the Week - Drayson Bowman - along with their top two lines playing their best hockey of the season and the WHL Goaltender of the Week for the third straight week - Dustin Tokarski - running away from every other netminder in every statistic.

The only negative during the streak has been the loss of star defenseman Jared Cowen, who injured his knee in the 6-0 victory over the Chilliwack Bruins. However, against a decent offense on Saturday night against the Kootenay Ice, the Chiefs dominated both sides of play in the latter of the 6-0 whitewashes.

Coming in to town on Friday night is the Vancouver Giants, who boast the top record in the league at 44-4-3. Vancouver has been virtually unstoppable, with superstars in defenseman Jonathon Blum and forwards Evander Kane and Casey Pierro-Zabotel. With 244 goals against 102 goals allowed, the 142-goal margin is, by far, tops in the league... the next highest is the Calgary Hitmen at +116.

Nevertheless, Spokane is the team to beat in this matchup and will prove to be the better and more well-rounded team on Friday. The home-ice advantage helps, but the way the Chiefs are playing, it doesn't matter.

During the streak, Spokane's power play is 16 for 58, while they've scored more shorthanded goals (six) than their opponents have scored while on those man-advantages (4 for 52).

It definitely won't be a gimme, but it should be a preview of the Western Conference Finals. In their first matchup of the season, the Chiefs should defend home ice.

Prediction: Spokane- 5, Vancouver- 2.