Scattershooting on a Thursday

C Reid Jorgensen, who played the last five seasons with the Kamloops Blazers, has decided not to attend camp with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. Instead, he will attend the U of Calgary and play for the Dinos. In fact, he was in class there on Thursday. . . . Jorgensen, 21, went to camp with the Boston Bruins and they invited him to attend Providence’s camp. . . . The Dinos held a news conference Wednesday to introduce C Jared Aulin, another former Blazers captain who has chosen to play with them this season. . . . It is typical of the low-key Jorgensen that he would show up and attend class with no fanfare. . . .

The Everett Silvertips will have G Leland Irving, 19, and D Taylor Ellington, 19, in their lineup this weekend as they open with two home games. Irving had been in camp with the Calgary Flames and Ellington with the Vancouver Canucks. . . . The Silvertips are at home to the Tri-Ctiy Americans on Friday and the Vancouver Giants on Saturday. . . . C Zach Hamill, the WHL's defending scoring champ, played Thursday night for the Boston Bruins against the New Jersey Devils in Manchester, N.H. He is to fly out of Boston this morning and rejoin the Silvertips but it isn't know whether he will play Friday night. . . . The Silvertips still have three players at NHL camps — C Peter Mueller (Phoenix Coyotes), LW Ondrej Fiala (Minnesota Wild) and D Dane Crowley (Tampa Bay Lightning). . . . Mueller, 19, is expected to stick with the Coyotes. . . . Fiala and Crowley are 20, with Fiala being a potential two-spotter. . . .

The Saskatoon Blades have dealt D Brett Ward, 19, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a 2008 fourth-round bantam pick. Actually, there is more to the deal than that. The Warriors, as it turns out, don’t have a fourth-round pick in that particular draft — yes, it appears that the WHL allows teams to trade things that they don’t have. In this instance, if the Warriors aren’t able to acquire a fourth-round pick in the 2008 draft, they’ll have to cought up their third-round pick in 2009. . . . Saskatoon also released F Craig Cuthbert, 19. . . . The Blades open in Brandon against the Wheat Kings on Friday and they’ll do it without C Colton Gillies, who remains in camp with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The Blades did get C Justin McCrae, their captain, back from the Carolina Hurricanes and he’ll be in the lineup. D Colton MacPherson (flu) and LW Cody Wutzke (concussion) are out, as is RW Garrett Klotz who is serving a suspension left over from last season. . . .

Other players assigned to WHL teams by NHL clubs Thursday:
D Ben Wright, to Lethbridge from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
LW Frazer McLaren to Portland from the San Jose Sharks.
D Ty Wishart to Prince George from San Jose.
C Jim O’Brien to Seattle from the Ottawa Senators. O’Brien has a shoulder injury and, while he skated and did some drills with Ottawa, he isn’t expected to play for perhaps a month). . . .

LW Drayson Bowman, who was reassigned this week by the Carolina Hurricanes, will meet the Spokane Chiefs in Prince George and play against the Cougars on Friday and Saturday. Bowman, 18, was a third-round pick by the Hurricanes in the NHL’s 2007 draft and is said to have been terrific in their camp. . . .

D Nick Ross is back in Regina after a stint with the Phoenix Coyotes and will be in the Pats’ lineup tonight in Prince Albert against the Raiders. . . . Regina has named D Logan Pyett, 19, as its captain, with the alternates being C Kirt Hill, RW Brett Leffler and D Craig Schira. . . .

RW J.D. Watt, 20, was reassigned by the Calgary Flames early Thursday and practised with the Red Deer Rebels later in the day. He will be in Red Deer’s lineup tonight against the host Calgary Hitmen. . . . Watt is one of only seven players presently on the Rebels’ roster who have at least one season of WHL experience under their belts. . . .

From the department of nice scheduling: The Portland Winter Hawks open Friday at home to the Vancouver Giants. The next night, Portland is in Chilliwack to face the Bruins. . . . On the season’s second weekend, Portland is at home to the Tri-City Americans (Sept. 29) and in Kamloops the following night. . . . Gotta wonder what Portland trainer Innes Mackie thinks about that? . . . Obviously, the trainers don’t get any input into the scheduling. . . .

THURSDAY’S GAME
Kootenay 3 at Edmonton 4 — The teams were tied 3-3 and, with about eight seconds left and the faceoff was in Edmonton’s zone. Yes, this one was going to overtime. Except that the Oil Kings got the puck into the Kootenay zone and a centring pass by LW J.P. Szaszkiewicz, who is from Edmonton, glanced off the stick of a defender and past G Kris Lazaruk to give the expansionists the victory in their home-opener. Attendance was 6,782. . . . RW Brandon Lockerby, LW Craig McCallum and RW Brett Breitkreuz also scored for Edmonton. Kootenay, which took a 3-2 lead into the third period, got its goals from RW Arnaud Jacquement, D Chad Greenan and LW Kevin King. . . . Lazaruk stopped 18 shots. At the other end, Alex Archibald turned aside 25 shots. . . . Kootenay wsa 1-for-3 on the PP; the Oil Kings were 1-for-4. . . . It’s interesting to note that one year ago Archibald was in goal for the expansion Chilliwack Bruins as they began life with a 3-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets.