Wednesday's news

A few words of warning for south-bound WHL teams planning to use the Peace Arch border crossing at Blaine, Wash.: Leave early or find an alternate route. . . . The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday that “construction on the Customs and Border Protection facility at the Peace Arch crossing . . . promises to tangle traffic at the border for at least two years by reducing the inspection lanes for travelers entering the U.S. from seven to four.” In fact, the construction schedule will result in only two lanes being open — one of which will be a NEXUS lane — for up to 60 days starting sometime in October. All of that plus the stepped-up security is certain to result in some lengthy delays. . . .

The Kamloops Blazers have assigned D Josh Caron, 16, to the junior B Kamloops Storm. That leaves the Blazers’ roster at 28, including D Keaton Ellerby (Team Canada/Florida Panthers), D Victor Bartley (Detroit Red Wings), RW Juuso Puustinen (Calgary Flames), D Mark Schneider (wrist, five weeks) and D Joel Woznikoski (concussion, day-to-day). . . . Kamloops LW Alex Rodgers, who had major shoulder surgery after being injured in a scrap in February, finally has received medical clearance to take part in contact drills. . . .

The Prince George Cougars have their roster down to 26 after releasing C Matthew Frydrysek, RW Jacob Vernheyden and 15-year-olds Brock Hirsche and Justin Faux. The roster includes goaltenders Real Cyr, 20, and Joel Danyluk, 17, 10 defencemen and 14 forwards. . . . The Cougars are at home to Kamloops on Friday; the teams play in Kamloops on Saturday. . . .

Some news from our European correspondent. . . . Metallurg Magnitogorsk appears to have released G Jamie McLennan. He isn’t listed on the Metallurg website, their roster doesn’t list him and he didn’t dress in Metallurg’s season-opening 3-0 victory over Khimik on Tuesday. . . . Metallurg still has four goaltenders on its roster — Andrei Mezin (33), who played Tuesday and was in Belarus’s net when it beat Sweden at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake, Ilya Proskyrkov (20), Dmitri Bokoshin (18) and Aleksandr Pechyrsky (17). . . . Ässät Pori in Finland’s SM-Liiga has released F Blake Robson (Portland/Prince George) after his tryout. . . . Former Regina Pats C Jeff Friesen is talking with Leksand in Sweden. That is the club that has signed G Ed Belfour. . . .

The Chilliwack Bruins have signed six of their selections from the 2007 WHL bantam draft — C Kevin Sundher (first round, seventh overall), who is from Surrey, B.C.; D Carter Berg (26th) of Saskatoon; RW Dylan McKinlay (48th) of Langley, B.C.; D Tyler Stahl (70th) of Drumheller, Alta.; C Chris Collins (77th) of Calgary; and, LW Blair Wentworth (148th), also of Calgary. . . .

Former WHLer Fabian Joseph has stepped aside as head coach of the Dalhousie Tigers to sign on as associate head coach with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats. Brad Crossley, a familiar face in Dartmouth minor hockey circles, takes over the Tigers as interim head coach, a position he will fill for 2007-08. Joseph spent seven seasons as head coach of the Tigers. . . .

The Regina Pats will have five players attend NHL camps, either rookie or main, before everything shakes itself out — RW Brett Leffler (Washington), D Logan Pyett (Detroit), D Nick Ross (Phoenix), G Linden Rowat (Los Angeles) and LW Myles Stoesz (Atlanta). . . .

More from our European correspondent on Hayley Wickenheiser. . . . She has signed a one-week tryout deal with Arboga. She was to have played in an exhibition game Wednesday night but the Stockholm sports tabloid Sportbladet reported “an expensive insurance premium stopped her from playing.” Wickenheiser, the best female player in Canada’s history, has practised with Arboga for two days. . . .

The WHL has handed down its first two suspensions of this season. RW Taylor Jordan of the Portland Winter Hawks got one game for a major and game misconduct he incurred on Saturday, while RW Isak Quakenbush of the Seattle Thunderbirds got two games for a kneeing major and game misconduct from a Saturday game. . . .

In Wednesday’s lone exhibition game, LW Mitch Czibere’s two goals helped the Vancouver Giants to a 3-2 shootout victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack. Colby Kulhanek and Liam Darragh scored for the Bruins, who led 2-0 in the first period. Czibere scored late in the first period and then tied it at 13:59 of the third. Vancouver outshot Chilliwack, 42-16. The Giants were 1-for-9 on the PP; the Bruins went 0-for-6. . . . Matt Esposito (Chilliwack) and Kraymer Barnstable (Vancouver) went the distance in goal. . . . For what it’s worth, the Giants are unbeaten in 19 exhibition games since 2005. . . . Last season, the Giants went 12-1 against the Bruins, including 8-0 in the regular season. . . . The Giants are without six players who are at NHL camps — G Tyson Sexsmith (San Jose), D Juraj Valach (San Jose), D Mike Berube (Edmonton), F Garet Hunt (Vancouver), F Michal Repik (Florida) and F Spencer Machacek (Atlanta). . . .

The freak injury of the exhibition season may belong to Vancouver C Lane Scheidl of Saskatoon, who was a third-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. He stepped on a puck during the Everett tournament on the weekend and now is out with a sprained ankle. . . .