Saturday's highlights

The Vancouver Giants aren’t going to have power forward Milan Lucic back, at least not in the short term. Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reports that Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli called the Giants and informed them that Lucic will stay with the NHL club. Once Lucic, 19, plays his 10th game it counts as one season in terms of free-agent eligibility, but he has made enough of an impact with the Bruins -- as well as quickly becoming a fan favourite -- that the Bruins want a longer look. That doesn’t mean they can’t send him back at some point in the season. . . . “What he told us was that the nine-game rule doesn’t mean anything to them,” Giants head coach Don Hay told Ewen. “To them, how he is playing is what dictates whether he’ll stay. Right now, he’s playing well, he’s contributing to their success and they really like him. What he said to us is that it doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to come back at sometime, but just don’t expect him after nine games.” . . . Lucic is eligible to return to the Giants anytime before Feb. 26, which is the NHL trade deadline. . . .

SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
If you like the gimmickry of the shootout, this night was for you. Three of 10 games ended up decided in circus time. . . .

In Brandon, the Medicine Hat Tigers overcame a 1-0 deficit with four second-period goals -- three in a span of 2:16 -- and beat the Wheat Kings, 5-2. Brandon went into the game having outscored the opposition 16-2 in second periods this season. . . . Farmanara, added after he was dropped by the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the 20-year-old deadline, had two goals for the Tigers (9-3-1-0) and has seven on the season. . . . G Andrew Hayes, who missed time with a broken finger and then a concussion, made his WHL debut for Brandon (7-4-0-0), coming on in relief of Joe Caligiuri to start the third and stopping eight of nine shots. . . . Brandon has lost two in a row for the first time this season. . . .

In Moose Jaw, Mitch Fadden was the only one of eight shootout skaters to score as the Lethbridge Hurricanes beat the Warriors, 3-2. And so ended Moose Jaw’s six-game winning streak. . . . Rookie C Tomas Karpov forced the overtime, scoring his fifth goal of the season (and 10th point) for Moose Jaw (6-3-2-1) at 7:14 of the third period. . . . Mike Wuchterl, added at the 20-year-old deadline in place of Yashar Farmanara, scored his fifth goal of the season for the Hurricanes (6-7-1-0). . . .

In Prince Albert, the Regina Pats outshot the Raiders 49-22 en route to a 5-2 victory. The Pats scored the game’s first four goals, the first three of those on the PP, and took a 4-0 lead into the third period. . . . C Jordan Eberle, 17, had two goals for Regina (10-4-0-0), giving him a league-leading 13. He also had an assist, for 20 points in 12 games. . . . With 20 points, Eberle is tied for the WHL points lead with Chilliwack Bruins C Mark Santorelli. . . . The Pats got two assists apiece from C Tim Kraus and D Nick Ross. . . . Regina’s league-leading power play now is 24-for-89 (27 per cent). . . . The Raiders (3-9-2-0) are 0-5-1-0 in their last six. . . .

In Red Deer, RW Shayne Wiebe’s first WHL goal stood up as the winner as the Kamloops Blazers beat the Rebels, 2-1. Wiebe caught up to a dump-in and threw the puck to the front of the net, where it deflected off Red Deer D Luke Egener and past G James Reimer. . . . Kamloops G James Priestner, a 16-year-old freshman, stopped 15 shots as he started in place of the injured Justin Leclerc (ankle). . . . Kamloops (5-5-1-0), which got a goal from LW Travis Dunstall just 47 seconds in, had a 24-16 edge in shots. . . . The Rebels are 4-8-2-0. . . .

In Cranbrook, Michael Stickland’s shootout goal gave the Kootenay Ice a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Edmonton’s Brent Henke and Kootenay’s Dustin Sylvester both scored in the third round of the shootout. Stickland, the circus’s 12th shooter, finally won it. . . . Edmonton RW Brett Breitkreuz forced overtime with his second goal of the game, at 18:27 of the third period. . . . .The Ice (4-8-1-0) led 2-0 five minutes into the second period, on goals by John Negrin and Steve Da Silva. Negrin also had an assist. . . . Brenden Dowd got Edmonton (4-5-0-2) on the board at 16:22 of the second period on the power play. . . . Edmonton G Alex Archibald stopped 42 shots so played a big role in the outcome. . . .

In Swift Current, the Broncos took a 4-1 lead into the third period and lost 5-4 in a shootout to the Prince George Cougars. . . . Swift Current (8-2-0-2) actually led 4-1 at 10:44 of the second period only to have the Cougars roar back with three goals -- by Evan Fuller, Art Bidlevskii and Jordy Deagle. Fuller and Bidlevskii both scored their first goals of the season, with the latter sniping shorthanded. Deagle’s second of the season, at 13:51 of the third period, forced extra time. . . . The shootout went three rounds with Ty Wishart, in the second round, the only skater to score. . . . The Cougars (5-8-0-0) wrapped up a six-game East Division swing at 4-2-0-0. . . .

In Kelowna, the Spokane Chiefs scored the third period’s only two goals and beat the Rockets, 4-3. . . . The Chiefs (7-2-1-1) outshot the Rockets 28-19, including 13-3 in that third period. . . . D Jared Spurgeon, younger brother of former Rockets C Tyler Spurgeon, and C Seth Compton had the third-period goals. Spurgeon scored 47 seconds in on a PP, while Compton got the winner at 15:25. . . . Kelowna (4-6-1-0) has lost three straight. That follows on the heels of what was a three-game winning streak. . . . The game featured a pair of brothers opposing each other -- Kelowna D Collin Bowman, 16, and Spokane LW Drayson Bowman, 18, who originally are from Littleton, Colo. Collin is in his first season, while Drayson is in his third. Neither managed a point and, no, they didn‘t entertain the fans with brotherly fisticuffs. Collin did, however, get into a third period scrap with Spokane‘s Cody Esposito. . . .

In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans won their third straight game, beating the Saskatoon Blades, 3-1. . . . The Blades, who fell 3-2 in Spokane on Friday, have lost three straight. . . . Tri-City G Kyle Birch stopped 21 shots in first start at home as the Americans improved to 10-3-0-0. . . . C Kruise Reddick’s seventh goal, on the power play at 6:57 of the second period, broke a 1-1 tie. . . . Tri-City, which also had a shorthanded goal, by D T.J. Fast, was 1-for-10 on the PP; the Blades were 1-for-4. . . . Saskatoon (3-7-1-0) has scored 29 times this season, with 14 of those coming on the PP. . . . “You’ve gotta score more than one goal to win and we had ample opportunities,” Lorne Molleken, Saskatoon’s general manager and head coach, told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. “And I didn’t think our goaltending has been very good two nights in a row.” . . . Saskatoon G Braden Holtby went the distance Friday in Spokane but didn’t get through the first period in Kennewick, leaving after taking a delay of game penalty and giving up Fast’s goal on a soft wrist shot. . . .

In Vancouver, Garet Hunt’s goal with 2:36 left in the third period broke a 2-2 tie and gave the Giants a 3-2 victory over the Everett Silvertips. . . . The winning goal came after Everett G Leland Irving tossed a gloved puck into a corner -- after some prodding from officials -- where it was kept alive by Vancouver captain Spencer Machacek. . . . The Giants (9-1-1-1) have won nine in a row. . . . Irving stopped 33 shots, while Vancouver’s Tyson Sexsmith made 17 saves. . . . Everett is 5-6-0-0. . . . Machacek broke a scoreless draw early in the second period. . . . Goals by C Zach Hamill, at 17:11, and winger Kyle Beach, at 19:21, of the second period gave Everett a 2-1 lead. Beach’s goal was the first PP score given up by the Giants in 37 opportunities. . . . Mario Bliznak pulled Vancouver even at 4:03 of the third. . . . The game featured the fourth scrap in two seasons between Hunt and Everett’s Brennan Sonne. . . .

In Seattle, G Jacob DeSerres stopped 26 shots for his first shutout of the season (and fourth of his career) and duked it out at game’s end as the Thunderbirds (5-1-2-1) dumped the Portland Winter Hawks, 2-0. . . . Third-period goals by D Thomas Hickey, 27 seconds in on a PP, and C Jeremy Boyer, his sixth, 58 seconds later were the difference. . . . Boyer, who had six points last season, has six points, all goals, in nine games this season. . . . The game featured 112 penalty minutes, 88 of those in the final minute. That included a fight between DeSerres and his Portland counterpart, Jacob DeSerres, at the final buzzer. . . . The Winter Hawks, who have lost five in a row, are 1-9-0-0.