LW Todd Kennedy of the Regina Pats has been suspended indefinitely after initiating a hit Thursday night that left Brandon Wheat Kings C Jay Fehr with a concussion. Fehr was left with his second concussion of the season while Kennedy wasn’t penalized as neither referee Derek Zalaski nor linesmen Graham Heather or Ian Schafter made a call. . . . “It was a bad hit, a blow to the head, and a blow to the head on a vulnerable player . . . and to be honest, it wouldn’t matter if it was a Brandon Wheat King or any other player. That’s not a good hit,” Wheat Kings GM/head coach Kelly McCrimmon told the Brandon Sun. “Blows to the head have been an area of emphasis in our league now, this is the second year. And I think those types of hits are something that our league is actively working to take out of the game . . . One of the things we go through with our own players at the start of the year is just the level of respect that you have to show your opponent and that they fully understand that if they hit the opponent in the head when he’s vulnerable, they’re going to be suspended.” . . . Brandon begins a three-game Alberta swing Sunday in Calgary against the Hitmen. The Wheat Kings start the trip without five front-line players – C Andrew Clark (ankle), LW Daniel Bartek (World Junior Championship), and rookie forwards Scott Glennie and Brayden Schenn, and freshman D Brodie Melnychuk, who are at the World Hockey Challenge. . . . The Wheat Kings are bringing in C Paul Ciarelli, 16, from the midget AAA Winnipeg Wild, and RW Brandon Regier, 15, from the B.C. major midget league’s Fraser Valley Bruins. Regier was the 17th overall pick in the 2007 bantam draft. . . .
FRIDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
In Red Deer, the Edmonton Oil Kings scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Rebels, 4-2. . . . C Carter Smith gave the Rebels a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal at 14:49 of the second period. . . . C Brandon Lockerby pulled Edmonton even less than three minutes later and C Brent Raedeke followed with the eventual winner at 19:29 of the second. . . . Red Deer was without G James Reimer (ankle), so had Travis Rolheiser up from the AJHL’s Canmore Eagles to back up Morgan Clark. . . . Edmonton C Brenden Dowd had a goal and two assists. . . . Edmonton held a 34-28 edge in shots. . . . Red Deer had won the three previous clashes with the Oil Kings, each of them by a 4-3 score and two of them in shootouts. . . .
In Portland, the Moose Jaw Warriors scored the game’s last four goals and beat the Winter Hawks, 4-3. . . . RW Jordan Knackstedt scored the last two goals for Moose Jaw, which fired 58 shots at Portland G Kurtis Mucha. . . . C Jason Bast had three assists for Moose Jaw. . . .
In Seattle, G Jacob DeSerres stopped 28 shots as the Thunderbirds blanked the Everett Silvertips, 3-0. . . . It was DeSerres’ second shutout of the season and fifth of his career. . . . With the victory, the Thunderbirds (16-11-5-1) moved into a tie with Everett (18-18-0-2) and the Chilliwack Bruins for fifth place in the Western Conference. . . . Everett associate coach Jay Varady ran the team’s bench in the absence of head coach John Becanic, who was ill. . . . C Lindsay Nielsen’s goal 5:30 into the first period stood up as the winner. . . . Seattle has five games in hand on Everett, which has four victories to show for 24 trips to Key Arena. . . . Everett was 0-for-3 on the PP; Seattle was 0-for-8. . . . Seattle RW Josh Schappert, an 18-year-old from Winnipeg, has asked to be traded. He didn’t return to Seattle after the Christmas break. Schappert, who had 16 points in 72 games last season, has eight points in 22 games this season. His twin brother, Jeremy, is a defenceman with Seattle and made his season debut in this one after recovering from shoulder surgery. . . .
In Swift Current, C Brennan Bosch, who went into the game with five goals, struck four times to lead the Medicine Hat Tigers to a 6-5 victory over the Broncos. . . . Bosch, who also had an assist, got the winner, breaking a 5-5 tie with 13 seconds left in the third period. . . . Medicine Hat lost D Trevor Glass and C Wacey Hamilton undisclosed injuries. Neither is expected to play Saturday in the rematch in Medicine Hat. . . . Medicine Hat held a 42-17 edge in shots on goal. . . . With Czech G Tomas Vosvrda (ill) out of action, the Tigers had G Sunny Gill of the junior B Medicine Hat Hockey Hounds Cubs backing up Ryan Holfeld. . . .
In Prince George, G Real Cyr stopped 31 shots as the Cougars beat the Chilliwack Bruins, 1-0. . . . D Ty Wishart, on a third-period power-play, scored the game’s lone goal. . . . The shutout was Cyr’s first of the season and the 13th of his career. He holds the Prince George franchise career record. . . . Prince George (13-23-1-0) is ninth in the Western Conference, nine points out of a playoff spot. . . .
In Kelowna, LW Alex Rodgers scored on the power play with 17 seconds left to play to give the Kamloops Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Rockets. . . . Kamloops (17-18-1-1) had lost five of its last six games. The Blazers are eighth in the Western Conference, but just two points out of fifth place, which is shared by the Seattle Thunderbirds, Chilliwack Bruins and Everett Silvertips. . . . Kelowna (20-12-2-4) is fifth in the conference and is at home to the Vancouver Giants on Saturday. . . . RW Kenton Dulle scored the Blazers¹ first two goals. At that point, he had scored four straight goals for Kamloops. He had both Kamloops goals in a 3-2 loss in Vancouver on
Thursday. Dulle went into the game in Vancouver, his 91st regular-season contest, never having scored twice in a game. . . . C Colin Long had a goal, his 20th, and two assists for the Rockets. He has 56 points, three shy of WHL points leader C Mark Santorelli of the Bruins. . . . LW Jamie Benn scored Kelowna¹s other two goals, giving him 19 in 34 games. . . .
In Cranbrook, the Spokane Chiefs skated to a 5-2 victory over the Kootenay Ice. . . . The Chiefs (27-6-1-2) continue to have the WHL’s best record. . . . The Ice slipped to 21-13-3-0). . . . The Ice scored both its goals on 5-on-3 power plays. . . . Kootenay C Steve Da Silva had a goal, an assist and a scrap with Spokane C Chris Bruton. . . . The Ice is in Spokane for a rematch Saturday night. . . .
In Calgary, C Colton Sceviour scored four goals to lead the Lethbridge Hurricanes to a 5-4 victory over the Hitmen. . . . The Hurricanes (24-13-1-1) closed to within one point of Eastern Conference-leading Calgary (24-12-1-2). . . . The Hitmen had won 3-1 in Lethbridge on Thursday. . . . The Hurricanes snapped a three-game losing streak . . . Sceviour’s fourth goal, and 15th of the season, midway in the third period broke a 4-4 tie. He had 10 shots in the game. Lethbridge acquired the Red Deer native from the Portland Winter Hawks earlier in the season.
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