Tuesday's notes and highlights. . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The jury is back and the verdicts have been issued. Guilty! Judge Richard Doerksen, then, has doled out the discipline. . . . RW Brad Riege of the Moose Jaw Warriors drew a one-game sentence for the match penalty he incurred on Saturday in Everett. He apparently chomped on one of Everett F Kyle Beach’s fingers. Riege sat out a Sunday game in Seattle so is eligible to play Wednesday when the Warriors resume their U.S. tour in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans. . . . LW Adam Chorneyko of the Lethbridge Hurricanes got two games for a boarding major in Calgary on Friday. . . . RW Dale Weise of the Swift Current Broncos also got two games; this one fell under supplemental discipline for an incident in Medicine Hat on Friday. . . . LW Todd Kennedy of the Regina Pats ended up with a four-game suspension under supplemental discipline. That came from an unpenalized hit in Brandon on Thursday. . . .

Garth MacBeth, our man who keeps such a close eye on the European scene, is back from a Christmas break. He reports that K-Vantaa (Finland Mestis) did not offer a contract to F Chris Di Ubaldo after his tryout contract expired. In six games with K-Vantaa, Di Ubaldo had one goal
and was minus-5. . . . Nyköping (Sweden Allsvenskan) released D Gustav Engman, who then signed with Nybro in the same league for the rest of the season. . . .

MONDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:

In Cranbrook, the Kootenay Ice got two goals from C Steele Boomer as they dumped the Lethbridge Hurricanes, 5-2. . . . The Ice (23-13-3-0) have won two in a row, while the Hurricanes (24-14-1-1) remain three points behind the Eastern Conference-leading Calgary Hitmen. . . . RW Michael Stickland and C Dustin Sylvester got the Ice off to a 2-0 first-period lead and the home team never looked back. . . . Kootenay G Kris Lazaruk stopped 22 shots, while Lethbridge’s Mike Maniago turned aside 28. . . . The Ice was without C Steve Da Silva, its captain. He appeared to suffer a leg injury late in the first period of a 1-0 victory over the Chiefs in Spokane on Saturday. . . .

In Portland, RW Bud Holloway scored twice to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 6-3 victory over the Winter Hawks. . . . Seattle (17-12-5-1) is tied for sixth in the Western Conference with Chilliwack. . . . The Winter Hawks (7-30-0-1) had won their previous game. . . . Seattle led 2-0 on goals by RW Ian McKenzie and LW Jan Eberle in the game’s first 11 minutes. . . . From then on, Portland played catch up but wasn’t able to pull even as it trailed 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2 and 4-3 before Seattle pulled away on goals by RW David Richard and Holloway, who got his 17^th into an empty net. . . . Seattle was 1-for-2 on the PP; the Winter Hawks were 2-for-4. . . . Seattle D Scott Jackson, who scored once, was plus-4, while D Jeremy Schappert was plus-3. . . . Seattle held a 40-36 edge in shots. . . .

In Edmonton, LW Del Cowan’s goal at 17:41 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie as the Brandon Wheat Kings edged the Oil Kings, 3-2. . . . Brandon (24-12-0-1) halted a two-game losing streak and moved into a tie for fourth with the Kootenay Ice in the Eastern Conference. . . . Cowan, an 18-year-old rookie from Hartney, Man., scored Brandon’s first goal at 3:36 of the first period. Cowan has four goals this season. . . . D Cameron Cepek pulled Edmonton even on the PP at 6:42 of the second, only to have LW Matt Calvert, with his third goal in two games, give Brandon the lead less than 10 minutes later. . . . Edmonton LW Shayne Neigum forged a 2-2 tie at 7:05 of the third. . . .

In Everett, RW Dan Gendur scored three goals to lead the Silvertips to a 5-3 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Everett (20-18-0-2) moved into fifth place in the Eastern Conference. . . . The Blazers (18-19-1-1), who went 2-2-0-0 in playing four times in five nights since the Christmas break, slipped into eighth, but they are only four points behind Everett. . . . The Blazers trailed 4-3 and had just begun a power play when Gendur scored a shorthanded goal to put away this one. . . . Gendur, who also had an assist, has 12 goals this season. It was the second three-goal game of his career. He had three goals and four assists in a 9-1 victory in Portland on Jan. 26. . . . Kamloops D Mark Schneider, the son of former Brandon Wheat Kings captain Ken Schneider, scored his first WHL goal. . . . Everett was 3-for-8 on the PP; Kamloops was 1-for-5. . . . C Zach Hamill and LW Clayton Bauer each had a goal and two assists for the Silvertips. . . . Everett RW Matt Ius left in the third period with a leg injury, while C Zack Dailey (groin) missed his second straight game. . . .

In Chilliwack, C Cody Almond scored twice and set up another to lead the Kelowna Rockets to a 4-1 victory over the Bruins. . . . The Rockets (21-13-2-4) are fifth in the Western Conference, seven points behind the Tri-City Americans. . . . The Bruins (18-17-3-1) are tied for sixth with Seattle but the Thunderbirds have four games in hand. . . . Chilliwack got the game’s first goal, when LW Colby Kulhanek scored at 10:59 of the first period. . . . Almond tied it at 3:49 of the second period and added a second goal four minutes later to give the Rockets a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. . . . Kelowna C Colin Long picked up one assist, giving him 58 points. He is two points behind Chilliwack C Mark Santorelli, who leads the WHL with 60 points. Santorelli, however, has just one assist over his last four games. . . . Kelowna G Torrie Jung stopped 33 shots. . . .

In Kennewick, Wash., Tri-City LW Colton Yellow Horn scored twice and added an assist to lead the host Americans to a 4-1 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . Yellow Horn ran his point streak to 20 games, the longest in the WHL this season, as he upped his goal total to 24. He has 20 goals and 18 assists over those 20 games. . . . He also has 51 points and is fifth in the scoring race. . . . The Americans (27-8-1-0) closed to within two points of the Chiefs (27-8-1-2) and Vancouver Giants (26-7-1-4), who lead the Western Conference with 57 points. . . . The Ams and Chiefs have met in 18 New Year’s Eve games, with Tri-City winning 11 and losing six. One game ended in, yes, a tie. . . . C Shaun Vey scored the game’s first goal, the 50^th of his career, for Tri-City and then drew assists on three PP scores. . . . The Americans were 3-for-11 on the PP; the Chiefs were 0-for-4. . . . The Tri-City power play scored on two of three 5-on-3s. . . . The Chiefs, who have lost two straight, got the game’s first goal, from C Tyler Johnson at 5:59 of the first period. . . . Vey tied it at 13:56 and the Ams took the lead on PP goals from Yellow Horn and D T.J. Fast in the second period. . . . Fast also had two assists. . . . Tri-City G Chet Pickard stopped 32 shots in running his record to 23-6-1-0.