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.

GETTING HERE FROM THERE: The fall of the Kamloops Blazers

CHAPTER 1: Setting Off in a New Direction . . .

It was late in the summer of 2003 when a nightmare worse than anything the Kamloops Blazers and their supporters could have imagined was unleashed upon the organization.
Hindsight being 20-20, it is easy to look back and pick a date when what had taken so long to build up actually began to come crashing down. Except that back then no one could have known that the organization was like an ocean-side cliff, with the waves taking away its foundation and reputation one grain at a time.
On May 14, 1995, the Blazers won their third Memorial Cup in four seasons. That capped an unprecedented run through the world of major junior hockey. No team had ever had such success in such a concentrated period of time. Considering the number of major junior teams now in existence, no team is likely to have such success again.
The fact the Blazers won that third Memorial Cup on home ice -- in Riverside Coliseum, as it was then known -- made everyone feel like, well, a million bucks.

Sure, the Blazers were in the tournament as the host team, but they also had finished the 1994-95 regular season with a WHL-best 51-14-6 record and had gone on to win the WHL championship, beating the Brandon Wheat Kings in a six-game final. Yes, the Blazers were the host team, but they also went into the tournament through the front door, something that made the championship just that much sweeter.
Kamloops was positively giddy. As one can imagine, there was much celebrating. And there wasn’t any reason to think the run of success would end any time soon. Well, OK, maybe the championships wouldn’t come in such quick succession. But there wasn’t any reason to think the bottom would fall out.
As it turned out, though, things really weren’t as they seemed.

--------

On June 5, 1995, just 22 days after the organization had won that third Memorial Cup, general manager Bob Brown was fired. Team president Colin Day, accompanied by lawyer Barry Carter of the Kamloops firm Mair Jensen Blair that has long represented the Blazers, went to Brown’s office and fired the most successful general manager in major junior hockey. Brown had been the GM since June 24, 1986. Prior to that, he had been a Blazers scout.
It was time, Day said, to go in a different direction.
“Bob has had total control and made all the decisions the last six or eight months with no input from the board of directors,” Day said. “We have to take back control of the hockey club. We can’t turn it into a one-man show.
“The last time I checked there wasn’t any goals scored by Bob Brown or myself. There was some staff unrest . . . it’s time to spread the credit around.”
As for Brown . . .
“I was pretty shocked to say the least,” he said. “I had no idea, not even an inkling. As far as (allegedly having) too much control, it has never been an issue before. If there was a difference of opinion, usually we worked things out. I guess not this time.”
At the time, Day was the president of a five-man board, the other directors being Andy Clovechok, Rick Harris, Red McRae and Ted Smigielski. None of the latter four was aware that Brown was going to be fired until Day called them on the night of June 4, 1995. By the time Day called, three of the men were in bed for the night; the other was at work and could hardly hear Day’s voice over the background noise from his workplace.
On the day of Brown’s firing, assistant general manager Stu MacGregor, who had worked under Brown since Jan. 25, 1991, was named interim general manager. On June 16, 1995, the ‘interim’ was removed from MacGregor’s title. At the same news conference at which that announcement was made, Day revealed that office assistant Maxine Patrick, who had been with the organization since 1986, had been promoted to office manager.
One month later, head coach Don Hay resigned. Ed Dempsey, an assistant coach for six seasons, was named head coach.
The next season, 1995-96, the Blazers were a more-than-respectable 48-22-2 but bowed out in the Western Conference final. The signs were there in 1996-97, though, when they finished an abysmal 28-37-7 and were dumped from the playoffs in the first round. Yes, the writing was on the wall.

--------

And then came the summer of 2003.

While the Blazers were planning for the 2003-04 season, a minor change had taken place deep within the organizational structure of the club. It was one of those changes that may never have been noticed had it not been for subsequent events. Ken Almond, the managing partner at the accounting firm KPMG and an appointed member of the Blazers’ board of directors, had retired to the Lower Mainland. The Blazers account now was in the hands of a young accountant named Paul Mumford.
He would figure in the discovery of an embezzlement in which team officials would say about $1.3 million disappeared.

On Aug. 15, 2006, in B.C. Supreme Court, Crown counsel Joel Gold told the court that Mumford, in preparing year-end statements, had gotten a general ledger from Patrick, who had total control over the Blazers’ bookkeeping, processing of office records and accounting practices. Mumford, Gold said, noticed what he felt was an inordinate number of cheques signed with Patrick as the payee.
Mumford proceeded to get bank statements and cancelled cheques. He then discovered that the cheques being cashed at city banks were for greater sums than what was shown on the stubs and in the ledger.

--------

The Blazers franchise was in the name of Kamloops Blazers Holdings Ltd. The Blazers, at the time, did their day-to-day business as the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society, a not-for-profit society that operated under the B.C. Society Act and with the guidance of a nine-person board of directors, each of whom served on a voluntary basis.

Further muddying the waters was the presence of the Kamloops Blazers Sports Foundation. This foundation operates independently of the society. The society turned profits over to the foundation which, in turn, accepted applications from community teams, groups and organizations looking for financial help in the form of grants. To date, the foundation has turned back more than $1 million into the community.

--------

Mike Moore had been hired as the Blazers’ general manager on June 4, 1998, and began work four days later. A Calgary native with a master’s degree in business administration, Moore was hired by Day with little, if any, input from the Blazers’ board of directors. Moore filled the office vacated when MacGregor, after three seasons as general manager, left to scout for the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

The Blazers had always required two people to sign any cheques that were written on any of the organization’s bank accounts. Prior to June 3, 1998, signing authority belonged to the president and general manager. In fact, their signatures were on a rubber stamp to which Patrick had access.

However, on June 3, 1998, as Day was offering the general manager’s job to Moore, Day was having the signing authority changed from the president and general manager to the president and office manager. Members of the board of directors at that time have said they weren’t aware that Moore did not have signing authority.

--------

In an affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 7, 2003, Moore stated: “In early September 2003, I received a call from Paul Mumford who advised me that from his review of the ledgers of the Kamloops Blazers, it appeared that numerous cheques had been made payable to Maxine in 2003, with a cumulative total of about $96,000. That amount of money was far too high for the cash requirements of the Kamloops Blazers and Maxine’s net payroll cheques.”
Moore’s affidavit was part of a civil suit filed by the Blazers that named Patrick and her then-husband, Charlie, as defendants. The suit claimed that “between 1986 and 2003, while Maxine was employed by the Plaintiff, the Defendants, acting either individually or in conspiracy with each other, misappropriated, embezzled, fraudulently obtained and converted monies from the Plaintiff to their own benefit . . .
“Based on the Plaintiff’s investigations to date, the Plaintiff has discovered that between June 4, 2002, and May 31, 2003, in excess of $300,000 was misappropriated in numerous transfers from the Plaintiff’s bank accounts by the Defendants, or some of them.”
According to Moore’s statement, he, Day, Carter, KPMG partners Bob Holden and Starr Carson, and Mumford met at the Blazers’ office at 11 a.m., on Sept. 11, 2003.

“Mr. Day was advised of the findings and concerns relating to Maxine,” Moore’s statement reads, “and he acknowledged that it was his practice to sign blank cheques for the Kamloops Blazers’ accounts on a regular basis and he permitted and relied upon Maxine to administer those cheques properly.”
Ninety minutes later, according to Moore, Patrick was brought into the meeting.

“She readily admitted to taking money from the Kamloops Blazers,” Moore said in his affidavit.
During that meeting, Patrick handed over her office keys and provided Moore with a letter of resignation.

NEXT (Jan. 7): The Case of the Missing Money

Ranford to join Blazers this week

C Brendan Ranford, the Kamloops Blazers’ first pick in the 2007 bantam draft, may make his WHL debut on Friday against the visiting Tri-City Americans. Ranford, the 15^th pick in the 2007 draft, is to arrive in Kamloops on Wednesday. He will practise with the Blazers on Wednesday and Thursday and stay with them as they play three games in as many nights. It is anticipated that he will get into at least two of the games, if not all three. . . . After meeting the Americans, the Blazers face the Rockets in Kelowna on Saturday and the Giants in Vancouver on Sunday. . . . Ranford, a nephew of former NHL G Bill Ranford, is having a marvelous season with Gregg Distributors (Edmonton Canadian Athletic Club) of the Alberta Midget Hockey League. He has played 25 games and leads the league in assists (36) and points (60). In fact, he has a nine-point lead in the scoring race. Ranford, who will turn 16 in May, has six game-winning goals, six power-play goals, four shorthanded goals and 40 penalty minutes.

Sunday notes and highlights . . .

RW Brad Riege of the Moose Jaw Warriors can expect a call from the WHL office Monday. He received a match penalty for attempt to injury during a fight with Everett F Kyle Beach in the Silvertips’ 6-1 home-ice victory Saturday night. . . . Riege, who perhaps didn’t get the drumstick he wanted at the Christmas table, is alleged to have bitten Beach on one hand during a line brawl. . . . The good news is that the bite didn’t break the skin; the bad news is that WHL hanging judge Richard Doerksen frowns on such behaviour. . . . However, Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak has told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that Riege is pleading innocent. “He swears up and down that he never bit him,” Hunchak said, “and there’s some video
evidence showing that he didn’t. It’s up in the air right now as to what the
final say is going to be on the suspension.” . . . Riege didn’t play in the Warriors’ 3-2 victory over the Thunderbirds in Seattle on Sunday. . . .

Mr. Doerksen has been a busy man since the end of the Christmas break. . . . Going into weekend action, he already had suspended five players for being naughty since Christmas. . . . LW Adam Chorneyko of the Lethbridge Hurricanes is out indefinitely for a boarding major and game misconduct in Calgary on Friday, while RW Dale Weise of the Swift Current Broncos also got an indefinite sentence under supplemental discipline for an incident against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday. . . . Swift Current RW Keegan Dansereau drew a one-game sentence for a charging major and game misconduct in that same Friday game. . . . LW Dustin Cameron of the Prince Albert Raiders sat out one game for an elbowing major and game misconduct against the visiting Saskatoon Blades on Thursday. . . . Regina Pats LW Todd Kennedy drew an indefinite suspension under supplemental discipline for a hit on C Jay Fehr of the Wheat Kings in Brandon on Thursday. . . .

Did anyone put on more miles during the Christmas break than Everett Silvertips D Jon Harty. The 19-year-old defenceman, who is the Everett captain, is from Oromocto, N.B., and, yes, he went home for Christmas. That took him through four time zones. All told, Harty spent more than 28 hours traveling. . . .

As 2007 fades away and 2008 looms on the horizon, there is bad news for WHL fans who live in the Seattle area. The Seattle Times is going through some tough times, which means cutbacks and changes in coverage. As a result, it no longer will provide its readers with coverage of Silvertips home games, nor will it have a writer reporting from all Thunderbirds home games. . . .

SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
In Edmonton, the Oil Kings got goals from five different players in beating
the Prince Albert Raiders, 5-1. . . . Edmonton has won two straight since
coming back from the break. . . . Edmonton C Brent Raedeke scored once and now has goals in three straight games. At one point before Christmas, he went 15 games without a goal. . . . D Mark Pysyk, the third pick in the 2007 bantam draft, played his second game for the Oil Kings and picked up his first point, an assist on his club’s last goal. . . . The Raiders (13-21-3-2) had won their previous two games. . . . The Oil Kings are 14-18-2-4. . . .

In Calgary, the Hitmen scored the game’s last four goals to beat the Brandon Wheat Kings, 6-5. . . . The Hitmen (25-12-1-2) are 2-0 versus Brandon, having beaten the host Wheat Kings 4-3 on Sept. 28. . . . Brandon (23-12-0-1) is 10-6-0-1 on the road. . . . RW Ian Schultz scored three times for the Hitmen. He got the game’s first two goals, at 4:23 and 12:25 of the first period. Then, after Brandon scored five straight games, Schultz tied it 5-5 at 14:31 of the third period. . . . RW Carson McMillan, who is from Brandon, won it with his 11th goal of the season at 19:33 of the third period. . . . It was Schultz’s first WHL three-goal game. . . . Calgary trailed 5-2 with under 12 minutes to play. . . . LW Matt Calvert had two goals and an assist for Brandon. . . . C Kyle Bortis got his 20th goal of the season for
Calgary. . . . Brandon G Joe Caligiuri stopped Bortis on a penalty shot at 14:06 of the second period. . . .

In Kamloops, LW Alex Rodgers tied the game with 34 seconds left in the third period and LW Shayne Wiebe won it in a shootout as the Blazers beat the Vancouver Giants, 5-4. . . . C James Wright had given Vancouver a 4-3 lead at 5:09 of the third period after Mitch Czibere had tied it 3-3 at 19:01 of the second period. . . . The Blazers (18-18-1-1) have won two straight after having lost five of six. . . . The Giants (26-7-1-4) had an eight-game winning streak end. . . . The one point for getting to the circus lifted the Giants into a tie with the idle Spokane Chiefs for first place overall. . . .

In Regina, the Saskatoon Blades, with the WHL’s worst road record, beat the Pats, 2-1. . . . Yes, the game included a line brawl, which is dog bites man news when these teams meet. . . . The Blades (13-21-2-1) had lost four straight. . . . The Pats (24-15-1-1) had won their last two games, including a 3-2 shootout victory in Saskatoon on Saturday. . . . Regina lost the game despite outshooting the visitors 8-0 in the third period and 24-16 overall, and despite having three straight third-period power plays. . . . Saskatoon RW Walker Wintoneak’s goal at 14:54 of the second period broke a 1-1 tie. . . . Regina C Tim Kraus needs reconstructive surgery after being hit in an ear with a puck in the second period. Pats coach Terry Perkins told the Regina Leader-Post that the ear “blew apart.” . . . Saskatoon LW Ondrej Fiala left in the first period with an undisclosed injury. . . .

In Seattle, the Moose Jaw Warriors scored three first-period goals and hung on to beat the Thunderbirds, 3-2. . . . The Warriors (20-10-4-3) are 2-1-0-0 on their U.S. swing. . . . The Thunderbirds (16-12-5-1) had won their previous two games. They are 11-3-3-1 at home. . . . Moose Jaw G Joey Perricone stopped 40 shots. That included stopping RW Greg Scott on a penalty shot at 11:20 of the second period. . . . The Warriors are to attend an NBA game on Monday (it’s the Philadelphia 76ers at the Seattle SuperSonics) before continuing their swing Wednesday in Kennewick, Wash., against the Tri-City Americans.

Blazers box

THE SCORE
Kamloops 5, Vancouver 4 (SO)

WHAT HAPPENED
The Blazers refused to quit, getting a late goal from LW Alex Rodgers to
force OT and then beat the defending Memorial Cup champions in circus time.

THE STANDINGS
The Blazers (18-18-1-1) moved into a seventh-place tie with the Seattle
Thunderbirds in the Western Conference. They are two points out of fifth. .
. . The Giants (26-7-1-4) picked up a point and are tied with the Spokane
Chiefs for first place overall.

THE ROAD
The Blazers left immediately after the game for Everett where they play the
Silvertips tonight. Everett (19-18-0-2) and the Chilliwack Bruins have 40
points, two more than the Blazers.

THE HIGHWAY
Derek Holloway, the Giants’ bus driver, said the Coquihalla on Sunday
afternoon was “the worst I’ve ever seen it.” He said traffic at the snowshed
hill was at a standstill. If conditions were still poor, the Giants were to
spend the night here and then head for Kelowna on Monday. They meet the
Rockets there Wednesday.

THE NEXT GM?
The Giants’ coaching staff includes former Kamloops D Craig Bonner. A lot of
hockey people predict that Bonner, the Giants’ assistant GM/assistant coach,
will be the next GM of the Blazers. Ask him about it and he just laughs.

THE FORMER COACH
Former Blazers head coach Mark Ferner, now the GM/head coach of the BCHL’s
Vernon Vipers, took in the game. He was seated eight rows behind the bench
behind which he used to stand.

THE ANALYST
David Michaud, the former analyst on Kelowna Rockets’ broadcasts, worked his
second game on Radio NL last night. Michaud, who lives in Kelowna and works
in sales at AM1150, plans working as many Blazers games as possible.

THE WJC, Part 1
Blazers LW Ivan Rohac scored once and had three minor penalties as Slovakia
beat Denmark 4-3 in a relegation-round game at the World Junior Championship
in Pardubice, Czech Republic, on Sunday. He was pointless in a 5-2
round-robin loss to Czech Republic on Saturday.

The WJC, Part 2
Blazers RW Juuso Puustinen had a goal and four minor penalties Saturday as
Finland blanked Kazakhstan 5-0 Saturday in Liberec, Czech Republic, and
qualified for the playoff round at the WJC. Finland meets the Team USA today
in its final round-robin game.

THE WHC
Blazers C Jimmy Bubnick scored twice Sunday to help Team West to a 7-4
victory over Team Atlantic at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge in London,
Ont. Team West is 2-0. . . . In another game, Blazers G James Priestner
stopped 25 shots as Team Pacific (1-1) whipped Slovakia, 6-2.

THE DAILY NEWS THREE STARS

1. LW Alex Rodgers, Kamloops. Another big goal.

2. RW Brock Nixon, Kamloops. Left it all on the ice.

3. D Mike Berube, Vancouver. Ate up minutes.

UP NEXT
The Blazers left immediately after last night’s game as they play the
Silvertips in Everett tonight. Kamloops is at home to the Tri-City Americans
on Friday.

Blazers shoot way past Giants

From The Daily News of Monday, Dec. 31, 2007 . . .

If Alex Rodgers is going to continue with his late-game heroics, his
teammates will be changing his nickname from A-Rod to Mr. Clutch.
Rodgers, the 18-year-old sophomore from Salmon Arm, bailed out the Blazers
with a late goal Sunday evening, the second time in two games that he has
done that.
Rodgers’ ninth goal of the season — at 19:26 of the third period, with
goaltender Justin Leclerc on the bench for the extra attacker and the
Blazers crashing the net — erased a 4-3 deficit and the locals went on to
beat the Vancouver Giants 5-4 in a shootout at Interior Savings Centre.
Left-winger Shayne Wiebe, the 13th shooter in a seven-round shootout, won this one, snapping a shot past the catching mitt of Vancouver goaltender Tyson Sexsmith. The Blazers won the shootout, 4-3.
The victory was the second in a row for Kamloops, which beat the Rockets 4-3
in Kelowna on Friday when Rodgers broke a 3-3 tie with 17 seconds left in
the third period.
The Blazers (18-18-1-1) came out of the Christmas break having lost four of
five games and knowing they were heading into a stretch of four tough games
in five nights. They opened by dropping a 3-2 decision in Vancouver on
Thursday; they end the run against the Silvertips in Everett tonight.
“That was a great effort by 20 guys,” Greg Hawgood, the Blazers’ interim
head coach, said. “I can tell you that it feels good in the dressing room
right now.”
The Giants (26-7-1-3) had been 4-0 versus the Blazers this season,
outscoring them 18-5 in the process. Vancouver also came to town riding a
season-high eight-game winning streak.
And the Blazers looked to be in a spot of trouble when captain Spencer
Machacek got the visitors on the board just 26 seconds into the game, the
25th time in 38 games that Kamloops has surrendered the first goal. But the
home boys kept plugging away and took a 2-1 lead into the second period on
scores by centres Brock Nixon (shorthanded) and C.J. Stretch.
Defenceman Craig Schira and centre Mitch Czibere scored second-period goals
for the Giants, sandwiching Kamloops defenceman Jordan Rowley’s first career
goal, and the teams were 3-3 going to the third.
When centre James Wright’s ninth goal of the season, coming with the teams
playing four aside, gave Vancouver a 4-3 lead at 5:09, the Giants seemed
good bets to win this one. After all, Vancouver was 16-0-1-0 when scoring at
least four goals.
But, once again, it was A-Rod to the rescue.
Kamloops also got a big game from goaltender Justin Leclerc. While he was
better in stopping 34 shots Friday, he made the big saves when they were
needed last night.
None were bigger than two he made in the third period with Vancouver up 4-3.
At 7:15, he got his left pad on a shot by Vancouver left-winger Chris Cloud.
Then, at 12:35, he stopped a 3-on-1 Vancouver charge by holding his position
and making a chest save on Vancouver centre Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who was
born in Ashcroft and lived the last nine years in Kamloops.
“Team-wise, we played one of our best games of the season,” Leclerc said
after a 28-save effort. “We battled all the way through.”
Leclerc admitted the Christmas break came at a good time.
“I was pretty mentally drained,” he said. “The break gave me a chance to
refocus and realize it’s still about hockey even though the team has gone
through some real rough times.”
Pierro-Zabotel said the Giants expected just what they got from the Blazers.
“They came really hard but we were expecting that after we beat them in our
rink,” he said.
Pierro-Zabotel had more than a few supporters in the building as he played
his first game here since leaving the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials for the
Giants in November.
He admitted to having butterflies but said “they all went away as soon as I
got into the game.
“It was my first time here and it was really exciting.”
He was quick to admit, too, that “we didn’t play well defensively.”
That included himself. He was on the ice for all four of the Blazers’ goals.
JUST NOTES: Referee Andy Thiessen gave the Blazers seven of 11 minor
penalties. . . . The Giants were 1-for-6 with the man advantage. The Blazers
were 0-for-3. . . . Attendance was announced at 5,327, the largest crowd of
the season. . . . LW Matt Wray picked up his first WHL point, an assist, on
Rowley’s goal. Wray lugged the puck down the left side and undressed D
Justin Palazzo before fanning on an attempted shot. Rowley came in late to
score.

Rockets captain injured

The Kelowna Rockets will be without their captain, LW James McEwan, for a while but no one is sure exactly how long. McEwan, 20, suffered a bad cut to a forearm on Saturday during a 5-2 loss to the Giants in Vancouver and underwent surgery Sunday. McEwan, who was playing in his 200th regular-season game, was injured while fighting RW Garet Hunt. McEwan, who is from Kelowna, was cut by a skate blade belonging to Hunt or to one of the linesmen. . . . Doctors were to determine during surgery just how serious the damage is and whether any tendons were cut, then perhaps a better prognosis will be able to be made. . . . In the meantime, the Rockets spent Sunday in Vancouver as they prepare to face the Bruins in Chilliwack on New Year’s Eve.

Saturday's highlights . . .

WHL trade deadline: Thursday, Jan. 10 . . . 2 p.m. Calgary time.

SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

In Medicine Hat, C Daine Todd scored twice in the game’s first eight minutes to lead the Tigers to a 5-2 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Todd’s goal came on the Tigers’ first two shots of the game. . . . The Tigers (22-13-3-1) played their first home game after an eight-game road swing. . . . Medicine Hat, 6-2-1-1 in its last 10, is fourth in the Eastern Conference, just three points out of first. . . . The Broncos (18-16-0-5) lost 6-5 to the visiting Tigers on Friday. . . . Swift Current, which got two goals from C Levi Nelson, was 0-for-3 on the PP; the Tigers were 3-for-6. . . . LW Tyler Ennis had a goal, his 23^rd, and two helpers for the Tigers. . . . Medicine Hat C Mikael Ahle’n, a 19-year-old from Sweden, scored his first WHL goal in his fifth game. . . . Medicine Hatr is 6-for-14 on the PP in its last two games. . . . Swift Current was without RW Keegan Dansereau and RW Dale Weise, both of whom drew suspensions for hits in Friday’s game. As a result, the Broncos dressed 10 forwards. . . . Also missing from the Broncos’ lineup was D Ryan Molle (broken kneecap). He’ll be gone a couple of months. . . . Medicine Hat D Trevor Glass suffered a knee injury Friday and didn’t play, so RW Jerrid Sauer filled that spot on the back end. . . . Medicine Hat also was without C Wacey Hamilton (concussion suffered Friday) and C Thomas Frazee. Frazee suffered a badly cut leg in a game in Kamloops on Dec. 11 and could miss another five weeks. . . .

In Prince George, G Mark Friesen stopped 40 shots for his fourth victory of the season as the Chilliwack Bruins beat the Cougars, 3-2. . . . That gave the Bruins a split of the weekend series in the northern city, the Cougars having won 1-0 on Friday. . . . RW Evan Pighin scored two third-period goals, the second on a penalty shot, to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. . . . Chilliwack (18-16-3-1) is tied for fifth with the Everett Silvertips in the Western Conference. . . . The Cougars (13-24-1-0) are nine points out of a playoff spot. They are 3-6-1-0 in their last 10. . . . LW David Robinson scored his first career goal for the Bruins in the first period. . . . D Ty Wishart’s 12^th goal of the season, with .4 of a second left in the second period, sent the teams to the third period all even. . . . The Cougars held a 42-25 edge in shots. . . .

In Red Deer, the Prince Albert Raiders beat the Rebels 5-2, handing the home team its second home-ice setback in two nights. The Rebels had been 4-2 losers at the hands of the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday. . . . Second-period goals 55 seconds apart by C Justin Bernhardt and LW Jordan Trach gave the Raiders a 2-1 lead after two periods. . . . LW James Dobrowolski’s shorthanded goal early in the third period gave the visitors a 4-2 lead. . . . The Raiders (13-20-3-2) have won two in a row but are 10 points out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot. They are six points up on the last-place Rebels (10-25-4-1). . . .

In Everett, D Jonathan Harty scored twice to lead the Silvertips to a 6-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Everett was 4-for-7 on the PP; the Warriors were 0-for-6. . . . The victory allowed Everett (19-18-0-2) to keep pace with Chilliwack. Both teams have 40 points, good for fifth in the Western Conference. . . . The Warriors (19-10-4-3) are 8-1-0-1 in their last 10 and in seventh spot in the East. This was Moose Jaw’s first regulation-time loss in 14 games. . . . G Shayne Barrie made 34 saves to even his record at 4-4 for Everett. . . . Harty, who also had an assist, has seven goals this season. . . . This was Everett’s third game in three nights – the Silvertips had lost 5-2 to the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash., and 3-0 to the Thunderbirds in Seattle after the Christmas break. . . . Everett C Zack Dailey, who suffered a groin injury in Seattle on Friday, didn’t play. . . . D Tyler Kieffer, who has joined the Silvertips from the USHL’s Lincoln Stars, didn’t play. . . . The game included 155 penalty minutes and a multi-fight situation early in the third period. . . . Could be more money flowing into the league coffers early in the week. . . .

In Spokane, G Kris Lazaruk stopped 36 shots to lead the Kootenay Ice to a 1-0 victory over the Chiefs. . . . Lazaruk stopped 15 shots in the first period and 14 in the second in earning his second shutout of the season and third of his career. . . . The Chiefs have been blanked twice this season. . . . Spokane (27-7-1-2) remains in first place in the Western Conference, but is just one point ahead of the Vancouver Giants. . . . The Ice (22-13-3-0) is tied for fifth with the idle Brandon Wheat Kings in the East, just four points in arrears of the Calgary Hitmen. . . . The Chiefs had beaten the Ice 5-2 in Cranbrook on Friday. . . . RW Andrew Bailey scored the game’s only goal, his 16th of the season coming at 5:12 of the second period. . . . The Chiefs outshot the Ice 36-20 and lost for just the fourth time in 30 games when outshooting the opponent. . . .

In Vancouver, the Giants went 4-for-8 with the man advantage in beating the Kelowna Rockets 5-2 and close to within one point of West-leading Spokane. . . . D Craig Schira had two PP goals for Vancouver (26-7-1-3) which plays the Blazers in Kamloops on Sunday night. Schira also drew two assists. . . . Vancouver also got two goals and two helpers from C Casey Pierro-Zabotel. . . . RW Garry Nunn, like Pierro-Zabotel an addition from the BCHL, had a goal and two assists. . . . Kelowna (20-13-2-4) lost for the second time in two nights. It was beaten 4-3 by visiting Kamloops on Friday. . . . Kelowna lost LW James McEwan, its captain, with a hand injury during a first-period fight with Vancouver RW Garet Hunt. McEwan came out of it with a cut hand and was treated at hospital. It was the sixth time these two have fought, including three times this season. . . . Hunt later scrapped with Kelowna D Colin Joe. . . . C Cody Almond scored twice for Kelowna. . . . Vancouver is 18-0-0-0 when taking a lead into the third period. . . .

In Portland, G Kurtis Mucha stopped 37 shots as the Winter Hawks beat the Tri-City Americans, 2-1. . . . C Jacob Dietrich’s goal at 5:58 of the second period stood up as the winner. . . . The Americans (26-8-1-0) remain three points behind Vancouver and four behind Spokane in the Western Conference. . . . Portland held a 19-8 edge in shots in the first period and led 1-0 on RW Jason Grecica’s second goal of the season. . . . D T.J. Fast scored on a second-period power play to forge a 1-1 tie at 4:28. . . . Tri-City LW Colton Yellow Horn drew an assist on Fast’s goal. That was Yellow Horn’s 300rd career point. It also ran his point streak to 19 games, the longest in the WHL this season. . . . Portland (7-29-0-1) ended a three-game losing streak. . . .

In Saskatoon, C Jordan Eberle and LW Rudolf Cerveny scored in the shootout as the Regina Pats beat the Blades, 3-2. . . . The Pats were 2-for-11 on the power play; the Blades were 2-for-12. . . . The game included 32 minor penalties. . . . Saskatoon D Jyrki Niemi had a goal, his eighth, and an assist. . . . Assistant coaches ran both benches. Terry Perkins has been guiding the Pats with head coach Curtis Hunt in Czech Republic as an assistant coach with Team Canada. . . . David Struch was running the Blades as GM/head coach Lorne Molleken is in London, Ont., scouting the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. . . . The Pats (23-14-1-1) are the second seed in the Eastern Conference, three points behind Calgary. . . . Saskatoon (12-21-2-0) is 15 points out of a playoff spot.

Coming your way on Monday. . . .

GETTING HERE FROM THERE: The fall of the Kamloops Blazers

When this WHL season draws to a close, it will have been 13 years since the Kamloops Blazers won their last Memorial Cup.
That championship, the franchise’s third in four years, was won in the spring of 1995, and it was won right in Kamloops, which played host to that year’s Memorial Cup tournament.
While the Blazers were the host team, they did not back into that championship. They won a WHL-leading 52 games that regular season, then went on to capture the playoff title, taking out the Brandon Wheat Kings in six games in the final series.
That Memorial Cup all but signaled the end of the Blazers’ run as the most dominant team in the Canadian Hockey League. Starting in 1989-90, they won 56, 50, 51, 42, 50 and 52 games. They finished with the WHL’s best record five times in six seasons. And, as mentioned, they won three Memorial Cups in four seasons.
Two weeks after the Blazers won the 1995 Memorial Cup, team president Colin Day and lawyer Barry Carter walked into the office of general manager Bob Brown and fired him. Brown had been the general manager through all of the run. He was the dynasty’s architect. Still, Day said, it was time to go in a different direction.
Since then, the Blazers have won four playoff series – two each in the spring of 1996 and 1999. Nine times they have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Since the spring of 1999, when they reached the WHL championship final and lost to the Calgary Hitmen in five games, they have lost out in the first round on seven occasions. In the spring of 2006, they suffered the ignominy of not making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
So how did it happen? How did this once-proud franchise get to where it is today?
Over the next eight weeks, you’ll find out right here at gdrinnan.blogspot.com.
Watch for GETTING HERE FROM THERE: The fall of the Kamloops Blazers.
It starts Monday, Dec. 31, with Chapter 1: Setting Off in a New Direction.

A-Rod goes to bat for Blazers

From The Daily News of Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007 . . .

KELOWNA -- The summary shows that left-winger Alex Rodgers scored the winning goal at 19:43 of the third period as the Kamloops Blazers beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-3 in a WHL game played before 6,321 fans at Prospera Place on Friday night.
What the summary doesn’t show is the key play the kid known as A-Rod made moments earlier to put his club on the power play.
With the puck deep in Kelowna territory, Rodgers, who goes 5-11 and 175 pounds, moved in on Rockets defenceman Tyler Myers, all 6-foot-7, 200 pounds of him. The next thing Myers knew he was headed to the penalty box to serve a holding penalty.
”I just lifted his stick and I guess he got a bit of stick on me,” Rodgers recalled. “I felt a bit of a tug and luckily the referee (Nathan Wieler) saw it and made the call.”
That put the Blazers on their fifth power play of the game. And, one minute after Myers took a seat, Rodgers netted the winner, pounding a backdoor pass from centre Brock Nixon into an empty net.
”Nixie took a big hit to make the play,” said Rodgers of the play that led to his eighth goal. “I had a wide open net and it felt pretty nice.”
You can bet the victory felt pretty nice, too, what with the Blazers having ridden into the Little Apple having lost five of their last six games. The victory allowed the Blazers, who are at home to the Vancouver Giants on Sunday, 6 p.m., to stay nine points ahead of the ninth-place Prince George Cougars in the Western Conference.
At the same time, Kamloops (17-18-1-1) is just two points out of fifth spot, a position presently shared by the Seattle Thunderbirds, Chilliwack Bruins and Everett Silvertips.
”That line played great for most of the game and really excelled in the third period,” Kamloops head coach Greg Hawgood said of Rodgers, Nixon and Tyler Shattock. “A-Rod did a good job of challenging (Myers) and keeping his feet moving to force the referee to make that call.
”And sometimes it’s nice when they guy who puts a team on the power play at the end of a game gets the reward. Hopefully, that’s a confidence booster for A-Rod.”
One player who certainly is skating with confidence is veteran right-winger Kenton Dulle. He scored the Blazers’ first two goals last night, at which point he had scored his team’s last four goals. He scored twice in a 3-2 loss in Vancouver on Thursday.
”The last time they went in like that was probably in bantam,” said Dulle, who has eight goals this season. “It feels good to finally have them coming off your stick and going in the net.”
Dulle, who played his 92nd career regular-season game last night, had never scored twice in one game prior to Thursday.
His goals gave the Blazers a 2-1 lead early in the second period, left-winger Jamie Benn having opened the scoring for Kelowna in the opening frame.
Benn pulled the Rockets even with his 19th of the season on an early second-period power play. Centre Colin Long, who is smooth as the ice on a Prairie pond, gave Kelowna a 3-2 lead when he notched his 20th on a power play with 39 seconds to play in the second period.
The Blazers, however, came out in the third and played a strong period.
”Our main focus,” Dulle said, “was to get people and pucks to the net. We did that late in the (third) period and that’s how we got that last one.”
The visitors got two third-period power-plays goals, both courtesy of Myers.
The first, off the stick of right-winger Brady Calla, came after Myers was penalized at 0:43 for hooking left-winger Shayne Wiebe, who had a strong game.
The second, of course, came off the bat, er, stick of A-Rod.
”We came out in the third and had lots of opportunities,” said Rodgers.
He and his mates were outshot 37-21 on the night, but just 10-7 in the third period.
”I thought for two periods we played pretty hard and we had some good chances,” offered Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska, who club struggled on the back end in the third period without Luke Schenn (World Junior Championship) and Tyson Barrie (World Hockey Challenge). “I didn’t like our third period.”
Huska said he didn’t like his club’s discipline or what he called “poor decisions” made by the penalty-killing unit.
”They played hard,” Huska said of the Blazers. “They deserve some of the credit. But . . . when we took those penalties (in the third period) and they scored that first one we got back on our heels and that hurt us.”
Long, who figured in all of Kelowna’s goals and now has 56 points, just three shy of WHL leader Mark Santorelli of the Bruins, wasn’t about to disagree with his coach.
”They were pretty opportunistic,” the native of Santa Ana, Calif., said. “We made too many mental mistakes. We made some bad turnovers and mental mistakes and they came out hard and they capitalized.”
The Rockets (20-12-2-4) are fourth in the Western Conference, seven points out of third. They are at home to Vancouver tonight.
JUST NOTES: Wieler gave the Blazers seven of 12 minors. . . . Kamloops was 2-for-5 on the power play; the Rockets were 2-for-8. . . . Kamloops G Justin Leclerc was sharp in making 34 saves. Kelowna’s Kris Westblom turned aside 17 shots. . . . C Richard Vanderhoek made his WHL debut with the Blazers, taking the odd shift alongside Matt Wray and Mark Hall. The 122nd pick in the 2005 bantam draft, Vanderhoek, who turns 17 on Jan. 20, has four points in 17 games with the BCHL¹s Surrey Eagles. . . . LW Matt Riley, the 67th pick in 2006, played his first WHL game for the Blazers on Thursdsay in Vancouver. Riley, who turns 17 on Feb. 26, has one assist in 14 games with the PIJHL’s Port Moody Black Panthers. . . . Kelowna RW Kyle St. Denis returned to the lineup after missing eight games with a concussion.

Friday's highlights . . .

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 17^th 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 13^th 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.

Hawgood's comment, Part 2

From The Daily News of Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007 . . .

KELOWNA — Greg Hawgood, the head coach of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, got bit by the learning curve last weekend.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been chewing on my shoes an awful lot,” said Hawgood, the Blazers’ interim head coach, didn’t have anything in the way of coaching experience when he replaced the fired Dean Clark on Nov. 8. Hawgood was fined $500 after getting tossed late in a 6-2 loss to the visiting Chilliwack Bruins on Dec. 1. He also has found himself overwhelmed at times with all of the off-ice things that go with being a head coach at this level, including dealing with the media.
Which brings us to Hawgood’s latest lesson . . .
Kevin Paul Dupont, a sports writer with the Boston Globe, writes a weekly hockey notebook that appears Sundays. Last weekend, Dupont topped his notebook with a piece on Hawgood, who played 134 regular-season games — they called it Hawgie Hawkey — with the Bruins.
During the course of the interview, Dupont asked Hawgood about his family, and Hawgood mentioned that his son Logan, 14, is a big fan of the Boston University Terriers and already is talking about playing for them.
Logan is a defenceman with the bantam AAA Jardine’s Blazers.
"Great by me,” Hawgood told Dupont. “I want what's best for him, and a lot of people here think I'd want him to go the Canadian junior route. Well, you know, I don't think I'd want him to be a sixth or seventh defenceman in the Western League for three years, then go try to make it in the ECHL. That's a tough way to go. He's got good grades, and if he's lucky enough to go to a good college, that would be fantastic."
Hawgood’s comment didn’t sit well within the WHL — the WHL office has since spoken with Hawgood — while the comment quickly made the Internet rounds in U.S. college circles.
“I just have to . . . (people have) misunderstood what I meant,” Hawgood said prior to a game here Friday night. “I want to fix what I said and I will do that next week.
“I think it’s just misunderstood.”
Hawgood chose not to say anything further, concluding with: “I don’t want to dig myself any deeper.”
p p p
Kirk Fraser, the radio voice of the Blazers, had a guest analyst on last night’s broadcast. While Fraser usually flies solo, David Michaud served as his sidekick last night.
Michaud recently was removed as the colourman on Kelowna Rockets broadcasts on AM1150. Michaud, who was in his second season alongside play-by-play man Regan Bartel, works in sales at AM1150.

New d-man in Everett

Various sources are reporting that D Tyler Kieffer, 18, is leaving the USHL’s Lincoln Stars to join the Everett Silvertips. In the process, Kieffer also gives up a scholarship to St. Cloud State. He was to have gone there for the 2009-10 season. Kieffer, who is from Stillwater, Minn., is 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds. He had one assist and 18 penalty minutes in 19 games with the Stars. . . . Former Everett G David Reekie, 20, now is with the Stars. . . . This move leaves Everett with seven defencemen, one of whom is 20, three of whom are 19 and two of whom are 18. It all leaves one to wonder if another move is imminent as the Jan. 10 trade deadline nears.

Coming to a blog near you. . . .

GETTING HERE FROM THERE: The fall of the Kamloops Blazers

When this WHL season draws to a close, it will have been 13 years since the Kamloops Blazers won their last Memorial Cup.
That championship, the franchise’s third in four years, was won in the spring of 1995, and it was won right in Kamloops, which played host to that year’s Memorial Cup tournament.
While the Blazers were the host team, they did not back into that championship. They won a WHL-leading 52 games that regular season, then went on to capture the playoff title, taking out the Brandon Wheat Kings in six games in the final series.
That Memorial Cup all but signaled the end of the Blazers’ run as the most dominant team in the Canadian Hockey League. Starting in 1989-90, they won 56, 50, 51, 42, 50 and 52 games. They finished with the WHL’s best record five times in six seasons. And, as mentioned, they won three Memorial Cups in four seasons.
Two weeks after the Blazers won the 1995 Memorial Cup, team president Colin Day and lawyer Barry Carter walked into the office of general manager Bob Brown and fired him. Brown had been the general manager through all of the run. He was the dynasty’s architect. Still, Day said, it was time to go in a different direction.
Since then, the Blazers have won four playoff series – two each in the spring of 1996 and 1999. Nine times they have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Since the spring of 1999, when they reached the WHL championship final and lost to the Calgary Hitmen in five games, they have lost out in the first round on seven occasions. In the spring of 2006, they suffered the ignominy of not making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
So how did it happen? How did this once-proud franchise get to where it is today?
Over the next eight weeks, you’ll find out right here at gdrinnan.blogspot.com.
Watch for GETTING HERE FROM THERE: The fall of the Kamloops Blazers.
It starts Monday, Dec. 31, with Chapter 1: Setting Off in a New Direction.

Thursday . . .

With more players missing than there are during the exhibition season, the WHL resumed play Thursday night after its Christmas break. For a list of players who are absent due to the World Junior Championship or the U-17 World Hockey Challenge, check out Alan Caldwell’s blog, Small Thoughts at Large. . . .

The WHL’s trade deadline is less than two weeks away – it arrives Jan. 10 at 3 p.m., Calgary time – and the hills will be alive with the sound of rumours between now and then. But you have to wonder how tough it is for teams to know where they’re at when there are more than 40 players missing. There are between 40 and 50 WHL players at the WJC and the WHC. Throw in some long-term injuries – RW Michal Repik and D Neil Manning in Vancouver, D Jeff May in Prince Albert, LW Andrew Clark in Brandon, C Brett Sonne in Calgary, C Ben Maxwell in Kootenay, LW Jared Jagow in Regina, and C Cody Eakin and D R.J. Larochelle in Swift Current – and it’s got to be tough for at least some general managers to decide which way to go. . . . Buy or sell? . . . Sell or buy? . . . There are a lot of WHL people in Calgary at the Mac’s midget tournament and that’s where a lot of trade talk will start. . . .

The Calgary Hitmen have released Slovakian LW Martin Stepan, 18, which could be a precursor to cutting a deal for another import player. Calgary’s other import is Slovenian LW Bostjan Golicic, 18. Stepan had four points, including three goals, in 18 games. . . . The Tri-City Americans have reassigned D Kevin Kraus, 18, to the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. The Americans acquired Kraus and D Joel Woznikoski, 18, from the Kamloops Blazers earlier in the season. Woznikoski is with the BCHL’s Westside Warriors. . . . The Seattle Thunderbirds have assigned C Josh Lazowski, 16, to the midget AAA team in Leduc, Alta. He had two points in 13 games with Seattle. . . . The Lethbridge Hurricanes have assigned D Cam Stevens, 18, to the MJHL’s Winkler Flyers. Stevens, who has missed a lot of this season with a broken leg, was acquired earlier from the Chilliwack Bruins. . . .

Two former WHLers have been involved in a coaching change in the WHL. Geoff Courtnall (Victoria Cougars, 1980-83) has taken over as head coach of the Victoria Grizzlies, replacing Jackson Penney (Prince Albert/Victoria, 1987-90), who remains as general manager. The Grizzlies are 17-16-2-3 and are tied for fifth in the Coastal Conference. . . .

THURSDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
In Brandon, C Jordan Eberle’s 25^th goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie as the Regina Pats beat the Wheat Kings, 2-1. . . . The Pats (23-14-1-1) had lost three straight on the road. . . . The Wheat Kings (23-11-0-1) had won two straight and nine of 10. They also had taken three of four from Regina. . . . Brandon got its goal at 1:50 of the first period when D Keith Aulie scored his second of the season on the PP. . . . Regina outshot Brandon, 34-20. . . . The victory lifted Regina past Brandon and into first place in the East Division, meaning it is second in the Eastern Conference. . . . The Wheat Kings were without five players who have totaled 128 points, including 53 goals. Three players – Scott Glennie, Brodie Melnychuk and Brayden Schenn – are at the World Hockey Challenge, and LW Daniel Bartek is playing for Czech Republic at the World Junior Champions. C Andrew Clark (broken ankle) will miss another few weeks. . . . Brandon lost C Jay Fehr in the second period after he collided with Regina LW Todd Kennedy. Neither player returned and the Brandon Sun reports that “it’s believed (Fehr) was taken to hospital.” . . . Regina was without four regulars, with D Logan Pyett at the WJC, C Garrett Mitchell and D Alex Pym at the WHC and C Jared Jagow injured. . . . Regina LW Troy Ofukany, 20, played only two early shifts. . . .

In Lethbridge, the Calgary Hitmen broke a 1-1 tie with two second-period goals as they dumped the Hurricanes, 3-1. . . . The Hitmen (24-11-1-2) have won three straight and now lead the Central Division by three points over Lethbridge. . . . The Hurricanes (23-13-1-1) have lost three in a row. . . . Lethbridge went into the game having beaten Calgary twice, outscoring the Hitmen 9-1 in the process. . . . Calgary LW T.J. Galiardi scored his club’s first goal and set up its second. . . . C Brandon Kozun’s fifth goal, at 7:15 of the second period, stood up as the winner. . . . This was Lethbridge’s last home game before the Jan. 10 trade deadline. The Hurricanes play their next five games on the road. . . .

In Prince Albert, the Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead and went on to a 3-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades. . . . The game featured 129 penalty minutes and a line brawl, meaning the WHL’s coffers will be enriched on Monday. . . . The Raiders (12-20-3-2) had lost five straight home games. . . . The Blades (12-21-2-0) have lost three in a row overall and five straight on the road. In fact, they have won just twice on the road this season. . . . C Max Brandl, with his ninth, and LW James Dobrowolski had the Raiders’ first-period goals. . . . C Justin McCrae pulled the Blades to within one on a late second-period PP. . . . LW Ashton Hewson’s first goal this season, an empty-netter, iced it for the Raiders. . . . Despite all the penalties, there were only five power plays – the Blades were 1-for-3, the Raiders were 1-for-2. . . . G Dustin Butler stopped 28 shots in earning the victory. . . .

In Kennewick, Wash., LW Colton Yellow Horn ran his point streak to 18 games as the Tri-City Americans skated to a 5-2 victory over the Everett Silvertips. . . . The Americans (26-7-1-0) have won five straight. . . . The Silvertips (18-17-0-2) have won its previous two games, both against the Portland Winter Hawks. . . . Tri-City has won four of six games from Everett this season. . . . Yellow Horn has 34 points, including 18 goals, in his last 18 games. That is the longest point streak in the WHL this season. . . . Tri-City C Jason Reese broke a 1-1 tie at 2:20 of the second period, the first of four straight goals by the Americans. . . . Reese scored his club’s first two goals and has 15 on the season. . . . Everett was 0-for-5 on the PP; the Americans were 2-for-5 . . . Everett had a 33-29 edge in shots, but Tri-City G Chet Pickard stood tall in running his record to 22-5-1-0. . . .

In Vancouver, C Garry Nunn scored his first two WHL goals to lead the Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Giants (25-7-1-3) have won seven straight. In those seven games, they have outscored the opposition 36-8. . . . Vancouver is 4-0 versus Kamloops this season and has outscored the Blazers 18-5 in the process. . . . The Blazers (16-18-1-1) have lost five of six. This was the first of four games in five nights for the Blazers, who meet the Rockets in Kelowna on Friday, play the Giants in Kamloops on Sunday and are in Everett against the Silvertips on Monday for a New Year’s Eve bash. . . . Nunn joined the Giants from the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. He has eight points in seven games with the Giants. . . . Vancouver was 2-for-7 on the PP; the Blazers were 1-for-5. . . . RW Kenton Dulle scored both Kamloops goals, twice pulling the Blazers to within one. . . . D Mike Berube’s fourth goal, at 10:47 of the third period on a PP, gave Vancouver a 3-1 lead and stood up as the winner.

Hawgood speaks

Kevin Paul Dupont, who does an excellent NHL notes package in the Boston Globe most Sundays, led off this week with a piece on Kamloops Blazers head coach Greg Hawgood. Hawgood played 134 regular-season games with the Bruins over the course of his career.

In the item, Dupont asked Hawgood about his family, and Hawgood mentioned his son Logan, 14, who is a big fan of the Boston University Terriers and already is talking about playing for them.

"Great by me,” Hawgood told Dupont. “I want what's best for him, and a lot of people here think I'd want him to go the Canadian junior route. Well, you know, I don't think I'd want him to be a sixth or seventh defenceman in the Western League for three years, then go try to make it in the ECHL. That's a tough way to go. He's got good grades, and if he's lucky enough to go to a good college, that would be fantastic."

You can bet that Hawgood, who didn't have any coaching experience when he took over as head coach of the Blazers on Nov. 8, didn't realize his comments would make some waves.

Here’s Marc Foster, at juniorhockey.blogspot.com: “Christmas has come early for those who favor the college developmental path over that of the CHL, and it has come in the form of an unexpected quote from an unexpected source. Kamloops head coach Greg Hawgood, talking about his 14-year-old son, Logan, who wants to be a Boston University Terrier . . ."

When one WHL team official read Hawgood’s comment, the response was: “That will go over real well. When Tom catches that, there will be another state of the union meeting.”

Tom, of course, would be Blazers majority owner Tom Gaglardi.

Keeping Score

From The Daily News of Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007. . . .

Jerry Crowe, in the Los Angeles Times: “Remember in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were hitting all those home runs and fans and media wondered whether the baseballs were juiced?” . . . Dalondo Moultrie of the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call reports on a recent happening: "A boy disrupted a high-school basketball game Tuesday night in South Whitehall Township by
storming the court wearing nothing but his shoes and three socks." . . . In a conversation with Golf Digest, Jack Nicholson recalls the time he hit a couple of bad golf shots, reached up, grabbed some vines and yanked. "They pulled me back," Nicholson said. "Lifted me straight up in the air. I was flying around for a few seconds before I came down. Now I can't play the
12th at Riviera without somebody calling it 'the Tarzan hole.’ ” . . . Those talking heads who keep referring to Chris Simon’s latest suspension as the longest in NHL history seem not to remember Don Gallinger and Billy (The Kid) Taylor. NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended them for life in 1948 due to gambling problems.

Don Wittman, a fixture at past Strauss Canada Cups, won’t be calling the play of the 2008 event on CBC-TV. He’s at home in Headingley, Man., fighting the good fight against the big C. “This could be the end of the line. They’ve told me the prognosis is not good,” Wittman told the Winnipeg Free Press. If you’d like to send him a card, mail it to him in care of CBC
Manitoba, 541 Portage Ave., Winnipeg MB, R3B 2G1. In the meantime, thing some good thoughts for Witt, one of the good guys. . . . In case you missed it, Daryl Katz, the king of Rexall, is back with a third -- or is it a fourth? -- bid to purchase the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. Geez, who does he think he is? Tom Gaglardi? . . . Frank Deford, at si.com: “The two sports are very
different, but it's the day-to-day grind that makes baseball and cycling so similar, and so seductive to drug use.”

Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “All the ballplayers who now say they only used drugs to help with their recovery time sound like members of the world's oldest profession saying they're only doing what they do to put themselves through college.” . . . One more from Lupica, this one on the head coaches of the New England Patriots and New York Jets: “After the season is over, Belichick and Mangini have agreed to try couples therapy. For now, tapes of them talking about each other and their videotape cameras are being used to make guys talk at Guantanamo.” . . . Bill Plaschke, in the Los Angeles Times: “Baseball will survive, but Roger Clemens will not. If Barry Bonds is going to be shunned from Cooperstown and our hearts, then so must Clemens, a Hall of Fame arm who will now forever be remembered for his butt.”

Jay Mariotti, in the Chicago Sun-Times: “The Mitchell report wasn’t exactly the ‘thorough, credible, comprehensive’ report on baseball’s most sordid era as promised by the former Senate Majority Leader, who had vowed to Oregain the confidence of fans, media and Congress.” If this was the mother of all investigations, there wouldn’t be hundreds of big-leaguers dropping to their knees today and breathing deep sighs of relief, giving thanks for not being named.” . . . “I've never used any drugs to enhance my performance in baseball. I don't know what to say except that it's embarrassing that my name would be out there." That was Andy Pettitte, then with the Houston Astros, after former pitcher Jason Grimsley named him as a user. And then Pettitte’s name shows up in the Mitchell Report and he issues a statement saying that he used HGH, uhh, for two days. . . . Do you believe him?

Dan Daly, in the Washington Times: “Congratulations to newly engaged Chris Evert, who’s ready to try her marital luck with golfer Greg Norman after previous splits with tennis player John Lloyd and skier Andy Mill. Vegas bookmakers have already posted odds on Chris’ next husband, by the way. She’s 4-to-1 to marry a soccer star, 12-to-1 to marry a Formula One driver and 100-to-1 to marry a skateboarder.” . . . Social note: U.S. tennis star James Blake and Victoria’s Secret model Selita Ebanks are an item. Yes, they are. . . . When the host Cleveland Browns got past the Buffalo Bills 8-0 in a snowstorm Sunday it was the first such score in the NFL since Nov. 10, 1929. On that date, the Chicago Cardinals beat the Minneapolis Red Jackets. . . . If the Browns and Bills played on a sunny day, you wouldn’t stop and watch. But throw in a blizzard and you can’t tear yourself away from it.

Longtime football GM and head coach Marv Levy, when asked what advice he would give the then-winless Miami Dolphins: “I keep quoting Winston Churchill: ‘When you're going through hell, keep on going.' “ . . . To which Cam Hutchinson of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix noted: “Isn't that what people say about Regina?” . . . Obviously, Brent Barry of the San Antonio Spurs isn’t into numbers. As he told SI.com: "Statistics are like bikinis. They're nice to look at, but they don't tell you the whole story.'' . . . Check out the money being given by MLB owners to many of the players mentioned in the Mitchell Report and then try to convince yourself that cheaters never prosper. . . . After Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre underwent knee-replacement surgery, Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel wrote: "It was his second procedure this offseason. Earlier, he had three Steinbrenners taken off his back."

The Tampa Bay Tribune has reported that George Steinbrenner High School will open in 2009 in Lutz, Fla., and that it was unanimously approved by the Hillsborough County School Board. Noted Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The school principal, eager to get started, says he can't wait to fire his first baseball coach.” . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “A discarded
cob of corn half-eaten by soccer star David Beckham has sold for $60. You might ask, ‘What idiot would buy that?’ But I plan to in turn auction off each kernel individually. So who's the idiot now?”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.

Sunday . . .

Dave King, one of the greatest hockey coaches the game has known, is back in the game. King was named head coach of Adler Mannheim of the German DEL on Saturday. I still find it amazing that King doesn’t have a lifetime contract with an NHL team, but could it be that the world’s top league is too boring for him? King has always had an imagination for the game – hey, he last coached Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Russian elite league – and maybe, just maybe, he needs the challenge these adventures pose. Anyway . . . Adler Mannheim lost Friday and head coach Greg Poss was dumped after the game, never mind that last season his side won the DEL playoffs and the German Cup. Oh, and six weeks ago he was signed through 2009-10. . . . King, who has been in the Phoenix area of late, is expected to coach his new side Sunday against Dusseldorf . . . This move also means that King will be back in the Spengler Cup as Adler Mannheim is entered in the tournament that opens in Davos, Switzerland, on Dec. 26. King has three times coached the Spengler Cup winner, twice with Canada and once with Metallurg Magnitogorsk . . . In case you are thinking about getting into the coaching game, you should know that six DEL teams have made coaching changes this season. . . . By the way, King has written a book, with The Globe and Mail’s Eric Duhatschek -- King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League. I haven’t yet read it but am hoping it’s under the tree when I arise Tuesday morning. . . .

The Slovkians are the final team to declare their roster for the World Junior Championship that opens Wednesday in Liberec and Pardubice, Czech Republic. LW Ivan Rohac of the Kamloops Blazers made the final roster and is likely to open play on a line with centre Tomas Marcinko of the OHL’s Barrie Colts and RW Patrik Lusnak of the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves. All told, seven CHLers are on the Slovakian roster, the others being G Jaroslav Janus (Erie Otters/OHL), D Marek Biro (Windsor Spitfires/OHL) and forwards Julius Sinkovic (Val-d’Or Foreurs/QMJHL) and David Skokan (Rimouski Oceanic/QMJHL).

A slow Friday. . . .

Former WHL G Aaron Sorochan made his NHL debut Friday night. Well, he was on an NHL team's bench. Sorochan, who plays for the U of Alberta Golden Bears, signed an amateur tryout deal with the Edmonton Oilers and backed up starter Mathieu Garon in a 3-1 loss to the visiting New Jersey Devils. . . . That’s because G Dwayne Roloson (flu) wasn’t able to answer the bell. . . . Sorochan, who played five seasons in the WHL and had one tremendous season with the Vancouver Giants, was an all-Canadian last season with the U of A. . . . Sorochan, 23, is 10-2-0 with a 2.50 GAA with the Golden Bears this season. . . . A one-game NHL cheque should allow him to treat himself for Christmas. . . .

The Medicine Hat News reports that former Tigers D Kieran Block is preparing to return to classes at the U of Alberta. Block, 22, suffered severe leg injuries while cliff jumping near Jasper in early August. According to The News, Block’s left leg has healed but he still has walking case on the right leg. While he hopes to return to the Golden Bears’ lineup next season, he is dabbling in hockey by helping coach a team of 15-year-olds. . . .

The Brandon Wheat Kings have scheduled their annual Sportsman’s Dinner for Feb. 7. Dennis Hull and Ray Ferraro headline the roster of speakers. Hull is a smash hit on the banquet circuit, while Ferraro scored a WHL-record 108 goals for the Wheat Kings in 1983-84 before going on to a career in the NHL that lasted 1,258 games. He now is an NHL analyst for Sportsnet. Ferraro is married to U.S. hockey star Cammi Granato, who will be inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. One of Ferraro’s sons, Landon, is a rookie forward with the Red Deer Rebels.

Voices continue to be heard

From The Daily News of Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007 . . .

Letters, letters . . . we get letters. And we get phone calls and voicemails
and e-mails. Whether you are prepared to believe it or not, most have to do
with the KMHA scandal.
And to think this whole thing could have been avoided had the association
done the right thing once upon a time. . . .
p p p
A mother writes:
“My son is in his fourth season of minor hockey in Kamloops, and he has had
fantastic coaches who have always lived up to what I thought a coach should
be. I can only say good things about them.
“Sadly, my little naive bubble was burst recently and now I am very
concerned about his future in hockey. As a minor hockey peon, I mean
parent, I don’t feel that the organization has made a strong enough
statement regarding underage drinking, an illegal activity as far as I know.
“My son is seven right now, so this doesn’t really concern me directly, YET.
I had hoped by putting him in hockey at an early age, he would have good
role models, and learn positive values and behaviours, etc., and have a
reason not to be drinking when he is 15.
“I don’t care whether he is in a house or under a bridge, I don’t want him
drinking. I would have hoped that hockey would make it easier to say No, and
to support his decision. This may not be the case!
“I have heard from lots of people who feel that what has happened is
ridiculous, for a variety of reasons. It is unfortunate that the executive
feels that they can just do whatever they want and disregard the feelings of
the majority, even if it is a silent majority.”
p p p
A reader forwarded this story, from The Associated Press:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Clemson University freshman who had been drinking
excessively died of alcohol poisoning at an off-campus fraternity house
(Dec. 9), a coroner said.
Benjamin Garrison Sprague, 18, had a blood-alcohol level that was about five
times the legal threshold for driving, Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis
said. Sprague was found by one of his Sigma Nu fraternity brothers the
morning after a Saturday night party.
A friend last saw Sprague snoring on a futon in the basement about 2 a.m.,
and his body shut down sometime after that, the coroner said.
A laboratory test of fluid from Sprague’s eye showed an alcohol level of
nearly 0.38 per cent, which means his blood-alcohol level may exceeded 0.4
per cent, Addis said.
Alcohol can severely depress the central nervous system in levels above 0.3
per cent. Deep coma and death can occur in levels exceeding 0.4 per cent,
according to the coroner.
p p p
You are free to wonder how close Kamloops came to having that story written
here Oct 21 after the midget AAA North Kamloops Lions partied in the home of
KMHA president Stan Burton and one player ended up being treated for alcohol
poisoning in Royal Inland Hospital.
p p p
A gentleman dropped by with a donation for The Daily News Christmas Cheer
Fund and left a note on my desk:
“It is important that this issue not be left to die a natural death.
“While I appreciate the executive is a volunteer organization and probably
trying to do the best it can, alcohol, sports and youth simply do not mix.
The athletes need to know that there are adults they can turn to who stand
for what is right and who will always take that stand no matter what.
“The Maloskis represent those adults, people our youth can depend on.”
Monica and Ladd Maloski have been reprimanded by the KMHA — Ladd has been
suspended for one year — for, among other things, telling the media about
the party.
p p p
Then there was the phone call from a grandmother who raised four of her own
children. A couple of those children, she said, didn’t get into
“super-organized” sports because of parental behaviour that had been
witnessed.
But this woman talked of another part of her life, one in which she had
given six years of her life to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). That
was after her 23-year-old brother, who was on his way home from work, was
struck and killed by a drunk driver.
It would be a gross understatement to say that this woman is dismayed at how
the KMHA has handled the aftermath of the party that the city’s only midget
AAA hockey team held in the home of the association president.
p p p
And, hey, did you hear about the two local minor hockey players who drew
one-game suspensions after they were caught smoking cigars? Sheesh, guys, if
you’d only been drinking beer and shots. . . .

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.

A son remembers . . .

Darrell Davis is a long-time sports reporter at the Regina Leader-Post. After his father, long-time scout Lorne Davis, passed away Thursday, Darrell wrote this column for Friday's Leader-Post. . . .

My dad was made to be a hockey scout.
He smoked cigars, wore trench-coats and told wonderful, old hockey stories, which seemed to attract crowds of listeners inside every rink from Helsinki to Duluth to Chicoutimi to Swift Current, the places where Lorne Davis, my dad, was dispatched to find hockey players for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
One of those stories was about an ex-teammate dubbed Digger O’Dell, who reportedly worked very hard in the corners. Of course, we noted, that’s why his nickname was “Digger.’’
“No,’’ said Dad. “He was an undertaker in the offseason.’’
During the 1950s and ’60s my dad played for four of the NHL’s original six
teams. He was with the Montreal Canadiens in 1953 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1955 when those teams won Stanley Cups. He got a tie tack from the Canadiens and a clock from the Red Wings.
The clock hung in our Regina kitchen for decades; the tie tack was sent to a jeweller by my mom, and made into a ring, which Dad gave to me a few
Christmases ago. I started bawling, like I did Thursday when my dad died at the age of 77. We’re having a memorial service, hopefully on Friday, Dec. 28, where we can share some stories.
My favourite is about one of the several times he was traded during his
career. This came while riding the train, playing cards with fellow
Saskatchewanian Gordie Howe, as the Red Wings travelled to Chicago for a game against the Blackhawks. While en route, Lorne was informed he had been dealt to the Blackhawks.
“We were going there anyway, so when we got to Chicago Stadium, everybody else went into our dressing room while I took my stuff around to Chicago’s room,’’ he said. “I was replacing Metro Prystai, who had just been voted as Chicago’s favourite player. When the trade was announced before the game, all the fans started booing. I wasn’t in Chicago for very long.’’
My dad started scouting for the expansion St. Louis Blues in 1966. He also
worked for the New York Rangers and the World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros. In 1980 he joined the Oilers, proudly wearing the team-issued jackets and Stanley Cup rings earned by Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr. Fuhr was one of his draft picks, so was long-time Oiler Ryan Smyth. According to Dad, those were the two players he told the Oilers brass they had better select, or he would no longer be working for the team.
Pretty good choices to put your career on the line.
For the last decade or so, my dad vowed every winter would be his last as a scout.
The Oilers, with their wonderful, understanding bosses Kevin Prendergast and Kevin Lowe, told him he could scout as much as he wanted for as long as he wanted. They finally cut his salary this season, realizing that might be the only way to force him to slow down. Nice try.
He adored his family, but we knew hockey was first. Every family
get-together contained lengthy discussions about draft choices and Dad’s next trip, or his most-recent trip. His four grandsons and one granddaughter couldn’t watch TV if an Oilers game were on, while he would fret that head coach Craig MacTavish wasn’t playing the young guys enough.
His obsession must have rubbed off on us: My brother Brad scouts for the
Oilers (we call it “nepotism’’ and tell him the good thing about scouting is
that you get a five-year window before anyone realizes your draft choices haven’t panned out); my sister Liane is a power skating instructor who teaches Oilers draft choices in the offseason; and, I get to write about sports. Our mother, Shirley, often touted as the best scout in the family by the college coaches who called her for recommendations about local players, died 15 years ago. Peggy, my dad’s companion since then, has also grown to understand the importance of hockey in Lorne’s life and, thank God for her, realized what a horrible bachelor he would have been.
An only child of gregarious parents Gertie and Cecil, Lorne’s playing career started on the sloughs near Lumsden, led him to the Regina Pats as a player from 1947-50 and a coach from 1976-78, to the NHL with stops in the International, American, Quebec and Western hockey leagues, and back to play senior hockey with the Regina Caps. He didn’t have a stellar NHL career, scoring only 11 goals — “They were all big goals,’’ he would say with a grin — but it got him into the Regina Sports Hall of Fame.
He was plucked from the Caps to join the Winnipeg Maroons, when they were the team chosen to represent Canada in the 1968 Olympics. Dad got bumped from the roster before the Games, but a dozen years later he joined the Canadian squad as one of its coaches, along with Tom Watt and Clare Drake, for the 1980 Olympics.
His hockey friends were numerous, from coaches like Scotty Bowman, Glen Sather and Herb Brooks to ex-players like Ed Chadwick, Johnny Bucyk and Harry Howell, to former teammates like Howe and Al King, to just about every scout in the business, starting with local compatriots Bryan Raymond, Stu MacGregor and Bob Brown, to golfing buddy Tony Repushka and the ushers at the Montreal Forum and the Brandt Centre. Among his close friends were Hall of Fame goaltenders Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall and Gump Worsley.
“Goalies liked me,’’ he said, “because I would always backcheck.’’
Of course he did. Isn’t that what loyal employees do? Through 40 years of
scouting he never opened a hotel mini-bar and never missed a game until last month, when the pain from cancer and a lifetime of ignoring his health left him unable to move. We finally got him into a hospital last week and subtly took off his Olympic pendant, an Oilers ring and another Stanley Cup ring the Canadiens had sent him a few years ago. He asked for them back. Peggy obliged — “That’s who he is,’’ she said — and he was wearing them when a cardiac arrest stopped his pain.
Seventy-seven years and only one miserable month, right at the end, when he couldn’t go to a hockey game.

Hockey loses one of its best friends

The hockey world weeps today. Lorne Davis, a longtime player and scout, died Thursday in a Regina hospital. Every arena in the world is a tad darker today because Lorne's smile will never again grace them. But we are richer for having known him and the memories are terrific. . . . Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post has graciously allowed me to post the story he wrote for Friday's paper . . .

By ROB VANSTONE
Regina Leader-Post
The city of Regina and the entire hockey community lost a beloved friend
Thursday when Lorne Davis died at 77 after a brief illness.
“He’s an icon,’’ said Kevin Prendergast, the Edmonton Oilers’ vice-president
of hockey operations. “He was a centrepiece . . . old school . . . a guy who
played for four of the six original teams.
“He had a great sense of humour and a great sense of delivery. He’s just a
loyal guy who everybody loved. We called him The Godfather and that’s what
he was to our staff.’’
Davis had scouted for the Oilers since 1980. He helped to stock the Oilers’
dynasty which won Stanley Cups in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. He played
a key role in Edmonton drafting and developing players such as Grant Fuhr,
Ryan Smyth, Kelly Buchberger, Andy Moog and Glenn Anderson.
Anderson played under Davis in 1980 with Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team.
Davis co-coached that team with Tom Watt and Clare Drake.
“There are five Stanley Cups in this organization and he was part of the
scouting staff with Barry Fraser and Ace Bailey and Eddie Chadwick,’’
Prendergast said. “These guys did a great job of bringing that young talent
here.
“You can talk all you want about the Messiers and Gretzkys and that, but
they needed the Grant Fuhrs and the Andy Moogs and the Glenn Andersons and
that’s what they did. They brought those guys in here.’’
Davis’s contributions to the game transcended player identification and
recruitment. He was a popular member of the hockey fraternity who enjoyed
holding court in the company of fellow scouts or people involved with the
sport that played such an immense role in his life.
“Lorne was one of those people who, when you knew he was in the rink, you
searched him out to say hello,’’ Regina Pats general manager Brent Parker
said. “That’s the kind of effect he had on people.
“He was a good hockey person and, far superior to that, a good man.’’
Davis was named the Pats’ head coach and general manager during the 1976-77
WHL season and held that post through 1977-78. He also played for the Pats
from 1947 to 1950.
“He was a legend in the hockey business and across the NHL,’’ WHL
commissioner Ron Robison said. “He was so professional in what he did and so
respected by everyone in the game.
“I can’t say enough about his knowledge of the game and his integrity. He
was certainly one of the best of all time, in my opinion.’’
Although Davis is best-known for his involvement in hockey, he was also an
accomplished baseball player who attracted the interest of the Brooklyn
Dodgers.
After opting to pursue a career in hockey, Davis made his NHL debut as a
player with the Montreal Canadiens during the 1951-52 season, scoring a goal
in his first game. He spent six years in the NHL, playing for the Canadiens,
Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.
He played with the Canadiens team that won the Stanley Cup in the spring of
1953. His only action with the 1952-53 Canadiens was in the playoffs, during
which he had one goal and one assist in seven games.
Davis was also a member of the Red Wings team that won the championship in
1955, but was traded to Chicago during that season. Including time spent in
the NHL and the minor leagues, he played professional hockey for 14 years.
He also played for Canada’s national team in the 1960s, when he wore the
maple leaf at several international events.
“He was a good man . . . a good buddy,’’ Minnesota Wild scout Barry
MacKenzie, a former national-team cohort, said from Sudbury, Ont. “He was a
beautiful human being — a caring guy with a great sense of humour.’’
Those sentiments were echoed by another national-team alumnus, Marshall
Johnston, who is the Carolina Hurricanes’ director of professional scouting.
“Lorne was one great guy,’’ Johnston said via e-mail. “I have nothing but
fond memories of Lorne, and he and Shirley raised a great family to boot.
The only negative for me was I had to scout ‘against’ him for many years in
his years with the Oilers.’’
Davis began his scouting career with the expansion St. Louis Blues in 1966.
He spent a decade with the Blues before joining the scouting staff of the
World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros.
After a stint with the Pats, Davis became a scout with the 1978-79 New York
Rangers, who advanced to the Stanley Cup final that season, losing to the
Canadiens.
The following season was spent with Canada’s Olympic team. At the 1980
Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., the United States engineered the
“Miracle On Ice’’ under head coach Herb Brooks. Although Brooks was a rival
coach in 1980, he and Davis were the best of friends. Brooks died in a car
accident in 2003.
Following the 1980 Olympics, Oilers boss Glen Sather hired Davis to work
with Edmonton, which would soon ice one of the NHL’s all-time powerhouses.
Davis — a 2003 inductee into the Regina Sports Hall of Fame — scouted for
the Oilers until a few weeks ago, when he began to feel ill. He was admitted
to Regina General Hospital last week and diagnosed with cancer on Tuesday.
He died of cancer-induced cardiac arrest Thursday afternoon, in the company
of his family.
All three of Davis’s children became involved with sports as a profession.
Darrell Davis, a former hockey referee and linesman, has been a member of
the Leader-Post’s sports department since 1983. Brad Davis, of Waterloo,
Ont., was a WHL referee before joining his father in the Oilers’ scouting
department. Davis’s daughter, Liane, is a power-skating instructor whose
clients include many NHL players. Lorne Davis’s first wife, Shirley, died in
1992.
Along with his children, Davis is survived by his companion of 15 years
(Peggy Goodhue) and five grandchildren.
A memorial service for Davis is expected to be held on Friday of next week.
More details will be forthcoming as plans are finalized.
“People trusted him and enjoyed his company,’’ said former national-team
teammate Terry O’Malley, who also played defence for the Davis-coached
Canadian squad at the 1980 Olympics. “They don’t get any better than that.
“He was a real gentleman and I would think he was one of the best-loved guys
in that profession of scouting in North America. Every time he’d go into the
rink, he’d brighten the place up. He was like that when he played for the
national team as well. There was always a good laugh.
“He was a good hockey man and a man good for hockey. We’ll miss him.’’