So where do all the fans go for the first round of WHL playoffs? There were 2,888 fans in Brandon on Tuesday night, with the Wheat Kings losing 4-3 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes to go down 3-0. It was the smallest playoff crowd in the Wheat City since 1999. Ticket sales for Wednesday’s fourth game were at 2,400 on Tuesday. The Wheat Kings averaged 4,123 fans per game in the regular season. . . . The Kelowna Rockets had their consecutive sell-out streak halted at 186 games Monday when 5,108 fans showed up for Game 3 against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Attendance at Game 4 on Tuesday was 5,186. . . . Earlier, the Medicine Hat Tigers had a sellout streak of more than 250 games broken when they opened at home against the Kootenay Ice before 3,903 fans. . . . The Kamloops Blazers, who averaged 4,533 fans per game during the regular season, drew 2,895 fans for Game 3 with the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday night. That is the smallest playoff crowd in Blazers franchise history. The second-smallest crowd (4,070) showed up on March 23, 2004, to watch the Vancouver Giants beat the Blazers 2-1.
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If you’re a fan of the Spokane Chiefs, note that their radio broadcasts are moving to 1510 KGA effective with tonight’s game against the Silvertips in Everett. The broadcasts will remain their forr the remainder of this year’s playoffs. The broadcasts have been on KJRB 790 The Fan. Why the move? The new home of the broadcasts, 1510 KGA, booms out at 50,000 watts. . . .
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THE MacBETH REPORT: The Vienna Capitals have re-signed former Red Deer F Sean Selmser. He had 36 points, including 13 goals, and 34 PMs in 47 games with the Capitals this season. He has played the past six seasons in Austria and played for Austria at the 2006 World Division 1 championship. . . . Former Regina Pats C Brett Lysak has signed a one-year contract with Esbjerg in the top Danish league. Lysak played for Odense in the same league this season, totaling 53 points, including 24 goals, and 109 PMs in 44 games. . . . Garth MacBeth, our man who watches the European scene with a keen eye, sends this note: The sentence to Jere Karalahti was not probation but a 20-month suspended sentence. He was convicted of “complicity in an aggravated drug crime” for supplying members of the Bandidos motorcycle club with 10,000 euros at the request of one of his friends. The friend got 10½ years in prison and two other defendants got jail time of just over 10 years. Both the prosecution and Karalahti plan to appeal. The prosecution wanted at least six years in prison; Karalahti thinks he is innocent. In addition, the prosecution thinks Karalahti was an actual perpetrator and not just an accomplice.
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