Monday's musings . . .

Three games Tuesday night as the WHL playoffs resume in different venues. . . . The Tri-City Americans meet the Thunderbirds in Seattle. . . . The Lethbridge Hurricanes are in Cranbrook to face the Kootenay Ice. . . . The Swift Current Broncos are in Calgary to take on the Hitmen. . . . The other series will continue Wednesday with the Spokane Chiefs in Vancouver to meet the Giants. . . . All four series are 1-1. . . .
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Interesting times in Seattle where the Thunderbirds have been without D Thomas Hickey since he took a knee to the head in the second period of Game 1 and hasn’t played since. . . . The Thunderbirds said that he was cleared to play in Game 2 but that they held him out as a precaution. . . . Well, guess who didn’t practice Monday? . . . "He wants to play, but we're following the protocol for those type of injuries," Seattle head coach Rob Sumner told Jim Riley, a freelance writer who covers the team for the Seattle Times. "He was cleared to play, but we chose not to use him." . . . It will be interesting to see if Hickey plays in Game 3. . . . Seattle lost F Greg Scott with a kneeing major and game misconduct just 29 seconds into Game 2. The league reviewed the incident and has decided there won’t be a suspension, so Scott will suit up for Game 3. . . . The Thunderbirds claimed that LW Colton Yellow Horn, the victim of Scott’s hit, sold the hit in a big, big way. Yellow Horn was helped off the ice but didn’t miss much power-play time and, by game’s end, had three goals in a 4-1 victory. . . . "It's not often that a guy gets suspended if the other guy suffers no ill effects," Seattle general manager Russ Farwell told Riley. "It was a five-minute call because he laid there. He wasn't hurt. You don't play every second shift and until the last shift of the game if you are." . . . The Americans got a big lift from their power play. After being simply horrible in the first-round sweep of the Kamloops Blazers, that unit is working at 23.1 per cent. . . . When Chet Pickard blanked Seattle 4-0 in Game 2, he became the first Americans goaltender to put up a playoff shutout since 1999. On April 12, 1999, Jeff Blair shut out Seattle, 4-0. . . . Yellow Horn’s three-goal game was the first for a Tri-City player in a playoff game since C Daymond Langkow turned the trick in a 5-2 victory over visiting Kamloops on April 8, 1996. . . .
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The most interesting series to date, however, may be the one between Lethbridge and Kootenay. . . . The Ice twice was on the way to being blown right out of the rink but somehow headed home with a victory and an overtime loss. . . . The Ice came back from a 2-0 deficit to win Game 1, 3-2, and lost 5-4 in OT in Game 2 after trailing 4-0 in the third period. . . . Ice D Chad Greenan is the WHL’s player of the week after picking up four assists in the two games. . . . “We’ve only showed up for the third period of both of those games,” Ice assistant coach Kris Knoblauch told Jeff Bromley of the Kootenay NewsAdvertiser. “We’ve taken them too lightly and are playing too cautious where we don’t want to make mistakes.” . . . The Ice has lost F Steelee Boomer to a suspected concussion after a Game 1 hit by Lethbrige LW Adam Chorneyko. . . . Ice D Zach Sim, who can also play up front, remains out with a knee injury. He’s likely a week away. . . .
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Neat story by Steve Ewen in Wednesday’s Vancouver Province. With the Vancouver Canucks not in the NHL playoffs, the Giants are the team on the Lower Mainland again. That means a whole lot more media attention than what the club has seen to this point in the season. . . . With more ink-strained wretches and talking heads expected to start hanging around, Ewen reports that head coach Don Hay and media relations director Joey Kenward talked with players Monday about how to deal with the increased attention. . . . Ewen also reported that ticket sales for Game 3 were at 6,500 on Monday afternoon. . . .
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The Swift Current Broncos are going to have to find a way to contain Calgary F T.J. Galiardi, who scored two goals and set up two others in a 5-2 victory in Game 2. . . . The line of Galiardi, Kyle Bortis and Brandon Kozun has been lighting it up in these playoffs and totaled eight points in Game 2. . . . Galiardi has at least a point in nine of his last 10 games and sits atop the WHL playoff point derby with 17 points, for more than Seattle F Ian McKenzie. . . . It’s interesting to note that the Hitmen have had only two power-play opportunities over the first two games of this series. . . . Swift Current is 2-for-8 with the man advantage. . . . The Broncos hold a 71-58 edge in shots through two games. . . . This series has a 2-3-1-1 format because the Juno Awards kept the Hitmen from opening at the Pengrowth Saddledome. That means that should this series go the distance four of the last five games will be played in Calgary.