Thurdsay's notes . . .

The WHL playoffs resumed Thursday night as the Eastern Conference final opened in Calgary with the Lethbridge Hurricanes whipping the Hitmen, 5-2. . . . Those teams meet again Friday in Calgary. At the same time, the Western Conference final will get started in Kennewick, Wash., with the Tri-City Americans playing host to the Spokane Chiefs. . . .
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In Calgary, the Lethbridge Hurricanes jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead en route to a 5-2 victory over the Hitmen. . . . F Zach Boychuk got it started on the PP at 6:47 and D Ben Wright, the captain, upped it to 2-0 at 14:31. . . . F Carson McMillan pulled the Hitmen to within one at 12:08 of the second period. . . . Lethbridge F Dwight King, with his seventh goal of the playoffs, restored the two-goal lead on the PP just 29 seconds into the third. That had to have been the game’s largest goal because D Michael Stone scored for Calgary on the PP at 7:49. . . . The Hurricanes put it away on F Colton’s Sceviour’s third goal at 14:19 and Boychuk added an empty-netter at 19:32. . . . Boychuk’s pair gives him nine in these playoffs, tying him for the league lead with Calgary F Brock Nixon. . . . Calgary F T.J. Galiardi had one assist and leads the scoring race with 22 points. . . . Nixon, who also had an assist, is second, with 18 points. . . . Nixon and F Ryan White each was minus-3 for the Hitmen. Still, Nixon was chosen as the game’s third star, behind Lethbridge F Mitch Fadden, who had three assists, and Wright. . . . Lethbridge G Juha Metsola stopped 17 shots, two more than Calgary’s Martin Jones. . . . Lethbridge was 2-for-5 on the PP; the Hitmen were 1-for-3. In the regular season, Calgary’s PP was 1-for-39 against Lethbridge. . . . Attendance was 5,419; presumably a few fans stayed at home to watch the Calgary Flames play the Sharks in San Jose. . . . Lethbridge now has beaten Calgary in six of seven games between the teams this season. . . .
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JUST NOTES: Games 1 and 3 of the Western Conference final between the Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Amercians will be available to viewers on Comcast in the Spokane area on Ch. 78. Game 1 is scheduled for Friday, 7:05 p.m., in Kennewick, Wash., with Game 2 there Sunday at 7:05 p.m. Game 3 is set for Spokane on Monday at 7 p.m. . . . Annie Fowler of the Tri-City Herald reports that the Americans are averaging 4,142 fans per playoff game, down 103 from the regular-season’s average. Which begs the question — why would hockey fans prefer a regular-season game to the high intensity of the playoffs? . . . Having said that, it would seem that Game 1 of the Western Conference final in Kennewick’s 5,841-seat Toyota Center will be a sellout. Fowler reports that as of Thursday afternoon, 4,082 tickets had been sold for Game 1. . . . Tri-City LW Colton Yellow Horn is expected to be named the Western Conference’s nominee as the WHL’s player of the year at a news conference in Kennewick on Friday. Yellow Horn will go up against Calgary Hitmen D Karl Alzner, who was revealed Wednesday as the Eastern Conference nominee. . . .
The AHL’s Manitoba Moose have signed C Zack Smith of the Swift Current Broncos to a tryout deal. Smith, who turned 20 on April 5, had 70 points in 72 games with the Broncos this season and added 10 points in 12 playoff games. The Moose is the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. . . . The MJHL’s Winnipeg South Blues announced that Ken Pearson, their director of hockey operations and head coach, “has let his contract expire and will not return to the club next season.” He had been with the Blues since 2004-05, winning the MJHL title in 2005-06. . . . And just like that Pearson surfaced with the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars as director of hockey operations and head coach. He starts work there May 1. The Stars are coming off a 5-47-3-3 season. . . .
The Chicago Blackhawks have signed F Dan Bertram of the NCAA-champion Boston College Eagles. Bertram was selected second overall by the Vancouver Giants in the 2002 bantam draft but never played a game in the WHL. Vancouver had the first two picks in that draft and took F Gilbert Brule first overall. Chicago took Bertram with the 54th pick of the 2005 NHL draft.