Pighin saga won't fly away

It would seem that the saga of Eric Pighin isn’t going to go away, at least not if you listen to Chilliwack Bruins’ general manager Darrell May. Pighin, 20, who played for the Bruins last season, expressed a desire over the summer to play for the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. And, on Saturday, he did just that, despite not having gone through WHL waivers or received a release from the Bruins. BCHL commissioner John Grisdale has said that his organization has the backing of Hockey B.C. Which doesn’t seem to carry much weight with May. “Nobody from our organization approved it,” May told Eric J. Welsh of the Chilliwack Progress. “So obviously, someone from B.C. Hockey thought they should just go ahead and do that. I don’t know who made that decision, and who he thinks he is, but Evan should never have played.” . . . Grisdale was quoted as saying that Pighin, who is from Burnaby, is a B.C. kid who just wants to play in B.C. To which May responded: “Last time I checked, we’re in B.C., too. So if that’s the issue, that’s BS. We’re not asking Evan to leave B.C., and in fact, I think if you checked the distance in kilometres, we’re closer to Burnaby than Victoria is.” . . . May cut to the chase when he told Welsh: “If this decision stands, you’re now saying there are no rules and boundaries for hockey plays in British Columbia. A player can play anywhere he likes at any time. That affects your midget teams, your bantam teams, your peewees and atoms. If I want to play for someone else, I can just sit out until I get to play for them.” As for the immediate future, May said: “It’s in the league’s hands again and I don’t know where it will go from here. I’ll be speaking to the league sometime this week to see what their position is. And obviously, it would be nice if someone from B.C. Hockey would let us know what’s going on with our player.”
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WEEKEND LEFTOVERS: The Kootenay Ice is hoping that C Dustin Sylvester (injury) and D John Negrin (Calgary Flames) will be available for the upcoming three-game weekend. D Ian Barteaux will play, having served a three-game WHL suspension. However, F Drew Czerwonka has four games left in a seven-game suspension that he picked up from a post-game brawl in a midget AAA playoff game last season. . . . The Red Deer Rebels split their two weekend games, losing 5-3 to the Hitmen in Calgary and beating the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 5-4 in a shootout. Along the way, the Rebels allowed one even-strength goal and eight – EIGHT! – on the power play. Perhaps there is a message there. . . . The Prince George Cougars took two games from the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds – 5-2 and 2-0 – and hold a 2-0 record for the first time since the franchise relocated from Victoria over the summer of 1994. The Cougars hit the road now for games in Vancouver on Friday and Chilliwack on Saturday. . . . Jim Swanson of the Prince George Citizen says the franchise’s best Prince George start was 1996-97 when it opened 9-2 under head coach Stan Butler. The Cougars finished 28-36-5-3 that season. . . . Prince George plays 13 home doubleheaders this season, which shows you the importance of those sweeps which, oddly enough, doesn’t happen all that often. In fact, it didn’t happen once last season. As head coach Drew Schoneck told Swanson: “The last time we (swept a doubleheader at home) was in the (2007) playoffs against Kamloops when we had the good run. It is huge for the psyche of our guys. This builds confidence knowing we can play with a lead late in hockey games.”

WELCOME BACK: The Florida Panthers have returned D Colby Robak, 18, to the Brandon Wheat Kings. His arrival Monday night will leave Brandon’s roster with 11 defencemen, seven of them veterans. . . . Brandon still is without LW Matt Calvert (Columbus Blue Jackets). . . . The NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets have returned D Brent Regner, 19, to the Vancouver Giants. He is expected to play Wednesday when the Giants play in Kamloops. Still missing off Vancouver’s roster are D Jon Blum (Nashville Predators) and G Tyson Sexsmith (San Jose Sharks). . . . The Blazers are expected to have RW Tyler Shattock in their lineup. Shattock, 18, is expected back in Kamloops on Tuesday from the camp of the San Jose Sharks. He was there on a free-agent tryout basis. . . . The Portland Winter Hawks are getting D Travis Ehrhardt back from the Detroit Red Wings, who also have returned D Cameron Cepek to Prince George. . . . G Kurtis Mucha is on his way back to Portland from the Phoenix Coyotes, who also have returned C Colin Long to the Kelowna Rockets and C Tyler Johnston to the Spokane Chiefs.

UPDATE: Just got word that F Matt Calvert has been returned to Brandon by Columbus.

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JUST NOTES: The first Boston Pizza WHL player of the week is freshman F Jordan Weal, 16, of the Regina Pats. He totaled a goal and four assists in two weekend games, although the Pats lost both of them to Brandon, 5-3 on Friday and 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday. Weal, 16, is from Vancouver and was a fourth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. He had 100 points last season with the major midget Northwest Vancouver Giants. . . . Jamie Tucker of the Vancouver Giants is the WHL’s nominee as ADT CHL goaltender of the week. He stopped 30 shots in beating the host Everett Silvertips 4-0 on Saturday in his first WHL start. . . . The Kelowna Rockets will be without F Lucas Bloodoff (broken hand) indefinitely. He was injured blocking a shot in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the host Tri-City Americans. . . . It sounds as though the Calgary Hitmen haven’t given up on having D Alex Plante, 19, return to their lineup. Plante, a first-round selection by the Edmonton Oilers in 2007, is in camp with the NHL team and has asked the Hitmen to trade him. "Hopefully we can talk to Alex here in the near future and see where his head is at and if we can fix this and get him back here," Calgary GM Kelly Kisio told Jason Hills of Sun Media. "If we can't, we'll just do our best to put him in a situation where he can succeed." . . . Peter Loubardias, a former radio voice of the Regina Pats, now will call Calgary Flames’ games for Rogers Sportsnet, replacing Roger Millions, who once called Saskatoon Blades games on radio. Strangely enough, Loubardias and Millions once worked together at a Regina radio station and later at a Saskatoon TV station. . . . The Tri-City Americans have traded G Kyle Birch, 18, to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. That’s right, 2011! . . . Birch, who is, yes, from Winnipeg, was a fifth-round pick in the 2005 bantam draft. He got into 15 games with the Americans last season, putting up a 2.51 GAA and a .904 save percentage. . . . The Americans are down to three goaltenders, one of those being veteran Chet Pickard, 19. The other two are Drew Owsley, 17, from Lethbridge, and and Brett Martyniuk, 17, from Winnipeg. . . . Moose Jaw now has three goaltenders, the others being Todd Mathews, 18, and Deven Dubyk, 17. . . . The Prince George Cougars have released F Jordie Deagle, 19. He played 139 games for the Cougars after being acquired from the Medicine Hat Tigers, who took him in the first round, 19th overall, of the 2004 bantam draft. He had 35 points, including 13 goals, with the Cougars. Deagle might have known something was up when he was a healthy scratch Saturday against visiting Seattle.