Friday . . .

The Prince George Cougars used pink laces and had their sticks and shinpads wrapped in pink tape for Friday night’s game with the visiting Chilliwack Bruins. Here is the start of Prince George Citizen sports editor Jim Swanson’s game story:
“In pink, you'd think, they might stink, be the weak link – lose in a blink, drowned in the drink.
“Time to rethink, with a wink.
“In the rink, the Pink Panthers – er, Cougars – get good ink after making the Chilliwack Bruins shrink with a convincing 4-1 victory Friday at CN Centre.”
If was all part of a CIBC Run for the Cure promotion.
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The Minnesota Wild has signed D Justin Falk, who turns 20 on Oct. 11, to a three-year entry-level contract. Falk, who played three seasons with the Spokane Chiefs, had 26 points and 98 penalty minutes in 72 regular-season games last season. He is a 6-foot-5, 213-pound native of Snowflake, Man. Falk was a fourth-round pick by the Wild in the 2007 NHL draft and will be assigned to the AHL's Houston Aeros. . . . LW Matt Wray, 19, who left the Kamloops Blazers earlier this week because he was unhappy over his ice time, has joined the BCHL’s Power River Kings. . . . The Brandon Wheat Kings are hoping to land LW Maksim Mayorov, a 19-year-old Russian who they selected in the CHL’s 2008 import draft. He has signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected him in the fourth round of the NHL’s 2007 draft, and has been assigned to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. The Blue Jackets actually want Mayorov with the Wheat Kings but the Russian Ice Hockey Federation has yet to allow him to transfer. “I think (the Blue Jackets) are open-minded . . . to having him playing in Brandon,” Wheat Kings owner/GM/head coach told the Brandon Sun’s James Shewaga, “and at this point there’s about eight or nine Russian players in the same boat. There’s a handful of us that have players tied up with release issues. . . . So it’s a situation where we’ll let it play out and if there’s anything we can do to facilitate him playing here, we’ll try and do it and we need some time to see what unfolds.”
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FRIDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:

In Vancouver, freshman LW Andrej Kudrna scored three times and added an assist as the Giants whipped the Seattle Thunderbirds, 10-2. . . . Those were the first goals of the season for Kudrna, a 16-year-old Slovakian who has six points in as many games. . . . The Giants (5-0-0-1) are the first team to hit double digits in a game this season. . . . The Thunderbirds (0-5-0-0) are the only team in the league without a point. . . . Vancouver D Mike Berube and LW Casey Pierro-Zabotel each was plus-4. . . . Pierro-Zabotel, C Evander Kane and LW James Henry each had a goal and two helpers. . . . The Giants were 2-for-6 on the PP and now are 10-for-35 (28.6 per cent) on the season. . . . Vancouver outshot the visitors 15-1 and outscored them 3-0 in the first period. Two of the goals came via the PP.
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In Brandon, the Wheat Kings scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Red Deer Rebels, 3-1. . . . F Landon Ferraro scored the game’s first goal for Red Deer (3-3-0-1). His father, Ray, scored a WHL-record 108 goals for the Wheat Kings in 1983-84. . . . Linemates Brayden Schenn, on a late first-period PP, and Scott Glennie, 49 seconds into the second period, gave Brandon (3-2-0-0) the lead. . . . Red Deer G Andrew Kuemper stopped 38 shots. . . . Brandon went with Andrew Hayes in goal and Joe Caligiuri as the backup. James Priestner, acquired in a trade from Kamloops earlier in the week, wasn’t dressed. . . . And here's a little something from the blog of Bruce Luebke, the radio voice of the Wheaties: "D Darren Bestland was scheduled to play (for Brandon) but was cut across the right eye/eye lid during a pre-game accident while kicking a 'Smiley' ball around with his teammates. He needed six stitches to close the gash while his spot in the lineup was taken by Alexander Grill-Donovan."
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In Edmonton, right-wingers Jimmy Bubnick and Tyler Shattock each scored two goals to lead the Kamloops Blazers to a 5-2 victory over the Oil Kings. . . . The Blazers (3-3-0-1) snapped a three-game losing streak. . . . Bubnick, a potential first-round selection in the NHL’s 2009 draft, has three two-goal games this season. . . . The Oil Kings (4-3-1-0) had won their last two games. . . . Edmonton G Dalyn Flette, a former Blazer, had beaten the Blazers 4-0 last season in Kamloops in his only previous game against his old team. . . . Kamloops G Justin Leclerc stopped 24 shots, including 17 in the third period. . . . Edmonton’s PP was 1-for-7 and now is 1-for-24 on home ice.
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In Medicine Hat, F Linden Vey had a goal and two assists to help the Tigers defeat the Kelowna Rockets, 4-1. . . . The Tigers (3-1-1-1) had a 2-0 lead before the first period was 10 minutes old. . . . The Rockets (3-3-0-0) had a three-game winning streak come to an end. They now are 0-3-0-0 on the road.
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In Prince Albert, the Tri-City Americans opened an East Division swing with a 3-2 victory over the Raiders. . . . Tri-City D Tyler Schmidt broke a 2-2 with a PP goal at 15:31 of the third period to lift his club’s record to 3-1-0-0. . . . The Raiders (3-3-0-0) and many of the 2,178 fans in attendance thought the home boys had tied the game as time ran out on the third period. But, according to the Prince Albert Daily Herald, a video review showed that time had expired before the puck cross the line. Hmm, when did the WHL begin allowing video review in regular-season games?
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In Prince George, G Kevin Armstrong stopped 25 shots to lead the Cougars to a 4-1 victory over the Chilliwack Bruins. . . . Armstrong, 20, was an offseason acquisition from the Spokane Chiefs. He is 4-1-0-0 this season, as are the Cougars, who are 3-0-0-0 at home. . . . The Cougars won 3-2 in OT in Chilliwack on Saturday; the teams meet again tonight in Prince George. . . . The Bruins are 2-2-1-0. . . . D Dallas Jackson, a 19-year-old acquired from the Regina Pats early in the season, scored his fourth goal of the season for Prince George; he now has eight points. . . . The Cougars outshot the visitors 15-4 in the first period and were 0-for-5 on the PP. . . . Chilliwack F Ryan Howse left the game late in the third period after a hit by Prince George D Colin Scherger. “I can't get a good call on it yet, the doctors are with him now . . . he's talking to everyone, so he's doing OK that way,” Chilliwack head coach Jim Hiller told the P.G. Citizen’s Jim Swanson. “I think it's probably a longshot (he'll play tonight).” . . . Attendance was announced as 2,665, the smallest crowd in Prince George this season.
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In Spokane, G Dustin Tokarski stopped 30 shots as the Chiefs blanked the Everett Silvertips, 5-0. . . . The shutout was Tokarski’s third of the season and the 11th of his career. He broke the franchise’s career shutout record that had been held by Jim Watt (2002-06). . . . The Chiefs (4-1-0-1) got goals from five different players. . . . The Chiefs outshot Everett (2-3-1-0), 50-30.