Thursday . . .

The Saskatoon Blades have designated D Mitch Berg, 17, for assignment. He is expected to join the SJHL’s La Ronge Ice Wolves. He was the 15th overall pick in the 2006 bantam draft and got into 29 games with the Blades last season. . . . Saskatoon F Mike Reich has completed his eight-game suspension and is eligible to play Friday against the host Edmonton Oil Kings. But the Blades are on a three-game winning streak and GM/head coach Lorne Molleken isn’t about to mess with a good thing, so Reich won’t play. “Why break it? It ain’t broke,” Molleken told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Molleken said Reich is likely to be back in the lineup Saturday when the Blades are in Red Deer. . . . Saskatoon D Jyri Niemi, who came back from the New York Islanders camp with a fracture in his lower back, will be out at least another two weeks.
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One of Friday’s most-watched WHL games will take place in Vancouver where the Kelowna Rockets will meet the Giants, who are the only team in the league not to have lost in regulation time — yes, they have one loss but it came in the circus. The Rockets, who were seen by the prognosticators as the top club in B.C., are off to a 4-4-0-0 start as they try to sort out their back end. They are without Luke Schenn, who is with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Tysen Dowzak, who has signed a contract that could have him play in the AHL or ECHL. He presently is with the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack, an affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers. Schenn turns 19 on Nov. 2; Dowzak is 20. . . . According to Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province, there have been rumours that Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton may try to pry D Thomas Hickey out of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Hamilton, however, laughed that one off. “Russ Farwell is going to trade him? Are you kidding me?” Hamilton said to Ewen in reference to the Seattle GM. “We still have to see what kind of team we really have. We’ll definitely grind it out for now. I’m a guy who gets to the 15-, 18-game mark before getting too excited. I can tell you that we won’t be giving away our young guys for rentals.”
Hamilton told Warren Henderson of the Capital News, a Kelowna newspaper, that with Schenn and Dowzak gone “we’ll need to do something and we’ll probably have to make a deal for an over-age defenceman.”
Tyler Myers, 18, now is the grey beard on the Kelowna blue line, with Tyson Barrie and Collin Bowman, both 17, suddenly being asked to take larger roles than had been anticipated.
In the meantime, Hamilton is looking forward to Friday’s game.
“It looks like (the Giants) are for real and they’re out of the gates fast,” Hamilton told Henderson. They’ve manhandled some teams and it’ll be good to see where our guys are and how they handle a team with some jam. 
“Last year, they pushed us and we didn’t push back. Now we’re older and more mature and it’s time for us to do some pushing.”
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes now have a 20-year-old problem. That’s because the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals, an affiliate of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, have returned C Mitch Fadden, 20, to the Hurricanes. He was a fourth-round pick by Tampa Bay in the 2007 NHL draft. Fadden joins LW Adam Chorneyko, D Mitch Versteeg and D Ben Wright as the Lethbridge 20-year-olds. Teams are allowed to dress three 20-year-olds per game and may carry more than three until Oct. 16. . . . Fadden, who started his WHL career with the Seattle Thunderbirds, had 89 points, including 34 goals, in 72 games last season. Over the last two seasons, he has 70 goals in 143 games.
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The Tri-City Americans have assigned D Spencer Humphries, 16, to the major midget Vancouver Canadians. Humphries was pointless in two games with the Americans.
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Belleville head coach George Burnett picked up his 400th regular-season OHL victory Wednesday as the Bulls beat the Oshawa Generals, 5-2. He is the ninth coach in WHL history to reach that milestone. He also coached the Niagara Falls Thunder, Oshawa Generals and Guelph Storm. He has taken the Storm and the Bulls to the Memorial Cup. He has 154 victories with the Bulls.