Tuesday . . .

Is there a better story in the WHL these days than Garrett Zemlak?
A 19-year-old goaltender from Saskatoon, Zemlak was selected by the Calgary Hitmen in the sixth round, 115th overall, of the 2004 bantam draft.
The Hitmen dropped him and was added to the Saskatoon Blades’ list. Zemlak had played for the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts and was with the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds when the Blades, on Nov. 30, 2006, dealt G Blaine Neufeld, 19, to the Vancouver Giants. At that point, the Blades recalled Zemlak.
He was with the Blades for two seasons before they released him to make room on their list during the 2008 bantam draft.
When the Raiders’ turn came in the 10th round that day, they used their pick, the 203rd overall selection, to take Zemlak. That’s right. With everyone else selecting players with potential, 99.9 per cent of whom had been born in 1993, the Raiders selected a goaltender who was born in 1989 and was looking for a new start.
As things turned out, the Raiders opened this season in Saskatoon and Zemlak was in the Prince Albert goal for an 8-2 victory over the Blades. Since then, the Raiders have played in 10
straight one-goal games, winning half of them.
The latest one was a 3-2 victory over the Blazers in Kamloops on Monday. Zemlak stopped 44 shots in running his record to 5-0-0-0. That includes two shootout victories, the latest a 5-4 triumph over the Giants in Vancouver on Saturday night. The Raiders took a 4-1 lead into the third period in that one, were outshot 21-0 and outscored 3-0 as the Giants tied it. P.A. then
won the game in the circus.
”It feels pretty good,” Zemlak said of his start to this season. And then he added, with some modesty: “A lot of credit goes to my teammates for battling.”
As he pointed out, his teammates are having a tough time hanging on to leads right now, and it’s up to him – and goaltending partner Steven Stanford – to be there when called upon.
”Both our goaltenders have played extremely well,” said Bruno Campese, a former member of the goaltenders’ union who now is the Raiders’ GM and head coach. “It seems we can’t put 60 minutes together. It seems there has always been a 20-minute stretch when our goalies have really had to bail us out.
”Zemlak did that again (in Kamloops). He bailed us out in the second period and gave us a fighting chance to win it in the third.”
Zemlak is especially enjoying the start he is having because he didn’t have a whole lot of fun last season.
”It’s been a good transition,” he said of moving from 'Toontown to P.A. “I had a really tough year in Saskatoon last year. I’ve never worked so hard in the offseason . . . and actually last year . . . to stay in shape when I wasn’t playing.”
Zemlak ended up backing up Braden Holtby in Saskatoon and got into just 17 games, going 4-5-1-0 with a 3.71 GAA and a .877 save percentage.
And then along came the Raiders.
”Bruno has given me a shot here and I really appreciate that,” Zemlak said. “I’m just on a roll to start.”
The Raiders, who are 2-2 on their western swing, play in Kelowna on Wednesday before wrapping it up Friday in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice.
The Raiders don’t play the Blades again until Nov. 28 when the teams resume hostilities in Saskatoon.
”We had a good first game against them . . . I got the win against them. That was good,” Zemlak said, looking back to the 8-2 victory on Sept. 19, a game in which he made 35 save. “But they didn’t have Holtby in the lineup then and he’s a good goalie.
”They’ve been hot . . . they kind of started off slow but they’ve been hot lately. . . . I’m looking forward to playing them.”
When it was suggested that the opening night victory gave him bragging rights over his former teammates, Zemlak laughed heartily and said: “I guess so.”
Yes, life is good for Garrett Zemlak these days.
---
Jim Swanson, the sports editor of the Prince George Citizen, covered the split between the Cougars and RW Dale Hunt, 18, in Tuesday’s sports pages. Part of Swanson’s story went like this:
"It was an agreement by both of us,” Hunt said. “It's a good situation for both myself and the Prince George Cougars. They don't need a guy like me around the room and I don't need to be there. I've had some issues off-ice there, and we made a decision together that it would be better for me to go.
"I'm still going to get back into hockey and get going, so it's just a matter of time to see where I end up. I'll be right back at it as soon as I can. Some new scenery, I think that's what I need."
Hunt conceded that strict curfews were not his favourite part of being a member of the Cougars.
---
You’ve got to think that Cougars GM Dallas Thompson read that and maybe shed a tear or two. Hunt was the third overall selection in the 2005 bantam draft, but comments like those likely knocked his value down three or four notches when it comes to a potential trade.
---
I don’t get to talk with Don Hay, the head coach of the Vancouver Giants, nearly enough. But I always try to hear his weekly appearance (every Monday sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight) with Dan Russell on the latter’s Vancouver-based talk show.
And here is why Hay is one of my favourites.
“We don’t care about shootouts,” Hay told Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province on Tuesday. “We care about how we play 5-on-5. To me, shootouts are a skills competition. It’s something we’d like to be better at, but it’s not something I put a high priority on.”
Hurrah for that.
Ewen was pointing out to Hay that while the Giants have the WHL’s best regular-season record (148-51-5-21) since the start of 2005-06, they also have the poorest shootout mark (7-21). Which is kind of like making 21 trips to the Pacific National Exhibition and coming home with teddy bears on only seven occasions.
---
The WHL’s board of governors meets today (Wednesday) in Calgary and a couple of important items are on the agenda. . . . First, of course, is the potential sale of the Portland Winter Hawks to a group headed up by Calgary businessman Bill Gallacher. Yes, this must seem like Christmas Eve in the Rose City. The lid has been kept on this situation since the story broke on this blog a while back. But all indications are that the sale will proceed. . . . Second, the governors will hear bids from teams hoping to play host to the 2010 Memorial Cup. This is expected to be a two-team race between the Brandon Wheat Kings and Everett Silvertips. The Kelowna Rockets have indicated an interest in bidding, but only if their bid is necessary to make things interesting and that doesn't seem likely. And it’s no secret that the Wheat Kings are expected to win the bid. As Silvertips GM Doug Soetaert told the Everett Herald’s Nick Patterson: "It will be interesting to see how things shake out. But Brandon is the odds-on favorite." . . . WHL commissioner Ron Robison and Bruce Hamilton, the chairman of the board, will be front and centre at a news conference that is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. MT (that’s 2:30 p.m. on the West Coast).
---
JUST NOTES: Brandon Wheat Kings C Cale Jefferies (broken thumb) will be sidelined indefinitely. He was injured on the weekend. . . . LW Matt Wray, who started the season with the Kamloops Blazers, has changed teams again. After leaving the Blazers (he wanted more icetime and there weren’t any guarantees of that), the native of Qualicum Beach, B.C., went to the BCHL's Powell River Kings. And now he has been dealt to the Salmon Arm SilverBacks. Wray had one minor penalty in Salmon Arm’s 4-3 victory over the visiting Quesnel Millionaires on Tuesday night. . . . On the subject of the BCHL, Quesnel made a couple of deals Monday. A quick check of the BCHL website reveals that Quesnel has been involved in 19 deals since May 3. Geez, Mike Milbury didn’t even do that when he was trying to run the New York Islanders. . . . Amid rumours that Hockey Canada will hold a hearing into the Evan Pighin situation, he had two goals and two assists Saturday as the Victoria Grizzlies dumped the visiting Burnaby Express, 6-1. Pighin, you'll recall, left the WHL's Chilliwack Bruins to play for Len Barrie's Grizzlies without ever being released by the Bruins and waived through the WHL. That, at least until now, has been a no-no. . . . The Edmonton Oil Kings are showing G Cam Lanigan as being out one to three days with a concussion. Which is why they have added G Laurent Brossoit, 15, their second-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft, from Surrey, to their roster. The Oil Kings are at home to the Regina Pats on Wednesday. . . . The Everett Silvertips have listed G Kraymer Barnstable, 18, who left the Vancouver Giants earlier this season after losing his spot as the backup to Jamie Tucker, 17. Barnstable has since joined the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks. . . . D Luca Sbisa, 18, who was a freshman last season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, played 20:20, including 4:16 on the PP, for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-2 OT loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Sbisa, from Switzerland, was on the ice in the last minute of the third period and took shifts in OT as well. . . . Swedish F Oscar Moller, 19, who spent the last two seasons with the Chilliwack Bruins, saw 10:47 in icetime, including 4:31 on the PP, as his Los Angeles Kings dumped the visiting Anaheim Ducks, 6-3. Moller picked up one assist, on a PP goal by D Tom Preissing.