Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Tuesday's notes. . .

The Major League Baseball playoffs begin today and Bartman says he’s not cheering for the Chicago Cubs.
Uhh, that would be Brett Bartman, a defenceman with the Spokane Chiefs, and not the infamous Steve Bartman.
It was Steve Bartman, who, on Oct. 14, 2003, may or may not have interfered with Chicago Cubs outfielder Moises Alou who was trying to catch a foul ball near the stands off the left-field line in Game 6 of an NLCS game at Wrigley Field. In the end, the Cubs lost that game to the Florida Marlins and went on to lose the series the next night.
Brett Bartman, who turns 19 on Oct. 20, is from Medicine Hat, where the Toronto Blue Jays once had a rookie league team.
Asked if he is a baseball fan, this Bartman says: “Kind of . . . a little bit.”
He says he really hasn’t heard much about his last name and Cubbies.
“I’ve had a few guys ask me but not really,” he says, adding that he sometimes hears it from Spokane fans. “But other than that . . . no.”
And, no, he has never been to Wrigley Field.
As he says, with his last name, “That’s probably not a good idea.”
And you’re wondering . . . if he isn’t cheering for the Cubs . . .
This Bartman likes the Boston Red Sox.
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Spokane C Mitch Wahl, who hails from Seal Beach, Calif., meanwhile, is pulling for — you guessed it! — the Los Angeles Angels.
“I’m an Angels fan,” Wahl said after a four-point night in a 6-2 victory over the host Kamloops Blazers. He also was plus-4.
“The Halos . . . they’re close to home,” he added. “I’ve been to a few games.”
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The Chiefs put together a workmanlike effort Tuesday in beating the Blazers 6-2 in Kamloops.
The defending Memorial Cup champions barely worked up a sweat as they picked the home side to pieces.
“Things are coming together nicely,” offered Bartman, who was plus-6. That’s right . . . plus-6. He was on the ice for all six of his club’s goals, all of which were even-strength.
“We’re getting some guys back from NHL camps and the young guys are playing well,” Bartman continued. “And we’ve got a good goaltender (Dustin Tokarski) right now.”
Bartman, who had six points in 48 games last season and has three in three games this time around, said it’s great being one of the foot soldiers on this team.
“It’s great to play with good teammates . . . really good guys,” he said. “We’ve got a close group and it’s fun to play here. There is good chemistry so it makes it easier to play with them out there.”
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Wahl said he and his teammates are trying to push last spring’s Memorial Cup championship into the furthest reaches of their memories. They figure there will be a lot of time to think about it later in life.
“Looking back over the summer, it was a great achievement, a great accomplishment individual-wise and team-wise for the rest of your life,” Wahl said. “We want to put it in the past now and move on. We just want to get going this year and hopefully we can make another run at it.”
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RW Matt Ius of the Everett Silvertips won’t play until at least Oct. 10. He suffered a concussion last weekend against the Portland Winter Hawks. . . . The Kootenay Ice have reassigned four players — F Kris Foucault, 17; F Ales Frieb, 19; RW Jordan Bauer, 17; and, D Joey Leach, 16. Foucault, from Calgary, had three assists in 34 games last season with the Ice. He had been acquired from the Swift Current Broncos for a 2008 sixth-round bantam pick. Frieb, from Czech Republic, was taken in the 2008 CHL import draft but didn’t have a point in five games and was twice a healthy scratch. Leach, from Wadena, Sask., was the 64th pick in the 2007 bantam draft and will play midget AAA in Saskatchewan. Bauer, from Edmonton, will play in the Edmonton area.
The Regina Pats will be without F Mitch Czibere (knee) and F Brett Leffler (concussion) for a bit. Both are listed as being out indefinitely after being injured in a 3-2 shootout loss to the visiting Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday. Czibere’s knee can’t be fully evaluated until the swelling goes down. . . . The Pats have assigned Jeff Dort, 18, to the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds and D Dominic Perrault, 17, to the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars. That gets Regina down to 25 players, including three goaltenders and seven defencemen. . . . G James Priestner, acquired by the Brandon Wheat Kings from the Kamloops Blazers on Monday, practised with the Wheaties on Tuesday. The Blazers got a 2009 third-round draft pick in return for Priestner, who may get into a game this weekend.
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In Calgary, G Dan Spence turned aside 19 shots to help the Hitmen to a 4-0 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . It was Spence’s first shutout of the season and the 12th of his career. . . . The Tigers (2-1-1-1) went into the game having not allowed a PP goal in 24 opportunities. But Calgary F Kyle Bortis halted that streak with an early second-period PP goal that stood up as the winner. . . . The Himen (4-2-0-0) now lead the Central Division. . . . D Tomas Kundratek showed up in Medicine Hat after being in the New York Rangers’ camp with a cast on a fractured left hand. He’s out for four to six weeks.
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D Alex Plante, who had said he wasn’t going to report to the Hitmen because he wanted to be traded, told the Calgary Sun’s Scott Fisher on Tuesday that “this is where I want to be.” Why the change of heart? "Obviously, a couple of things happened over the summer,” said Plante, who was a first-round pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL’s 2007 draft. “I was focused on Oilers’ camp first. I wanted to make a good impression with them because they didn't see me all of last year (because of injury). Then, when we re-evaluated, ultimately it was my decision. I came down and talked with Dave (Lowry, Calgary’s head coach) and we were on the same page."

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