Friday . . .

The Kootenay Ice has lost F Dominik Pacovsky for a few days with a bruised lung. He was injured in a 3-2 loss to the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings on New Year’s Eve. Pacovsky was hurt in a collision with a Brandon player, experienced difficulty breathing and left the arena in an ambulance. . . . The Everett Silvertips have released G Kraymer Barnstable, 18, after acquiring G Thomas Heemskerk, 18, from the Kootenay Ice. The Silvertips have two goaltenders on their roster — veteran Shayne Barrie, 19, is the other — while Kent Simpson, 16, is with Team Pacific at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge in Port Alberni, B.C. . . . The Ice has brought in two 17-year-old forwards — Jordan Bauer, from the midget AAA Edmonton CAC Athletics and Simon Skrudland, from the midget AAA Calgary Royals. Both players are fresh of playing in the Mac’s tournament in Calgary. Skrudland was the 58th pick in the 2006 bantam draft. . . . F Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings has been named by the Brandon Sun as the winner of its prestigious H.L. (Krug) Crawford Memorial Medal as southwestern Manitoba’s sportsman of the year. Schenn led the Wheat Kings in scoring as a 16-year-old and was named the WHL’s rookie of the year. He is the 16th member of the Wheat Kings organization to be recognized with the award since it was first presented in 1958.
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F Mike Reich, 20, has left the Saskatoon Blades and requested a trade. “Being a 20-year-old, you’d like to get a few more minutes,” Reich told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. “I know I played a role to be their tough guy, which I didn’t mind doing. But that being said, you’d like to be rewarded and play a bit more when you definitely think you’re capable of playing.” Reich is in his fifth WHL season. He has been bothered this season by a hand injury but that apparently didn’t factor into his not playing in a 3-0 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes in Saskatoon on Thursday. “He was disappointed that he didn’t play and there are reasons why he didn’t,” Lorne Molleken, the Blades’ GM/head coach, told Wolfe. “One of the reasons was that we wanted (15-year-olds Brent) Benson and (Duncan) Siemens to play. The other reasons are strictly confidential, but they weren’t discipline reasons or anything like that.”
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Gotta wonder what WHL commissioner Ron Robison would have thought had he been at Interior Savings Centre in Kamloops on Friday at 6 p.m., just an hour before the Moose Jaw Warriors were to take on the Kamloops Blazers. On a day when a senior hockey player in Ontario died of injuries suffered when he fell during a fight and hit his head on the ice, there were four ill-equipped members of the Warriors on the ice shooting pucks. They were helmetless and wearing sneakers. Never mind that it looks rather bush league to have players on the ice like this, what would happen should one of them take a tumble and end up injured, or worse?
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The WHL’s trade deadline arrives Jan. 10 at 3 p.m. Calgary time.
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A note from a reader:
“I wanted to update one small but important detail that you posted earlier . . . well, it’s important to us Winter Hawks fans. :-)
“Brendan Mikkelson played two seasons with the Hawks, before being traded to Vancouver. He was traded to the Giants for Scott Gabriel and Max Gordichuk.
“Just wanted to be sure us Hawks fans get equal credit . . . that's all.”
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D Travis Hamonic scored three goals and C Joel Broda added two as the Moose Jaw Warriors dumped the host Kamloops Blazers 8-4 on Friday night. . . . Broda has 33 goals, tops in the WHL. . . . Moose Jaw scored three times on the PP and twice shorthanded. . . . In Prince George, the Tri-City Americans outshot the Cougars 44-16 en route to a 5-2 victory. . . . The Cougars helped honour Tri-City head coach Don Nachbaur in a pregame ceremony. Nachbaur was inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame last spring but wasn’t able to attend the ceremony. Prior to the game, Neil King of the hall of fame presented Nachbaur with a plaque and fans were able to watch a video tribute. . . . F Brock Zimak scored his first WHL goal for the Americans, while F Spencer Asuchak got his second — he has goals in back-to-back games now. . . . Prince George D Colin Scherger also scored his first goal and it came in his 79th game. . . . Prince George was without G Kevin Armstrong (knee) and had Joel Danyluk on the bench backing up starter Joe Caligiuri. . . .
In Kelowna, G Kris Lazaruk stopped 21 shots as the Rockets blanked the Spokane Chiefs, 3-0. . . . F Lucas Bloodoff scored twice, the last one a shorthanded empty-netter. . . . In Vancouver, F Mikhail Fisenko scored with 38.4 seconds left in OT to give the Giants a 2-1 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. The Giants (32-2-0-3) have won 11 in a row. . . . Red Deer forced OT on Connor Redmond’s goal with 1:43 left in the third period and G Darcy Kuemper on the bench for the extra attacker. . . . Vancouver has won 20 of 22 at home and hasn’t lost there in regulation time. Up next? The Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night. . . .
In Edmonton, G Torrie Jung stopped 30 shots as the Oil Kings dumped the Kootenay Ice, 4-1. . . . In Portland, G Kurtis Mucha stopped 38 shots as the Winter Hawks blanked the Everett Silvertips, 4-0. It was the sixth shutout of Mucha’s WHL career. . . . F Taylor Peters scored twice for Portland, giving him four goals this season. . . . In Prince Albert, F Justin Bernhardt had two goals and two assists and F Dustin Cameron scored twice to lead the Raiders to an 8-2 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. D Jordan Rowley drew three assists for the Raiders. . . . In Swift Current, F Bretton Cameron had three goals, giving him nine this season, to lead the Medicine Hat Tigers to a 5-3 victory over the Broncos.