Saturday . . . early

One month ago, D Travis Hamonic of the Moose Jaw Warriors was preparing to attend the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp in Ottawa.
Now he’s ready to cheer the team on to a gold medal at the World Junior Championship.
Hamonic, an 18-year-old from St. Malo, Man., didn’t make the grade, but that doesn’t mean there are any hard feelings.
“Professionally, you really have to get over it,” he says. “Hockey Canada and the coaching staff made their decisions and at the end of the day I just didn’t fit into what they thought was right. I respect them tremendously and I played in that program before and know they do excellent work.”
He also knows that the team that was selected is doing rather well – it will play Russia in one semifinal today. A victory would put Canada into the gold medal game Monday against Slovakia or Sweden.
“The team they picked is really doing well and hopefully they’re going to
play for the gold medal . . . and I wish them all the best,” says Hamonic, who is in daily contact with players on team Canada.
“I’ve been talking to guys on the team daily,” he says. “A lot of them are close friends of mine. There’s no bitter feelings. It’s a professional game and at the end of the day they pick a team and obviously the team they picked is doing really well.”
For now then, it’s back to business with the Warriors, who are trying to pick up the pieces after a horrible first half left them 15 points out of a playoff spot going into tonight’s game in Kelowna against the Rockets.
All of which doesn’t mean Hamonic has forgotten what it feels like to be told there’s no room for you on Team Canada.
“It’s definitely in the back of my mind,” he says, adding that in the seven games he has played since returning “I’ve gotten five goals, three or four assists, a few fights . . . I’m trying to up my play and prove to people that I could have played there. At the end of the day, it’s just motivation
for me.”
Hamonic scored three times Friday to help the Warriors to an 8-4 victory over the Blazers in Kamloops. He has 24 points, including nine goals, and 71 penalty minutes in 33 games. He also is minus-15.
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It’s quite likely that C Joel Broda of the Moose Jaw Warriors will be the most talked about player in the WHL between now and Jan. 10.
The trade deadline arrives Jan. 10 (at 2 p.m. MST) and Broda, 19, happens to be the WHL’s leading sniper. He also plays for a team that is 15 points out of a playoff spot.
But Broda, who has 33 goals in 37 games, says he isn’t looking to leave Moose Jaw.
“I’m a Moose Jaw Warrior unless someone tells me otherwise,” he said after scoring twice in an 8-4 victory over the Blazers in Kamloops on Friday. “I’m just going to keep playing hard here. I like playing here . . . whatever they decide is good for the team, that’s what is going to happen.”
Broda, who was acquired from the Tri-City Americans for C Jason Reese on Sept. 25, 2007, has already surpassed his career high for goals in a season – he had 28 in 70 games last season.
“I got a little hot just before Christmas,” he said. “I’m just trying to hit the
net with all my shots, trying not to miss the net.”
He hasn’t missed the net much of late, having scored seven times in his last three games, all of which have been on the road.
In fact the Warriors, who didn’t have a good first half, are 3-2 on a seven-game road trip that continues tonight in Kelowna.
“It’s been good,” Broda said of the trip. “We’ve been working hard and getting some bounces. We kind of had a rough go in the first half and we decided to start over again here in the second half.”
While the Warriors may have needed to start over, Broda certainly didn’t. But whether he gets to finish what he started in Moose Jaw remains to be seen.
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C Jonathan Milhouse has left the Portland Winter Hawks for the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Milhouse, 19, had 10 points, including three goals, in 17 games with the Winter Hawks. In two previous WHL stints, both with the Everett Silvertips, he had been pointless in a total of 34 games. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Milhouse is from Yorba Linda, Calif. He had left the Grizzlies in November to join the Winter Hawks. The Grizzlies will be the host team for the 2009 Royal Bank Cup, the Canadian junior A championship tournament.