Wednesday . . .

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Jordan Mistelbacher was found dead in a suburban Winnipeg home at noon on Tuesday.
According to a story that appears in Thursday editions: “Family members say they are mourning a remarkable young man, whose death is tied to the overconsumption of alcohol after he went out partying Monday night to celebrate his 19th birthday.”
The legal drinking age in Manitoba is 18.
The Free Press reports: “The cause of his death is undetermined, said a Winnipeg police spokesman Wednesday, adding the death is being investigated by officers as non-suspicious.”
The newspaper is reporting that toxicology tests are being done.
Mistelbacher had been with the Everett Silvertips until being reassigned Saturday to the MJHL’s Winnipeg Saints. He practised with the Saints on Monday.
“He just wasn't at practice (Tuesday) and we wondered why,” Saints head coach Doug Stokes told the Free Press, “and it turned out to be not very good."
Mistelbacher was selected by the Swift Current Broncos with the 63rd pick of the 2005 bantam draft. On Jan. 10, 2007, the Broncos traded D Dane Crowley, 19, Mistelbacher, then 16, and a conditional 2008 third-round draft pick to Everett for D Eric Doyle, 17.
Mistelbacher is survived by his parents, Lynne and Mark, brother Tyler, 21, who plays for the U of Manitoba Bisons, and sister Brittany, 17.
An in memoriam page has been set up on Facebook and by Wednesday evening had drawn more than 1,000 members.
A funeral is scheduled for Monday at St. Bernadette Parish, 820 Cottonwood Road, in Winnipeg.
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A Winnipeg Sun story on the Mistelbacher death is here.
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An Everett Herald story on the Mistelbacher death is here.
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THE MacBETH REPORT: D Cole Byers (Moose Jaw) was released by Heerenveen (Netherlands). He had three goals and nine assists in 15 games this season.
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There is nothing better than a hockey story involving a small Canadian community. And there is one of those stories right here. It’s all about the folks, young and old, of Rouleau, Sask., celebrating the gold medal won by native son Keith Aulie. This story definitely is worth a read; it makes you wish you had been there. And the accompanying photo is priceless.
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JUST NOTES: Having landed Swedish F Mikael Backlund, 19, the Kelowna Rockets had to drop an import player. That turned out to be F Lukas Matejka, 17, who is off to join the Czech under-18 national team. The Rockets’ other import is F Stepan Novotny, 18, who played for the Czech Republic at the World Junior Championship. . . . Tri-City Americans F Jason Reese drew two assists in Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack. That got him to the 250-point plateau for his WHL career. . . . Saskatoon Blades head coach Lorne Molleken goes into Friday’s game against the Tigers in Medicine Hat with 398 WHL coaching victories. “That just tells you how old I am,” Molleken told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Molleken, who claims to be 52, will be the 11th coach in WHL history to reach 400 victories. Don Hay of the Vancouver Giants and Don Nachbaur of the Tri-City Americans got there earlier this season. . . . No other active WHL head coach is close to 400 victories. . . .
The Portland Winter Hawks are holding their annual Skills Competition on Sunday at the Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, Wash. Admission is free and the fun starts at 4 p.m. . . . The QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads have fired general manager Marcel Patenaude. Head coach Cam Russell has added the GM’s duties to his portfolio. . . .
The Medicine Hat Tigers will be without F Wacey Hamilton for up to eight weeks. It turns out that he suffered a broken bone in the lower part of his right leg when he blocked a shot late in a 5-1 victory over the visiting Swift Current Broncos on Saturday. Earlier, Hamilton sat for four weeks with a shoulder injury. He has 15 points in 31 games. . . .
The Kelowna Rockets scored the game’s last three goals, all in the third period, and beat the visiting Tri-City Americans 3-2 on Wednesday. . . . C Cody Almond scored the first two Kelowna goals, giving him 20 this season, and LW Jamie Benn got the winner, his 25th, at 11:57. . . . F Mikael Backlund, in his first WHL game, drew an assist on the winner. . . . Backlund and Benn played on a line with F Ian Duval, who was acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday. . . . The Americans led 2-0 on a pair of goals by F Petr Stoklasa in the game’s first 10 minutes. . . . G Mark Guggenberger, acquired Saturday from the Swift Current Broncos, stopped 26 shots in his first Kelowna start. . . . Kelowna was without C Colin Long (head). . . . Shootout goals by F Kyle Beach and F Colton Sceviour gave the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes a 4-3 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Prince Albert actually took a 3-1 lead into the 59th minute of this game, only to have the Hurricanes tie it on a power-play goal by F Cam Braes at 19:28 and an even-strength score by Beach at 19:56. Both goals came with Lethbridge G Juha Metsola on the bench for the extra attacker. . . . "I have my own opinion of the reffing tonight and I thought it was very poor," Bruno Campese, the Raiders’ GM/head coach, told Adam Hawboldt of the Prince Albert Daily Herald. . . . The zebras were Adam Byblow and Trevor Hrycuik. . . . Lethbridge and Prince Albert now are tied for sixth in the 12-team Eastern Conference. . . . In Spokane, the Chiefs scored the game’s last two goals, both in the third period, and beat the Portland Winter Hawks, 4-2. . . . Portland F Chris Francis, who attended his father’s funeral in Las Vegas on Tuesday, had a goal and an assist for the Winter Hawks. . . . Spokane G Dustin Tokarski stopped 18 shots for his 60th career victory, fourth on the Chiefs’ all-time list. He was honoured prior to the game for his gold medal-winning effort with Canada’s national junior team.
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The OHL will start suspending fighters who peel off their lids or undo their chinstraps starting with Thursday games. But don’t look for the WHL to follow suit, at least not during the season. WHL commissioner Ron Robison has told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post that his league will look at the situation over the summer. “Our position is we don’t review these (things) in midseason,” Robison told Harder. “We have a process we go through with respect to rules and regulations. We’re going to take into account what Ontario has instituted, much in the same manner as we’re looking at the rules with respect to fighting that Quebec has instituted. We’ll do that as part of our annual process in preparation for a recommendation at our June meeting and subsequently for implementation for the ’09-10 season.”