Left over from Monday . . .

Meant to post this last night. . . .

The mystery may have been solved.
The Kelowna Rockets beat the visiting Kamloops Blazers 4-1 on Saturday night in the Little Apple. Moments after the game ended, Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska initiated what obviously was an agitated conversation with Kamloops assistant coach Scott Ferguson.
However, neither Huska nor Ferguson, who were teammates and, in fact, roomates with the Blazers more than 10 years ago, would acknowledge what was at the root of the problem.
I did overhear Huska use the word “chirping” but I wasn’t able to make out anything more than that.
And then I happened to stop by Regan Bartel’s blog — he is the radio voice of the Rockets — and noticed this:
“It appeared from my vantage point in the broadcast booth that the Blazers coaching staff was chirping several of the Rockets players. While there is no rule against that type of behaviour, it is usually an unwritten code at the major junior level that the coaches keep quiet other than throwing verbal barbs at one another from the respective benches or at the referee.”
So . . . perhaps now we know what was going on between Huska and Ferguson.
And what it all means is that maybe a little more fuel has been added to the Kamloops-Kelowna rivalry. Although what kind of rivalry can it be when one team (the Rockets) has beaten the other team (the Blazers) seven straight times this season?
As of this moment, though, the Rockets are fourth in the Western Conference and the Blazers are fifth. That means, of course, that were the playoffs to begin right now, they would be first-round opponents.
The Rockets, however, are on a real tear and are just two points behind the third-place Spokane Chiefs. At the same time, the Blazers, who are in Calgary on Tuesday, are only two points ahead of the Everett Silvertips and three up on the Seattle Thunderbirds.
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JUST NOTES: F Matt Calvert of the Brandon Wheat Kings is the Boston Pizza WHL player of the week. He had 10 points, including four goals, as Brandon went 3-0-0-0 last week. . . . Mark Guggenberger of the Kelowna Rockets is the ADT CHL goaltender of the week. He was 3-0-0-0 last week, with a 0.97 GAA and a .947 save percentage. . . . The Chilliwack Bruins have signed F Brent Wold, a fourth-round selection in the 2008 bantam draft. He had 100 points, including 63 goals, in 2007-08 with the Pinawa, Man., North Knights, a bantam AA team. This season, with the midget AAA Eastman Selects, who play in Manitoba, he has 49 points, 24 of them goals, in 26 games. . . . If you’re counting, the Bruins have signed their first four 2008 draft picks.
A goofy goal stood up as the winner Monday as the host Prince George Cougars beat the Portland Winter Hawks, 3-2. With a faceoff in the Portland zone, Winter Hawks F Luke Walker won the draw from Prince George’s Brett Connolly and pulled the puck right past G Ian Curtis and into the goal. Connolly was credited with what was a shorthanded goal. The Cougars have won three straight, all at home, and are 12 points ahead of the ninth-place Chilliwack Bruins in the Western Conference. The Winter Hawks now are 16 points out of a playoff spot. . . . D Jon Blum set a franchise record for the Vancouver Giants on Saturday when he drew his 148th career assist, one more than C Adam Courchaine (2001-05). . . . The Seattle Thunderbirds have changed the starting time for a game against the visiting Portland Winter Hawks on Feb. 28. That game, at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., now will begin at 6:05 p.m., rather than 7:05 p.m. The time change is to accommodate the charity celebrity game that is part of the Hockey Challenge celebration that benefits the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington and Alaska. Among the Thunderbirds alumni scheduled to take part are Jamie Huscroft, Troy Hyatt, Al Kinisky, Blake Knox, Danny Lorenz, Regan Mueller and Lloyd Shaw.