Saturday . . .

SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS:
In Regina, the Pats’ woes continued as they lost 5-2 to the Calgary Hitmen. . . . RW Jordan Eberle got his 30th of the season to open the scoring in the first period but F Carson McMillan got that one back with his 25th less than a minute later. . . . Calgary F Brandon Kozun broke ties of 1-1 and 2-2 with his 35th and 36th goals, the second one coming at 6:45 of the third period. . . . Calgary D Paul Postma added his 21st and McMillan closed it out with an empty-netter. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 30 shots in winning his 38th game of the season. . . . Calgary is 11-0-1-0 in its last 12 games. . . . Regina has lost seven in a row, is 1-9-0-0 in its last 10 and is four points out of a playoff spot with 12 games remaining.
-------
In Swift Current, the Saskatoon Blades scored three first-period goals and went on to beat the Broncos, 4-3. . . . The Blades got goals from F Walker Wintoneak and F Darian Dziurzynski before the game was 68 seconds old. Wintoneak added a second goal, his 25th, at 17:29. . . . The Broncos got to within 3-2 on goals by F Geordie Wudrick and D Derek Claffey but that was it. . . . C Milan Kytnar got his 19th at 11:32 of the third period for the Blades. . . . C Jordan Peddle got the Broncos’ final goal with two seconds left. . . . Saskatoon G Braden Holtby stopped 32 shots, while the Broncos’ Travis Yonkman turned aside 34.
-------
In Lethbridge, the Hurricanes needed two goaltenders as they blanked the Red Deer Rebels, 3-0. . . . Juha Metsola, who shut out the visiting Kamloops Blazers 2-0 on Friday, started in goal for Lethbridge but left with an injury after a five-save first period. Michael Tadjdeh came on to stop 18 shots over the last two periods. . . . "He tweaked something in the first period," Hurricanes head coach Michael Dyck told the Lethbridge Herald. "So hopefully it's not too serious and we'll get him back fairly quickly." . . . F Kyle Beach, with his 21st, and D Mitch Versteeg, with his seventh, scored second-period PP goals. . . . F Zach Boychuk added an empty-netter, his 19th, at 17:59 of the third. . . . Lethbridge has posted seven shutouts this season and four of them have been against Red Deer. The Rebels have been shut out six times.
-------
In Medicine Hat, F Tyler Ennis got his 30th goal of the season and F Linden Vey added his 20th as the Tigers got past the Kamloops Blazers, 5-3. . . . Medicine Hat D Jace Coyle broke a 1-1 tie on the PP at 11:24 of the second period. . . . F Colton Grant had two goals for the Tigers, including a shorthanded tally and an empty-netter. . . . F C.J. Stretch, who had gone nine games without a goal, and F Jake Trask, who had gone 12, had two of the Blazers’ goals. . . . The Blazers went 1-3-0-0 on a four-game Alberta swing and were outshot 170-85 in the process. . . .Kamloops G Justin Leclerc stopped 34 shots, including a first-period penalty shot attempt by F Zdenek Okal. Leclerc has faced three penalty shots this season and has yet to be beaten. . . . The Tigers were 1-for-7 on the PP; the Blazers were 1-for-2. . . . Kamloops is 0-3-0-1 when Nathan Wieler works solo as a referee. . . . Of interest to trivia geeks is that Vey scored at 7:54 of the third period and Kamloops D Linden Saip replied at 9:33. That established a WHL record for quickest goals by two players named after former NHLer Trevor Linden.
-------
In Kelowna, F Mikael Backlund scored twice and set up another goal as the Rockets dumped the Prince George Cougars, 5-1. . . . Kelowna won the season series, 6-2-0-1. . . . Backlund has 16 points, including seven goals, in 15 games since joining the Rockets after playing for Sweden at the World Junior Championship. . . . The Rockets had a 35-26 edge in shots. . . . F Ian Duval got his 20th goal of the season for Kelowna. . . . Kelowna freshman G Adam Brown ran his record to 15-5-0-1. . . . The Rockets are 9-0-1-1 in their last 11 games and have won six straight. . . . They meet the Winter Hawks in Portland on Monday afternoon. Game time is 2 o’clock.
-------
In Kent, Wash., the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent got a shorthanded goal and three assists from F Prab Rai as they dropped the Portland Winter Hawks, 7-2. . . . The Thunderbirds erased a 2-1 deficit with four goals in a span of 6:37 in the last 11 minutes of the second period. Rai was in on three of them, scoring his 20th and setting up two others. . . . Seattle got two goals from each of F Greg Scott and C Jim O’Brien. Scott has 26 goals on the season, while O’Brien has 20. . . . Seattle D Thomas Hickey had three assists. . . . Portland F Tayler Jordan and Seattle D Sena Acolatse dropped the mitts four seconds into this one. . . . Portland was 0-for-7 on the PP; Seattle was 3-for-6. . . . Seattle is 10-3-0-1 in its new home, the ShoWare Center. Attendance for this one was 5,408. . . . The seventh-place Thunderbirds have closed to within three points of the fifth-place Kamloops Blazers in the Western Conference. Seattle is but one point behind the sixth-place Everett Silvertips. . . . Seattle can move into sixth with a victory Sunday over the visiting Chilliwack Bruins.
-------
In Everett, F Johnny (The Dancer) Lazo scored two goals 11 seconds part to spark the Tri-City Americans to a 4-1 victory over the Silvertips. . . . F Ryan White of Everett opened the scoring at 1:39 of the first period. . . . Lazo scored his 19th and 20th goals at 11:55 and 12:06 and it was all Tri-City after that. . . . The Americans held a 53-36 edge in shots. . . . F Taylor Procyshen added his 33rd goal for the Americans, while F Mitch Fadden had a goal, his 26th, and assists on both of Lazo’s goals. . . . Tri-City G Chet Pickard posted his 28th victory of the season. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson turned aside 49 shots. . . . The Americans had 27 shots on goal in the second period, an Everett franchise record for most shots allowed in one period.
-------
In Spokane, F Drayson Bowman, F Tyler Johnson and F Dustin Donaghy each scored twice as the Chiefs romped to an 11-2 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . It was something of a rude return to Spokane for Edmonton head coach Steve Pleau. He was an assistant coach with the Chiefs two seasons ago. . . . The Chiefs have won 15 of their last 17 games. The third seed in the Western Conference, they trailed the Tri-City Americans by four points and hold two games in hand. . . . Bowman, who scored 42 goals last season, has 30 this time around. . . . Edmonton lifted G Cam Lanigan with the score 6-1 and 15-year-old Laurent Brossoit, the 26th pick in the 2008 bantam draft, made his WHL debut. . . . G Torrie Jung, Edmonton’s veteran stopper, is sidelined with a head injury. . . . Spokane D Jared Spurgeon, who had a goal and four helpers, and D Brett Bartman each was plus-5. Earlier this season, Bartman had a game in which he was plus-6. . . . The Chiefs had never before scored 11 goals in a home game. The got to 10 in a 10-1 victory over the Tri-City Americans on Feb. 26, 2000. The franchise record is 16, from a 16-7 victory over the Moose Jaw Warrirors on Jan. 30, 2008. . . . G Dustin Tokarski got his 70th career victory for the Chiefs.
-------
In Vancouver, F Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored twice to lead the Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Chilliwack Bruins. . . . Pierro-Zabotel, who leads the WHL scoring race, broke a 1-1 tie at 17:02 of the second period on the PP and then snapped a 2-2 tie at 12:29 of the third period. . . . He has 32 goals on the season. . . . Vancouver G Tyson Sexsmith stopped 13 shots, including a second-period penalty shot attempt by F Ryan Howse. The score was 2-2 at the time. . . . The game took two hours five minutes to play. . . . Pierro-Zabotel leads the WHL in assists (67) and points (99). . . . Calgary Hitmen F Brandon Kozun is second, with 92 points. . . . Vancouver D Jon Blum sat out this one with a shoulder injury. He was hurt in Friday’s 3-2 OT loss to the Rockets in Kelowna and is day-to-day. . . . The Bruins, who visit the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent on Sunday, have lost nine in a row.