Macias gets the call

Helen Alex is the manager of the Los Angeles Jr. Kings midget AAA team. She also is the mother of Ray Macias, a defenceman who spent four seasons with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
Macias got the call Tuesday and is expected to make his NHL debut Wednesday night with the Colorado Avalanche, which is playing host to the Phoenix Coyotes.
His mother just happened to be in Pittsburgh on Tuesday with the Jr. Kings. The national midget AAA championship tournament runs there from Wednesday through Sunday and the Kings are hoping to become the first California team to win a U.S. title in that age group.
But what’s a Mom to do? Does she stay with her “boys” or does she travel to watch her son play? What do you think? Of course, she’s going to Denver.
“Oh my god,” Helen wrote in an email Tuesday night. “I am in Pittsburgh with my team at Nationals . . . I am leaving for Colorado tomorrow morning . . . to watch his game . . .”
The excitement she was feeling practically jumped off my computer screen.
You have to know something of her son’s history to appreciate exactly how much this means to Helen. Ray was a late-comer to the game of hockey. He was a late-developing child and there was a time when Helen wondered if he would ever speak.
He came to Kamloops as a timid 16-year-old with a shy smile, and it was fun watching him shed his shell and become more confident over his seasons with the Blazers. In his final season, he led all WHL defencemen in points (70) but was injured in the 70th game of the regular season. The Blazers won 40 games that season but without Macias in the playoffs were swept by the underdog Prince George Cougars, who won three times in OT.
Macias was recalled by the Avalanche from the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters with whom he had 18 points in 36 games. He also played eight games with the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs, picking up six points.
He was a fourth-round pick in the NHL’s 2005 draft.
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F Brent Raedeke of the Edmonton Oil Kings has been assigned by the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Raedeke attended Detroit’s camp last fall as a free agent and ended up signing a three-year contract. He had 55 points with the Oil Kings in the regular season.
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WARNING! WARNING!! . . . Backlund alert. . . . Update on Kelowna F Mikael Backlund somewhere in this report. . . . Proceed with caution.
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TUESDAY’S PLAYOFF GAME:
In Swift Current, the Medicine Hat Tigers got two goals from F Zdenek Okal as they beat the Broncos, 4-1, to win Game 7 of the first-round series. . . . Okal opened the scoring at 1:29 of the first period, with F Michael Stickland getting that one back for the Broncos eight minutes later. . . . F Sean Ringrose scored what turned into the winner at 19:12. . . . Okal got his second goal, and fourth of the series, at 3:23 of the second period. . . . F Brennan Bosch added an empty-netter at 18:12 of the third period. . . . Medicine Hat G Ryan Holfeld stopped 39 shots. . . . Swift Current G Travis Yonkman blocked 17. . . . Attendance was 2,879.
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It’s the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Saskatoon Blades in Game 7 of the only first round series still alive. The game will be shown live on Shaw Cable. . . . If Lethbridge wins, the second round will feature the Hurricanes against the Calgary Hitmen, with the Brandon Wheat Kigns meeting Medicine Hat. . . . If Saskatoon wins, it’ll be Calgary against Medicine Hat and Brandon against Saskatoon. . . . And if you’re wondering who’s up next for the Shaw gang, don’t bet against it being the Western Conference series between the Spokane Chiefs and Vancouver Giants.
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When the Chiefs and Giants open their second-round series on Friday night in Vancouver, it will be the second time in WHL history that the last two Memorial Cup champions will have met in the playoffs.
The Chiefs, who won the Memorial Cup last season, and the Giants, who won as the host team in 2007, also met in the second round a year ago. Spokane won that series in six games.
In 1993, the Kamloops Blazers, who won the Memorial Cup in 1992, and the Chiefs, who had won in 1991, met up in a best-of-five conference semifinal. The Blazers won the series in three games.
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The other driver in the accident in which former WHL goaltender Mike Maniago was killed in late November has been charged. The story is right here.
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Warren Henderson of the Kelowna Capital News reports that Rockets F Mikael Backlund may not be ready to play in the series opener with the host Tri-City Americans on Friday. “Backlund (lower body injury) remains questionable for the start of the second round on Friday,” Henderson writes. “Backlund was injured last Wednesday night in Game 4 against Kamloops.” . . . Kelowna F Kyle St. Denis (concussion) is listed as week-to-week.
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If you were wondering, and you likely were, the Americans beat the Rockets twice — 5-2 and 4-1 — in Kennewick, Wash, during the regular season. In Kelowna, the Rockets won twice, 3-1 and 3-2.