Monday . . .

WARNING! WARNING!! WARNING!!
There is a Mikael Backlund mention somewhere down below. . . . .
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We have our first Game 7 of these playoffs and it goes Tuesday night in Swift Current with the Broncos playing host to the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . And there will be another Game 7 Wednesday night in Saskatoon. . . . The Tigers will welcome back D Matt McCue, 20, from a two-game WHL suspension that was punishment for a hit that took Swift Current D Eric Doyle out of the series. Doyle provided the Broncos with 55 regular-season points from the back end. . . . The Broncos also are without F Keegan Dansereau, who led them in assists and points in the regular season, and F Matt Tassone, who was their top sniper. Dansereau was injured in Game 5, while Tassone (shoulders) hasn’t played since late in the regular season and won’t play again this season. . . . Dansereau had six points in the first five games of the series. . . . Here are the scores in the series to date:
Medicine Hat 2 at Swift Current 4
Medicine Hat 6 at Swift Current 2
Swift Current 5 at Medicine Hat 2
Swift Current 3 at Medicine Hat 5
Medicine Hat 3 at Swift Current 5
Swift Current 0 at Medicine Hat 3
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MONDAY’S GAME:
In Lethbridge, F Josh Nicholls, 16, scored his first two playoff goals to help the Saskatoon Blades to a 5-1 victory over the Hurricanes. . . . The series is tied 3-3, with Game 7 set for Saskatoon on Wednesday night. . . . Saskatoon G Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots, while Lethbridge’s Juha Metsola turned aside 29 shots. . . . Saskatoon D Jyri Niemi had four assists. . . . The Blades were 2-for-9 on the PP, getting the two goals in the third period when Lethbridge, down 2-1 after two periods, ran into penalty trouble. . . . Asked if he was concerned about his side’s late-game discipline, Lethbridge head coach Michael Dyck told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “None. Concerns about thme officiating. I thought it was pretty one-sided at the end, but no concerns about our discipline.” . . . Lethbridge LW Carter Bancks (upper body) remains out. . . . Attendance was 3,730. Geez, did everyone stay home to watch on TV? . . . Here are the scores from the first six games:
Lethbridge 1 at Saskatoon 5
Lethbridge 5 at Saskatoon 2
Saskatoon 3 at Lethbridge 1
Saskatoon 1 at Lethbridge 2
Lethbridge 3 at Saskatoon 1
Saskatoon 5 at Lethbridge 1
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F Mitch Fadden of the Tri-City Americans is the Boston Pizza WHL player of the week. He had eight points in three games as the Americans ousted the Everett Silvertips. . . . Tri-City’s Chet Pickard is the WHL nominee as the ADT CHL goaltender of the week. He was 3-0 with a 1.33 GAA and a .949 save percentage.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings have added RW Jordan DePape, 16, to their roster. DePape spent the season with the MJHL‚s Winnipeg Saints, who lost a semifinal series to the Selkirk Steelers. DePape, the MJHL’s rookie of the year, had 85 points with the Saints, tops among WHL freshmen. The Wheat Kings selected him with the 61st pick of the 2007 bantam draft. He practiced with the Wheat Kings on Monday.
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D Taylor Ellington of the Everett Silvertips will be joining the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. Ellington, 20, who has signed with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, should arrive in Winnipeg on Wednesday. He had 32 points in 69 games with Everett. The Canucks selected him in the second round, 33rd overall, of the NHL’s 2007 draft. . . . D Thomas Hickey and C Jim O’Brien of the Seattle Thunderbirds are off to the pro ranks. Hickey will join the Manchester Monarchs, the Los Angeles’ Kings’ AHL affiliate, while O’Brien is joining the Binghamton Senators, the AHL farm club of the Ottawa Senators. Hickey was taken by Los Angeles with the fourth pick of the 2007 NHL draft. O’Brien was grabbed by Ottawa with the 29th pick in that same draft.
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Everett C Byron Froese has been selected to play for Canada at the IIHF World U-18 championship in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., April 9-19. Froese, from Winkler, Man., had 57 points in his freshman season with Everett. . . . Hockey Canada won’t announce the roster until after the Saskatoon Blades and Lethbridge Hurricanes have completed their first-round series. That series will conclude Wednesday when Game 7 is played in Saskatoon.
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Sorry that there isn’t any news on Kelowna Rockets F Mikael Backlund today. However, Kelowna C Cody Almond has signed a three-year deal with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. . . . Almond was selected by the Wild in the fifth round of the NHL’s 2007 draft. “We were negotiating for the last two or three weeks, and the team made it official just recently,” Almond told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier. “It’s an awesome feeling (to be signed). I knew a week or so ago, so I was really excited. It took a little pressure off me, and it allowed me to focus on playing hard and trying to win with Kelowna.” . . . WHOA! This just in on Backlund: He didn’t skate with his teammates at practice on Monday. “It’s a lower-body thing with him, and it’s just a matter of us really not pushing him too hard right now,” Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska told Potenteau.
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The ECHL lost three more teams Monday, bringing the total of defunct franchises to five since the start of this season. The Fresno Falcons and Augusta Lynx started this season, but didn’t finish. On Monday came word that the Dayton Bombers, Mississippi Sea Wolves and Phoenix Roadrunners have suspended operations and won’t be in play next season. . . . At the same time, the ECHL revealed that the Toledo Walleye will begin play next season in the US$105-million Lucas County Arena right in downtown Toledo, Ohio. . . . The ECHL is left with 19 teams. As recently as 2004-05, it was a 29-team league. . . . Did you know: The Walleye mascot will be known as, uhh, Wally.
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The OHL’s Sarnia Sting fired general manager Alan Millar on Monday and gave head coach Dave MacQueen a three-year contract extension. MacQueen now is serving as interim GM. The Sting, 35-26-4-3 in the regular season, lost a first-round playoff series to the Plymouth Whalers in five games, losing the last game 8-1. . . . The QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs have fired GM/head coach Jacques Beaulieu, who had been in place through three seasons. The Sea Dogs, who were swept by Cape Breton from a first-round series, were 95-111 under him, with an 8-10 playoff record. He went into the 2008-09 season having won the Marcel Filion Award as the league’s GM of the year.