Friday . . .

AS LETHBRIDGE TURNS: After then-Lethbridge Hurricanes general manager Roy Stasiuk announced that Michael Dyck’s contract as head coach wouldn’t be renewed, Rich Sutter carved Stasiuk like a Christmas turkey in the pages of the Lethbridge Herald. . . . Strangely enough, Sutter had been brought into the organization by Stasiuk in January as a consultant, presumably to act as a conduit between the coaching staff and management. . . . Of course, a couple of days after Dyck got the news that he wouldn’t be back, the Hurricanes’ board of directors fired Stasiuk, saying that the decision actually had been reached in the middle of the previous week. . . . Now comes word that, yes, Sutter wants the general manager’s job. In a conversation with Pat Siedlecki, the radio voice of the Hurricanes, Sutter admitted that he has applied for the job. . . . Sutter, who in the past has expressed interest in purchasing the community-owned franchise, is in the organization’s hall of fame as a player. . . . Also in the hunt for the Hurricanes’ GM job is Brad Robson, the Hurricanes’ director of scouting/player personnel. . . . You can read a transcript of Siedlecki’s chat with Sutter at Siedlecki’s blog over there on the left.
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KEENAN BURNS: Another Sutter was in the news Friday, too. Like a true politician, Darryl Sutter, the GM of the Calgary Flames, chose Friday afternoon to announce the decision to fire head coach Mike Keenan. Keenan’s regular-season coaching record in Calgary was 88-60-16, meaning he was canned because of a failure to get the Flames deep into the playoffs. . . . Of course, firing Keenan, who had one year left on his contract, gives more fuel to critics who claim that Sutter’s record of hiring coaches is no hell, either. . . . And you are free to speculate on whether Brent Sutter will leave the New Jersey Devils, to whom he is under contract, to coach the Flames.
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THE ZEBRAS: The next time you are inclined to complain about the on-ice officiating in a WHL game take a moment and think back to Friday night’s NHL playoff game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Blackhawks in Chicago. The NHL is down to its final four, which should mean it also has its best officials on the ice. In this instance, the officiating was sophomoric at best. From the horrible decision to eject Detroit D Niklas Kronwall with an interference major, to more than one screwed up icing call, to the ticky-tack calls against the Blackhawks in the second period, to putting the whistles away in the third period . . . it would seem the NHL has more problems than the Phoenix Coyotes on its hands. And you thought that referees no longer played the even-up game or put away their whistles in the third period, didn’t you? . . . If the decision to eject Kronwall for what was a good, hard hockey hit was, indeed, that of referee Dan O’Halloran, as was reported on Hockey Night in Canada, well, we should have seen the last of him in these playoffs. . . . Instead, NHL hanging judge Colin Campbell, whose credibility is shot after he chose not to suspend Carolina Hurricanes F Scott Walker for that sucker punch to the mush of Boston Bruins D Aaron Ward, likely will get out the dart board and suspend Kronwall for a game or two.
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IN PRINCE ALBERT: The Prince Albert Raiders have signed C Mike Winther, the sixth overall selection in the 2009 bantam draft. Winther played for the Airdrie Xtreme of the Alberta Major Bantam League this season. He tied for the regular-season scoring title and won the playoff scoring title. Then he led scorers at the Western Canadian championship where he was honoured as top forward and an all-star. . . . C Mark McNeill, whom the Raiders selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft, has had surgery to repair a severed left Achilles tendon. He was injured last weekend in the final game of an Alberta under-17 regional camp. McNeill hopes to be ready in time for the Raiders’ training camp in late August. McNeill, now in a knee-to-toe cast and using crutches to get around, spent this season with midget AAA SSAC side in Edmonton.
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THE MEMORIAL CUP: The Kelowna Rockets, if they are still in Rimouski, Que., will meet the Windsor Spitfires in Sunday’s championship final. . . . The Rockets haven’t played since losing 2-1 to Windsor on Tuesday. . . . The Spitfires won the semifinal game Friday, beating the Drummondville Voltigeurs 3-2 in OT. . . . That was Windsor’s third straight victory and each of them came in a win-or-go-home situation. . . . Adam Henrique scored Friday’s winner at 4:31 of OT. . . . That set up the CHL’s worst nightmare – a Memorial Cup final featuring teams from the WHL and OHL in a QMJHL city. . . . It is interesting that Windsor is 3-2 in the tournament, while the Rockets are 2-1.