Friday . . .

The Tri-City Americans have four goaltenders on their main camp roster. You’ve got to think they should have been able to learn a thing or two at Friday night’s session. After all, the instructors were Jerry Price, Dusty Imoo and Olie Kolzig, all of them find goaltenders in their own right. . . . On Saturday, it will be the centres in the camp spotlight as former NHLer Stu Barnes is scheduled to work with them on faceoffs. . . . Barnes and Kolzig, of course, are among the Americans’ owners.
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The Swift Current Broncos are without F Matt Tassone, 20, a 36-goal man last season. He had surgery on both shoulders after last season — he played only 52 regular-season games and didn’t play in the playoffs — and continues to recuperate at home in St. Albert, Alta. Chances are he may not play until midseason. The Broncos have four other 20-year-olds on their roster — D Derek Claffey, D Eric Doyle, D Ryan Molle and F Michael Stickland.
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The Prince George Cougars opened their training camp Friday, the last of 22 WHL teams to hit the ice. And when they did, they had company. Rat Films, out of Montreal, is putting together a six-part series — tentatively titled The Rookies — as it has an eight-member crew following six rookies in the team’s camp. The Cougars have offered up complete access, including microphones on players and coaches, and the crew will be on the team bus when it heads to Everett for next weekend’s preseason tournament. . . . The six 30-minute shows are to be shown on Rogers Sportsnet in March. . . . Alex Taillon of Rat Films has done this before, having put together a French-language series (the seven-episode Les Recrues) that followed the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens in training camp and played on RDS last winter.
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The Central league’s Wichita Thunder has signed 6-foot-7 D Chris McAllister (Saskatoon, 1992-95), who has 301 NHL games under his belt. He played last season in England.
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Huddy Bell, one of the owners of the Regina Pats in the mid-1980s, died Thursday in Phoenix. He was 83. Bell was a prominent Regina hockey player — he played one NHL game with the New York Rangers in 1947 — and businessman, who had been in Phoenix for a number of years. Bell was involved in the group of Regina businessmen — the others were Morley Gusway, Bill Hicke, Ted Knight and Jack Nicolle — that purchased the Pats from the WHL early in 1986. Bell was the least active of the group, primarily because the other four lived in Regina. The group later sold the Pats to Diane and Russ Parker of Calgary, who continue to own the franchise.
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Congratulations to old friends Ron Hextall, Wayne Kartusch, Ron Rumball and Dwight McMillan. The SJHL has announced the first five inductees into its Hall of Fame and those four — along with Chris Chelios — represent the inaugural class. . . . Hextall played in the SJHL with the Melville Millionaires, before moving on to the Brandon Wheat Kings and then the NHL. If memory serves, Hextall faced more than 100 shots in what I think was his last SJHL game. . . . Rumball is the general manager and McMillan the head coach of the Weyburn Red Wings. These two have been there longer than dirt and will be there forever. They define hockey-lifers. McMillan has put up more than 1,000 SJHL coaching victories. . . . Kartusch, as decent a human being as you will find anywhere, served for many years as the SJHL’s president. A lot of credit for that league’s credibility can be placed at his doorstep. . . . Chelios played in the SJHL with the Moose Jaw Canucks.
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So . . . why doesn’t the WHL have a hall of fame? Just asking . . .
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The Red Deer Rebels have released D Kevin Woodyatt, 17, who was a sixth-round selection in the 2007 bantam draft. From Arizona, Woodyatt played three games with the Rebels last season. “He spent part of last season with us and there were areas of his game that we wanted him to address this summer,” Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin told Greg Meachem of the Red Deer Advocate. “In our opinion he didn’t address those areas, or at least to the level we expected.”
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G Kyle Birch, 19, is in camp with the Medicine Hat Tigers and is to see some action in the Edmonton tournament. Birch was a fifth-round selection by the Tri-City Americans in the 2005 bantam draft. He played 15 games with the Americans in 2007-08 and three with the Moose Jaw Warriors last season. He spent most of last season with the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars. . . . Birch stopped 10 of the 11 shots he saw Friday afternoon as the Tigers dropped a 5-2 decision to the Moose Jaw Warriors in St. Albert, Alta. . . . D Bo Montgomery’s name isn’t on the Tigers’ training camp roster. He played two seasons with the Portland Winter Hawks when he said he’d had enough and went home to Moose Jaw. Then 18, he said he was going to play for the U of Regina Cougars. But he never was able to get his release so didn’t play in the first half of last season, until after his rights were dealt by Portland to Medicine Hat. He played 13 games with the Tigers, picking up a goal, three assists and 26 penalty minutes.
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Some good stuff from Jim Swanson, the sports editor of the Prince George Citizen, in Saturday’s paper.
“Strange, it is, to not see former general manager Daryl Lubiniecki this year at Cougars camp. Same for Russ Smart, the long-time head scout,” Swanson writes.
“Both were fixtures. Both were told this summer that, after decades of service to the team and the league, their services were no longer required.
“Tough calls, but it's not hard to argue the changes necessary to truly alter the atmosphere around the hockey club. It's blunt to say, but the on-ice results to date will go down in history as tied to the tenure of those two men — among others, to be sure, but the fact is the Cougars didn't win a championship, raise a banner or accomplish any of those other common measuring sticks with those two men responsible for providing the coaches with talent.
“Make no mistake, dismal record or not, dropping Smart and 'Lubie' from the staff was not an easy action. General manager Dallas Thompson and owner Rick Brodsky, whose role as accomplices in the formation of past teams is not to be glossed over in the rush to blame the dearly departed, met with both men over the summer to deliver the news.
“It was akin to telling family members they are no longer welcome at the annual reunion.”
Good stuff, this. You should be able to find Swanson’s column, and other Cougars’ camp copy, at the Citizens’ website.
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In Prince George, head coach Dean Clark, who is about to begin his first season with the Cougars, continues to collect players with whom he became familiar while with the Kamloops Blazers. . . . For starters, the Cougars claimed former Blazers winger Alex Rodgers, 20, off waivers from the Vancouver Giants. . . . Then, the Cougars acquired former Blazers G James Priestner, 18, from the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . Rodgers and Priestener both were drafted by the Blazers while Clark was their general manager. . . . And now the Cougars have D Daniel Medland-Marchen, 18, in camp. The 6-foot-1, 184-pounder was dropped by the Blazers earlier this month. From Kelowna, Medland-Marchen was a second-round pick by Clark and the Blazers in the 2007 bantam draft.
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D Blaine Tendler, 19, has retired from the WHL and is expected to go to welding school. Tendler, from Viceroy, Sask., was the 28th overall pick in the 2005 bantam draft and spent three-plus seasons with the Raiders, playing in 173 regular-season games. He said he just lost the “passion to play at the WHL level.”
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FRIDAY’S GAMES: F Spencer Edwards scored three times as the Moose Jaw Warriors dumped the Medicine Hat Tigers 5-2 in the first game of the Edmonton Oil Kings’ tournament in St. Albert. . . . Edwards, 19, from Coquitlam, B.C., has played 38 WHL games in his career, 32 with the Red Deer Rebels (2006-08) and six last season with the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . The Warriors got two assists from D Shayne Gwinner, one of four 1994-born players in their lineup. . . . Moose Jaw lost F Joey Kornelson (eight stitches to the chin, concussion) in the second period. . . . The Edmonton Oil Kings got two goals from veteran F Robin Soudek and singles from Michael St. Croix, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 bantam draft, and Keegan Lowe as they beat the visiting Regina Pats, 4-0. Lowe is the son of Kevin Lowe, the Edmonton Oilers’ president of hockey operations. . . . G Cam Lanigan earned the shutout for Edmonton with 32 saves. . . . Before the game, the Pats signed G Dawson Guhle, 17, of Camrose, Alta. He is to start for the Pats this morning against Medicine Hat at the Oil Kings’ tournament. . . .
In Ladner, B.C., F Mike Piluso’s goal in the shootout — ah, yes, a shootout in exhibition play — gave the Vancouver Giants a 6-5 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Referee Sean Raphael ejected Vancouver head coach Don Hay as the third period began after some jostling between Giants F Brendan Gallagher and F Brett Lyon of the Blazers. . . . It’s 11:15 p.m. Can’t find any info on Kelowna at Chilliwack. And I’m not going to waste my time trying to find out info from an exhibition game. Good night!