Russians won't be playing in Kamloops

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Russians aren’t coming. At least, not to Kamloops.
The CHL has announced a three-year deal with Subway that will extend the life of the annual six-game series that involves a touring Russian side.
The Subway Super Series, as it will be called, features two games involving all-star teams from each of the three major junior leagues — the WHL, OHL and QMJHL — beginning in November.
The CHL will begin naming dates and sites of this season’s series later this week.
Craig Bonner, the general manager of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday, but a team official told The Daily News, the Blazers “definitely aren’t hosting one of those games.”
Last season, the series, then known as the ADT Canada Russia Challenge, made stops in Prince Albert and Swift Current. The WHL team won 5-0 in Swift Current on Nov. 26 and 2-1 in Prince Albert the following night.
The series last stopped in Kamloops on Nov. 30, 2006, when the WHLers whipped the Russians, 8-1, to close out a six-game CHL sweep in which the hosts outscored the visitors, 32-12.
The WHL boasts an 11-1 record in the series.
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The Blazers assigned two players, both of whom have signed WHL contracts, to the midget AAA ranks on Monday.
G John Keeney, a 16-year-old list player from Twin Peaks, Calif., is to play for the Los Angeles Selects U-18 team.
F Logan McVeigh, a second-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft, will join the Saskatoon Contacts. McVeigh, 15, is from Kenaston, Sask., which isn’t too far from Saskatoon.
The moves leave the Blazers’ roster at 32, including forwards Dalibor Bortnak (spleen) and Colin Smith (broken arm), both of whom will be out until late October.
Freshman forward Matej Bene (groin) continues to be listed as day-to-day.
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The Blazers, who split two weekend exhibition games with the Vancouver Giants, are back in action Wednesday when they meet the Chilliwack Bruins in Hope. Game time is 7 p.m.
The teams will stage a rematch at Interior Savings Centre on Friday, 7 p.m.
The Bruins likely will be without D Jeff Einhorn, 19, of Red Deer. Einhorn, who has played two seasons with the Bruins, spent Saturday night in Kelowna General Hospital after being struck in the throat by an errant stick during the second period of an exhibition game.
When Einhorn reach the Bruins’ bench, he was in obvious difficult. He received immediate medical attention and was taken by ambulance to hospital.
He now is back in Chilliwack, his family from Red Deer is with him and he is expected to make a complete recover.
The Bruins are 2-0, having beaten the Rockets 4-2 in Chilliwack on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday.
After the two victories, Chilliwack released F Mike Krgovich, 19, and F Josh Schappert, 20, both of whom have WHL experience. Krgovich played 63 games with the Red Deer Rebels in 2007-08 and 29 with the Bruins last season. Schappert played 119 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds from 2005-08.
At the same time, the Bruins are taking a look at F Isak Quakenbush, 19, a grinder who played the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons with Seattle. Last season, he had 16 points and 189 penalty minutes in 54 games with the AJHL’s Drayton Valley Thunder.
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JUST NOTES: F Tyler Redenbach of Kamloops, who had 68 points in 43 games with a team in Denmark last season, has signed a one-year deal with SaiPa Lappeenranta of the Finland SM-Liiga. . . . F Paul Deniset, who played with the Blazers in the late 1990s, has been released by Rødovre of Denmark’s AL-Bank Liga for financial reasons. The team released all three of its North American players. Deniset had 35 points in 46 games in a German league last season. . . . F Brett Connolly, the reigning CHL rookie of the year, didn’t play in the Prince George Cougars’ intrasquad game last night. He is being bothered by a hip flexor and has been held out of practice sessions as a precaution.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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