Saturday . . .

SATURDAY’S GAMES:
In Regina, G Andrew Hayes stopped 25 shots to lead the Brandon Wheat Kings to a 3-0 victory over the Pats. . . . D Mark Schneider scored 35 seconds into the game and that is all Hayes would need on this night. . . . Schneider, the son of former Brandon captain Ken Schneider, later drew an assist on Brandon’s second goal, from F Del Cowan, at 3:01 of the third period. . . . The shutout was the seventh of Hayes’ WHL career. . . . D Colby Robak, who had been in camp with the Florida Panthers, was back in Brandon’s lineup and assisted on Schneider’s goal.
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In Kent, Wash., the Portland Winterhawks blanked the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent, 5-0, behind the 22-save goaltending of Ian Curtis. . . . The Winterhawks have won six straight games, although the first five of those were in the exhibition season. . . . It was Curtis’s first career shutout. . . . D Troy Rutkowski and Swiss F Nino Niederreiter each had two goals and an assist for Portland.
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In Kamloops, the Blazers went 4-for-10 on the power play and beat the Chilliwack Bruins, 4-2. . . . F Tyler Shattock had two goals and an assist for the Blazers. He had one of each on Friday as the Blazers beat the Bruins 4-3 in Chilliwack. . . . The Bruins continue to carry nine defencemen, but GM/head coach said that will change and that it may happen “sooner rather than later.” . . . He was disappointed in his club’s start Saturday, as the Bruins took some undisciplined penalties and gave up three power-play goals in the last four minutes of the first period. “We waited to see what kind of game they were going to play in the first before we decided to play,” Habscheid said. “That’s part of the culture that we need to change here and we will change it. It doesn’t happen over night, we know that. But the one thing we can do is make sure our guys compete and play together. We have a plan in place and we have to (implement) it and whoever wants to play will be here and whoever doesn’t won’t.”
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In Medicine Hat, the Tigers opened their 40th anniversary season with a 7-3 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . It was the second game of a season-opening eight-game road trip for the Hurricanes, who lost 8-1 to the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook on Friday. Lethbridge’s home arena is undergoing renovations. . . . F Bretton Cameron scored twice for the Tigers, with D Mark Isherwood and D Jace Coyle each getting a goal and two assists. . . . Yes, the attendance was 4,006. . . . The Hurricanes dressed 10 players who are either 16 or 17 years of age.
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In Moose Jaw, F Brendan Rowinski and F Quinton Howden each had two goals as the Warriors dropped the Prince Albert Raiders, 7-2. . . . Howden, the first overall pick in the 2007 bantam draft, had three assists on Friday when the Warriors lost 6-5 to the Broncos in Swift Current.
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In Red Deer, the Rebels dumped the Kootenay Ice 7-1 before 4,117 fans. . . . The Rebels, who had 50 shots on goal, scored three times on the PP, while surrendering just 15. . . . Red Deer got two goals from F Willie Coetzee, with F Cass Mappin adding a goal and two assists. . . . Red Deer, which lost to the visiting Calgary Hitmen 6-2 on Friday, was 3-for-11 on the PP. . . . Red Deer F Landon Ferraro left in the second period after being cross-checked by Kootenay F Dustin Sylvester at 17:00. . . . “Landon fell into the boards in an awkward manner and he’s being evaluated as we speak,” Red Deer head coach Jesse Wallin told the Red Deer Advocate. “We’ll know more over the next few days and hopefully he’ll be all right.” . . . Just 17 seconds before that hit, the teams had engaged in a line brawl.
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In Kennewick, Wash., the Tri-City Americans won their ninth straight home-opener, beating the defending-champion Kelowna Rockets, 6-1. . . . F Brendan Shinnimin scored twice and added an assist, G Drew Owsley stopped 20 shots, and new head coach Jim Hiller got his first victory with the Americans. . . . Hiller, who spent the last three seasons with the Chilliwack Bruins, replaced Don Nachbaur, who now is head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators. . . . The Rockets have lost seven straight regular-season games in Kennewick. . . . F Brandon McMillan, who had been in camp with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, returned to the Rockets in time to play.
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In Vancouver, the Everett Silvertips overcame a 2-1 third-period deficit and beat the Giants, 4-2. . . . Over the last three seasons, the Giants were 122-1-2-5 when taking a lead into the third period. . . . The Silvertips tied the game at 3:18 and got the winner at 15:32, both goals coming from Czech F Radko Gudas. . . . The Giants wouldn’t admit it after the game but a flu bug is in their dressing room. In fact, F Sebastian Svendsen left the game during the first period. . . . The Giants are down to 26 players after reassigning D Luke Fenske and F Mikael Jung on Friday. . . . Everett D Ryan Murray, the ninth pick in the 2008 bantam draft, was plus-4.
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In Prince George, F Alex Rodgers scored at 2:32 of overtime as the Cougars beat the Spokane Chiefs, 2-1. . . . The goal gave the Cougars a split of the series, as the Chiefs had won 6-3 on Friday. . . . Or is it a split when one team (Spokane) emerges from the two games with three points and the other team (Prince George) gets two? . . . Spokane F Levko Koper tied the game at 12:24 with his fourth goal of the two games. . . . Prince George G James Priestner stopped 35 shots, 10 more than Spokane’s James Reid.
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In Edmonton, the Calgary Hitmen doubled the Oil Kings, 4-2. . . . Calgary F Ian Schultz, who was helped off the ice earlier following a hit by Edmonton D Adrian Van de Mosselaer, broke a 2-2 tie at 16:07 of the third period. . . . Calgary F Brandon Kozun put it away with an empty-netter. . . . Kozun also had two assists. . . . Calgary F MacKenzie Royer left the game in the third period after taking a puck in the face. . . . Attendance was 8,256.
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D Kaleigh Fratkin will play for the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League’s Vancouver-Northwest Giants this season. Fratkin, 17, is a member of the Canadian national U-18 women’s team. She becomes the first female in B.C. to play on a boys’ major midget – it’s midget AAA in the three other western provinces – team. "I decided to take her,” Giants head coach Jon Calvano told the newspaper Burnaby Now. “She's an exceptionally good hockey player. I evaluated her as a hockey player and not as a female," said Giants head coach Jon Calvano. "She was given the green light to try out and my job as coach is to pick the best team, and she was one of the best defencemen to come to camp." . . . The complete story is right here.
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This one has nothing to do with hockey, but . . .
So you’re sitting at home on a Friday evening getting ready to go out for
the night. Your three-wheel motorcycle is in the driveway ready to serve as
your carriage.
It stands to reason, then, that you put a loaded Beretta 9mm in your
waistband. Check!
And you've got a loaded Ruger .357 magnum strapped to one of your legs.
Check!
And what of that loaded shotgun? You put it in the guitar case and strap it
on your back. Check!
As you get on the bike the only thing missing is Salma Heyak.
So . . . you head out on the Interstate, you cut off a police car and you
get stopped for speeding.
That is pretty much how things went for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte
West on Thursday night near Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
And somewhere Plaxico Burress is thinking, geez, if only I had thought of
the guitar case. . . .
You knew of course that West is one of the Cavaliers’ shooting guards.