Saturday . . .

A reminder: There won’t be any WHL games on Sunday. Why not? Because it’s Grey Cup Sunday in Canada. For our American friends, it’s the Saskatchewan Roughriders, backed by the watermelon heads, against the Montreal Alouettes in Calgary. . . . I believe Montreal is a 9.5-point favourite. . . . The best story from Grey Cup Week involved Safeway trucking in lots and lots and lots of watermelons so Roughriders fans would be certain to be able to find appropriate headwear. I’m sorry, but you just don’t find stories like that during Super Bowl Week. . . . If you don't believe it, check out the watermelon story right here.
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A Saturday note from the QMJHL:
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Disciplinary Prefect announced today that players Ashton Bernard (Cape Breton) and Marshall Worden (Acadie-Bathurst) have been both suspended 10 games. It’s an automatic suspension following their fight during the warm-up, before (Friday’s) game between the Screaming Eagles and the Titan, played at Centre 200 in Sydney.
Other suspensions and/or fines could be announced by the disciplinary prefect, after reviewing the videotape of the incident and after consulting all concerned parties.
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Sheesh, a fight in the pregame warmup. Now that brings back memories of the good old days, eh?
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Former WHL G Ryan Holfeld, 20, has left the USHL’s Fargo, N.D., Force and joined the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Holfeld played 122 regular-season WHL games over the last three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
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SATURDAY:
In Saskatoon, the Calgary Hitmen opened up a 5-1 lead early in the third period and hung on for a 5-4 victory over the Blades. . . . This game featured the Eastern Conference’s top two teams. . . . The Hitmen (20-8-1-0) had lost three in a row. They now are two points behind the Blades, who hold two games in hand. . . . The Blades (20-4-0-3) had won five straight. They now are 11-2-0-0 at home, where they went into the night having won 10 in a row. . . . The Hitmen got two goals and two assists from F Brandon Kozun, who moved at least temporarily into the lead in the WHL scoring derby, one point ahead of Regina Pats F Jordan Eberle. Eberle would play later in the evening against the Chiefs in Spokane. . . . Kozun’s 13th goal of the season, 15 seconds into the third period, gave Calgary a 5-1 lead. . . . The Blades scored three times in the second half of the third period. . . . F Joel Broda also had two goals for Calgary. He has 14 on the season. . . . F Derek Hulak had a goal, his 13th, and two assists for the Blades. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 18 shots, while Saskatoon’s Steven Stanford turned aside 25. . . . Stanford has made back-to-back starts after Adam Morrison, the Blades’ other goaltender, hasn’t felt well after getting an H1N1 shot. . . . Attendance was 4,332.
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In Prince Albert, F Igor Revenko had two goals to help the Riaders to a 6-1 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Revenko also set up a goal, while teammate Dustin Cameron drew three assists. . . . Lethbridge got its goal from D Luca Sbisa, his first in 11 games since returning from the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. He cut the Raiders’ lead to 2-1 early in the second period. . . . Prince Albert had a 48-30 edge in shots. . . . The Raiders (15-12-1-2) have won three in a row and four of five. . . . The Hurricanes, who are 3-10-0-1 on the road, are 8-15-3-1 overall and are 0-4-1-1 in their last six outings. . . . Attendance was 1,898.
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In Swift Current, F Justin Dowling scored three times to lead the Broncos to a 5-4 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . One night earlier, the Wheat Kings had beaten the Broncos 4-2 in Brandon. . . . Dowling, a third-year player from Cochrane, Alta., has 18 goals this season. He finished last season with 22 in 71 games. . . . The Broncos (14-12-0-2) held 2-1 and 4-3 period leads, with Dowling giving them a 5-3 lead at 4:30 of the third period. . . . F Jay Fehr pulled Brandon (17-11-0-2) to within one at 18:35. . . . The Wheat Kings had a four-game winning streak snapped. . . . F Aaron Lewadniuk, who had three points Friday, scored twice, giving him 10 this season. . . . Fehr also set up two goals. . . . Swift Current F Cody Eakin scored his WHL-leading 25th goal. He had 24 goals in 54 games last season, his second in the WHL. . . . Attendance was 2,103. . . . The Wheat Kings lost F Scott Glennie (ill) in the first period and D Dallas Ehrhardt (knee) in the second.
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In Edmonton, the Moose Jaw Warriors erased a 2-0 deficit and beat the Oil Kings 3-2 in overtime on Dylan Hood’s ninth goal of the season. . . . Hood scored at 3:14 of extra time. . . . The Oil Kings (8-13-4-4) had taken a 2-0 lead with first-period goals 39 seconds apart by F Michael Burns and F Brent Raedeke, his 14th. . . . The Warriors (16-10-1-1) got third-period goals from F Spencer Edwards, his ninth, at 13:04, and F Quinton Howden, his 13th, at 14:27. . . . Edmonton has lost five in a row, including two straight in OT. The Oil Kings have won win in their last 12 outings, but because they are 1-5-4-2 over that stretch they actually have earned up eight points. . . . Attendance was announced at 4,467 but the Edmonton Journal reported that fewer than 1,000 fans were in the stands.
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In Red Deer, freshman F Emerson Etem scored his 20th goal as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Rebels, 4-1. . . . The Tigers (16-9-2-3) have won five in a row and are 6-0-0-1 in their last seven. . . . The Rebels (13-14-0-0) had won three of four. . . . Red Deer freshman F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 16th goal. He has five goals in his last five games. . . . Attendance was 4,619. . . . Medicine Hat F Bretton Cameron scored his 23rd goal of the season, an empty-netter. He went into this season with 22 goals in 111 career regular-season games.
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In Prince George, F Brendan Gallagher scored four times to lead the Vancouver Giants to a 6-2 victory over the Cougars. . . . The Giants (18-8-1-2) broke a 2-2 tie with four third-period goals. . . . Gallagher, who has 19 goals, scored three straight goals. He forged a 2-2 tie at 14:46 of the second period, then scored again at 2:46 and 5:12 of the third. . . . He got his fourth at 18:37. . . . Last season, Gallagher scored 10 goals in 52 games. . . . Vancouver D Kevin Connauton, a 19-year-old Vancouver Canucks draft pick and NCAA refugee, scored his 12th goal of the season. . . . Attendance was 1,930. . . . The Cougars slipped to 4-20-1-1 with their second loss of the weekend. The Giants, who have won three in a row, won 5-4 on Friday.
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In Chilliwack, G Lucas Gore stopped 15 Shots to lead the Bruins to a 3-0 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Gore, who is from Kamloops, posted his second shutout of the season and second of his career. . . . The Bruins (12-13-1-4) had lost two in a row at home. The victory lifted them past the Kelowna Rockets and into sixth place in the Western Conference. . . . F Alexander Wiklund got the game’s first goal, his second of the season, at 13:35 of the second period, with D Jesse Craige and F Chris Collins adding third-period PP goals. . . . The Blazers, the WHL’s most-penalized team, faced 10 Chilliwack PP opportunities. . . . The Blazers (11-14-2-2) had beaten the Bruins 4-3 in a shootout one week earlier. . . . Kamloops has lost seven of its last eight games. . . . Kamloops has been blanked twice this season. . . . The Blazers are 4-2-0-0 in six games with the Bruins, who are 2-2-0-2 against the Blazers. . . . Attendance was 3,168.
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In Kelowna, the Kootenay Ice scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Rockets, 4-2. . . . The Ice (13-13-1-1) is 2-0 on its swing into the B.C. Division, having beaten the Blazers 6-5 in a shootout in Kamloops on Friday. . . . Kootenay D Brayden McNabb, in his second game after an eight-game absence, scored two PP goals -- at 11:29 of the second and 2:26 of the third -- to erase a 2-1 deficit. . . . McNabb had a goal and an assist on Friday in Kamloops. . . . Attendance was 6,146. . . . The teams divided 109 penalty minutes. . . . Each team was 2-for-8 on the PP. . . . The Rockets are 13-14-1-0. . . . Ice D Ryan Molle (concussion) didn’t play. . . . Kelowna F Shane McColgan, who had two goals in a 2-1 victory over the Bruins in Chilliwack on Friday, got his ninth goal of the season on a second-period PP.
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In Spokane, G James Reid stopped 22 shots to help the Chiefs beat the Regina Pats, 4-0. . . . It was Reid’s third shutout this season and the seventh of his career. . . . Attendance was 7,217. . . . F Tyler Johnson’s 15th goal, at 11:05 the first period, stood up as the winner for the Chiefs (16-8-2-0). That was his sixth goal in five games. . . . Regina (15-13-3-0) won four games on a six-game road swing that ended in Spokane. . . . The Chiefs are 8-2-1-0 in their last 11 outings. . . . Regina has been blanked four times this season. . . . The Chiefs went 10-2-1-0 in November.
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In Kennewick, Wash., the Everett Silvertips scored the game’s first three goals and went on to a 6-1 victory over the host Tri-City Americans. . . . F Shane Harper and F D. Jay McGrath each scored twice for the Silvertips (16-8-1-0). Harper has 19 on the season, while McGrath got his first two WHL goals in his 11th game this season and the 14th of his career. . . . McGrath scored the game’s first two goals, at 9:53 and 17:12 of the first period. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 36 shots. . . . Everett was 0-for-3 on the PP; the Ams were 0-for-8. . . . The Americans (19-8-0-0), who opened the season with nine straight home-ice victories, have lost three of their last four at home. . . . The Americans, who lost 4-1 to the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Friday, last lost two in a row at home late in 2007-08. . . . Attendance was 3,956.
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In Portland, F Spencer Bennett scored twice, including the Teddy Bear goal, as the Winterhawks got past the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent, 5-3. . . . Bennett’s first goal, at 2:52 of the first period, allowed the crowd of 10,197 in the Rose Garden to unleash a storm of stuffed toys. The latest count had 16,321 toys on the ice. . . . Nine seconds after the ice was cleaned off, Seattle F Lindsay Nielsen tied the score. . . . But the Winterhawks (18-12-0-0) got the game’s next two goals and were never caught. . . . Bennett, whose second goal was an empty-netter, has 12 goals this season. . . . Portland freshman F Nino Niederreiter scored his 16th goal. He has six goals and an assist over his last four games. . . . F Prab Rai got his 16th for Seattle (10-16-1-3) to get his side to within a goal early in the third. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 41 shots, while Portland’s Ian Curtis turned aside 23. . . . Portland, which won 6-4 in Kent on Friday, is 5-0-0-0 against Seattle this season. . . . The loss cost Seattle a chance to pull into a tie with the Kamloops Blazers for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. . . . Seattle D Jeremy Schappert had his 10-game point streak snapped. He had 16 points, including seven goals, over that stretch.