Saturday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT: F Oleg Saprykin (Seattle, 1998-2000) has been traded by Dynamo Moscow (Russia KHL) to SKA St. Petersburg (Russia KHL) for F Igor Makarov. Saprykin, who asked for a trade, had four goals and two assists in 21 games with Dynamo this season.
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F Roman Horak, 18, of the Chilliwack Bruins will join the Czech national junior team for a pre-World Junior Championship camp in Saskatoon on Dec. 17. Horak, a fifth-round selection by the New York Rangers in the NHL’s 2010 draft, has 26 points in 31 games with the Bruins.
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It was only a few short years ago that the Tri-City Americans appeared to be
on the brink of extinction.
Now here they are, six seasons later, riding high atop the WHL’s Western Conference, looking every bit like a championship contender. Again.
This season, they are doing it with a new (old) head coach, Jim Hiller
having replaced Don Nachbaur, who now is head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton
Senators. Hiller, of course, is hardly a stranger to the Americans, having
served as an assistant with them before venturing into the BCHL and then on
to a three-season stint as head coach of the Chilliwack Bruins.
Earlier this season, Hiller told me that once he had been in Kennewick,
Wash., long enough to familiarize himself with the Ams’ organization, one thing
stood out above all the rest -- depth.
And it is that depth -- the credit goes to GM Bob Tory, assistant GM/director of player personnel Terry Bangen and the scouting staff -- that has allowed the
Americans to keep on keeping on they way they have and are.
Consider that they now are 21-8-0-0 and that this comes on the heels of
seasons in which they have won 47, 52 and 49 games, finishing atop the U.S. Division each of the last two season.
Consider, too, that since the present ownership group -- Stu Barnes, Olaf Kolzig, Dennis Loman and Tory -- took over, the average regular-season attendance has risen 35 per cent. In 2005-06, the first season under new ownership, the average per-game attendance was 3,857, an increase of 17.7 per cent from the previous season. In 2008-09, they averaged 4,117 fans per game.
The Americans, under Tory, do a lot of the little things right. The people,
including players, in the organization are ultra-accessible. And, yes, they
do all of the things in the community that junior hockey teams do.
Which brings us to their media guide.
Not too many teams put out media guides these days and that¹s really too
bad. Dan Mulhausen, the Americans’ director of marketing, media and game operations, oversaw production of this season’s gem and it really is a gem.
“We’re working hard to be fan friendly and to make sure the business is
solid year to year,” Tory says, explaining why the Americans produce a media guide.
If you’re a WHL fan, and specifically a fan of the Americans, you are going
to want to get your hands on one of these 182-page babies.
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The Kelowna Rockets are preparing to head out on a road swing through the
East Division and they expect G Mark Guggenberger, 20, to play at some point
during the trip. Guggenberger last played on May 24 in the final game of the
2009 Memorial Cup. He reported to training camp with groin problems that
turned out to be a sports hernia. He eventually underwent surgery and only
recently returned to practice. The Rockets open their swing on Tuesday in
Swift Current against the Broncos. “He’s going to play on the road trip;
it’s just a matter of deciding which night is the best night to put him in,” Rockets head coach Ryan Huska told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier. “He’s had a good couple of weeks with (goalie coach) Kim Dillabaugh, and if he continues to progress over the next couple of days for us, then there’s a chance we’ll see him early on in the trip.”
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Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reports that F Brandon Kozun of the
Calgary Hitmen never considered playing for the U.S., despite the fact the
Americans were the first to contact him about playing for them in the 2010
World Junior Championship. Kozun and his family moved to Calgary from Los
Angeles when he was 10 and he holds dual citizenship. “I am a proud U.S
citizen and a proud Canadian citizen but I’ve been playing Canadian hockey,” Kozun, 19, told Ewen. “I feel like Canada is where I should play.” Kozun,
the WHL’s leading point-getter, will attend Canada’s selection camp that opens in
Regina on Dec. 12. He was a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the
2009 NHL draft.
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Executives with the Prince Albert Raiders have expressed serious concerns
over attendance at their home games. John MacNeil of the Prince Albert Daily
Herald has that story right here.
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SATURDAY:
In Chilliwack, F Brandon Kozun scored two goals and set up two others to
lead the Calgary Hitmen to a 6-3 victory over the Bruins. . . . Calgary (23-8-1-0) was 5-for-11 on the PP; the Bruins (12-15-1-4) were 0-for-6. . . . The two teams combined for five goals in the game’s first eight minutes, with the visitors emerging with a 3-2 lead. . . . F Ryan Howse scored Chilliwack’s first two goals 27 seconds apart in the first period. He has 24 on the season. . . . F Ian Schultz, who scored twice, gave Calgary a 3-2 lead at 8:00 of the first period, on the PP, and the Hitmen, winners of four straight, pretty much put it away by scoring twice in the first half of the second period. . . . Kozun, who leads the WHL with 60 points, has 18 goals. He scored the game-winner for the fourth time in Calgary’s last four victories. He leads the WHL with eight game-winners. . . . F Joel Broda got his 17th for the Hitmen and also drew three assists, while D Michael Stone set up four goals. . . . The teams engaged in one of those multi-fight episodes at 12:16 of the second period, which was rather interesting seeing as this game was a matinee affair with promotions that were tied into Chilliwack¹s Santa Claus Parade. . . . Attendance was 3,072.
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In Regina, the Brandon Wheat Kings jumped out to a 6-0 lead and went on to
beat the Pats, 6-4. . . . Brandon had six different goal scorers and no one
with more than two points. . . . Brandon F Aaron Lewadniuk had one goal and now has 14 points, including six goals, in his last six games. . . . The Wheat Kings (20-11-0-2) took a 6-0 lead at 18:17 of the second period. . . . Regina F Jordan Eberle scored a shorthanded goal at 19:28 of the second period -- it was the Teddy Bear goal -- and added another shorthanded score at 12:29 of the third. Eberle completed his hat trick at 19:23. He has 26 goals this season, tying him for the WHL lead with F Cody Eakin of the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Brandon was 2-for-5 on the PP; the Pats (15-14-3-0) were 0-for-2. . . . Brandon G Andrew Hayes stopped 38 shots. . . . Attendance was 4,469. . . . Brandon has beaten the Pats in all three meetings this season.
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In Kamloops, C C.J. Stretch, playing his 301st regular-season game, scored twice to help the Blazers to a 3-2 victory over the Prince George Cougars. . . . The Blazers (13-15-2-2) erased 1-0 and 2-1 third-period deficits. . . . Prince George (5-22-1-1) lost C Brett Connolly in the second period when he left the game in obvious discomfort. Connolly, the WHL’s top-ranked NHL draft-eligible skater in the eyes of NHL Central Scouting, has played in only 12 Games this season because of a problem with his right hip. Head coach Dean Clark said he wasn’t certain what was wrong with Connolly this time but that it was on the other side of his body. . . . The Cougars, after attempting to trade F Robbie Ciolfi, sent him home Thursday, citing schooling and disciplinary reasons. Ciolfi, 18, had 10
points in 25 games. He is from Lethbridge and is to fly out of Prince George
on Sunday.
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In Swift Current, D Jordan Rowley set up three goals to lead the Prince
Albert Raiders to a 5-2 victory over the Broncos. . . . F Dillon Wagner
scored the game’s first and last goals for the Broncos (16-14-0-2), who had won three of four. . . . In between, the Raiders (17-13-1-2) scored five in a row, with F Dustin Cameron getting two of them. He has 17 on the season. . . . F Brandon Herrod got his 18th for the Raiders, who got 25 saves out of G Dalyn Flette. . . . Rowley has 30 points, including 26 assists, in 33 games. . . . G Mark Friesen started for the Broncos but left at 16:06 of the first period after the Raiders scored two PP goals a minute apart to take a 3-1 lead. . . . The Raiders were 2-for-5 on the PP; the Broncos were 0-for-6. . . . Attendance was 2,069.
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In Kent, Wash., F Prab Rai scored twice to lead the host Seattle Thunderbirds to a 3-2 victory over the Everett Silvertips. . . . Rai has goals in six straight games. He has 19 on the season. . . . Rai, who has 12 two-goal games but has never had a hat trick in his WHL career, scored at 6:19 and 11:38 of the first period and F Brendan Rouse added a goal at 18:38 as the Thunderbirds (11-17-1-3) took a 3-0 lead. . . . Their last two goals came on the PP as they went 2-for-6. . . . Seattle halted a three-game losing streak. . . . Everett took the game’s first six penalties, with five of them coming in a 9:12 stretch of the first period. . . . Going back to Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Winterhawks in Portland, the Silvertips gave up 10 straight power plays. . . . According to Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald: “An angry-looking Everett coach Craig Hartsburg declined to comment on the game, walking straight past media inquiries.” . . . Everett (16-11-1-0) cut the lead to 3-2 on two goals from F Tyler Maxwell, the second one, his 19th, on the PP at 14:22 of the third period. . . . Everett has lost three in a row for the first time this season. . . . Attendance was 4,694.
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In Vancouver, F Craig Cunningham scored three times to lead the Giants to a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Cunningham, who has 17 goals, scored once in each period. His first goal was the Teddy Bear score. . . . It was Cunningham’s first WHL hat trick. . . . F Brendan Gallagher got his 20th goal and assisted on each of Cunningham’s goals. . . . The Giants (19-10-1-2) had lost two in a row at home. . . . Edmonton (8-16-4-4) has lost eight in a row. . . . Vancouver F Lance Bouma had a goal and two assists and was plus-4. . . . Cunningham also was plus-4. . . . Attendance was 8,289.
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In Kelowna, LW Johnny Lazo enjoyed his second three-goal game in two nights as the Tri-City Americans beat the Rockets, 5-1. . . . The Americans swept the four-game season series from Kelowna. . . . Lazo, who had three goals in a 7-0 beating of the Blazers in Kamloops on Friday, finished this one with three goals and an assist. He has 17 goals this season. . . . This was the third hat trick of Lazo’s WHL career. . . . Linemates Brendan Shinnimin and Adam Hughesman each had two assists. . . . F Justin Feser added two Tri-City goals, giving him 14. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley lost his shutout at 9:33 of the third period when F Tyler Matheson scored his first goal, on the PP, for the Rockets (15-15-1-0). . . . The Americans (21-8-0-0) scored two shorthanded goals on a Kelowna PP unit that was 1-for-9. . . . Attendance was 6,121.
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In Red Deer, the Rebels struck for three PP goals and beat the Saskatoon Blades, 5-1. . . . D Alex Petrovic got the Rebels (15-14-0-0) started with a PP goal at 8:45 of the first period. They added three second-period goals and another in the third, two of them from F Willie Coetzee, to assume a 5-0 lead. . . . Red Deer G Darcy Kuemper stopped 35 shots, including a second-period penalty shot attempt by D Stefan Elliott. Kuemper lost his shutout bid when F Walker Wintoneak scored on the PP at 10:43 of the third. . . . Saskatoon is 21-5-0-3. . . . Attendance was 4,211. . . . Red Deer was 3-for-10 on the PP; the Blades were 1-for-6. . . . Blades G Adam Morrison stopped 41 shots.