Saturday . . .

Every report that I read Friday about the bus accident involving the major midget Fraser Valley Bruins referred to there being only minor injuries involved. . . . That turns out not to be true. . . . One player was airlifted to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where, I am told, he underwent surgery on a head injury. . . . I will post further details when they become available to me. . . . There is a story on the accident right here and it details pretty much what happened.
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The AHL’s Binghamton Senators, under former Seattle Thunderbirds/Tri-City Americans head coach Don Nachbaur, engaged in a good old-fashioned bench-clearing brawl with the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday. . . . There’s a story right here.
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SATURDAY:
In Kennewick, Wash., F Brooks Macek had two goals and an assist to lead the host Tri-City Americans to a 5-2 victory over the Portland Winterhawks. . . . Macek, who has 10 goals, scored the game’s first two goals, both via the PP, before the game was 14 minutes old and the Americans never trailed. . . . It was the first multi-goal game of Macek’s career. . . . Macek’s first goal was the Teddy Bear goal. . . . F Ty Rattie scored twice for Portland, giving him six on the season. . . . The Americans (23-9-0-0) were 3-for-10 on the PP; the Winterhawks (20-13-0-1) were 2-for-6. . . . No, Andy Thiessen wasn’t one of the referees. . . . The Americans are 4-0 against Portland this season. . . . Attendance was 4,409. . . . Portland F Tayler Jordan served the first game of his three-game WHL suspension for squirting water at referee Andy Thiessen. . . . Portland LW Luke Walker also didn’t play. He had surgery Thursday to repair facial damage after being struck by a puck.
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In Brandon, the Wheat Kings scored two third-period goals and beat the
Edmonton Oil Kings, 4-2. . . . Brandon (23-11-0-2) led 2-0 when the Oil Kings (8-19-4-4), who now have lost 11 in a row, tied it on second-period goals by D Keegan Lowe, his first, and F Rhett Rachinski, his fifth. . . . Brandon F Aaron Lewadniuk broke the 2-2 tie with his 15th at 16:31 of the third period and F Matt
Calvert iced it with his 25th into an empty net at 19:37. . . . The Wheat Kings have won six straight. . . . Attendance was 4,871. . . . Brandon G Andrew Hayes stopped 35 shots, including a third-period penalty shot by F Tomas Vincour. The score was 2-2 at the time. . . . Edmonton G Torrie Jung stopped 31 shots. . . . The Oil Kings were without F Brett Breitkreuz, who sat out a one-game WHL suspension for instigating a fight during a line change on Friday in Moose Jaw.
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In Calgary, the Medicine Hat Tigers erased a 3-0 deficit and survived a
last-second goal to beat the Hitmen 6-5 in a shootout. . . . D Jace Coyle
and F Bretton Cameron scored for the Tigers in the shootout. . . . Calgary F Tyler Fiddler forced OT with his 15th goal, on the PP, at 19:59 of the third period -- it came with 0.6 left on the clock. . . . Medicine Hat F Emerson Etem had given the Tigers a 5-4 lead at 17:02. It was Etem’s third goal of the game and 24th of the season. He also finished plus-4. . . . The Hitmen (24-8-1-1), who had won five in a row, led 3-0 when F Ian Schultz got his 14th, shorthanded, at 2:26 of the second. . . . Medicine Hat (20-10-2-4), which got a PP goal from D Mark Isherwood at 14:13 of the second, took its first lead when Cameron and Etem with two, scored three times in a span of 9:11 in the third period. . . . Schultz, who also had two assists, scored on the PP at 15:51 of the third. . . . Calgary was 3-for-8 on the PP; Medicine Hat was 1-for-6. . . . The Tigers have won four in a row. . . . Attendance was 7,699. . . . Calgary was without F Cody Beach, who sat out a one-game WHL suspension for instigating a fight during a line change on Friday in Cranbrook.
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In Chilliwack, F Ryan Howse scored twice to help the Bruins to a 5-2 victory over the Prince George Cougars. . . . Howse, who is from Prince George, has 27 goals on the season, second in the league to F Jordan Eberle of the Regina Pats. Eberle has 29, but won‘t play for a while as he is expected to make Canada‘s national junior team. Howes finished plus-3. . . . F Alexandre Wiklund, who had a goal and an assist, was plus-4. . . . The Bruins (14-17-1-4) opened up a 4-0 lead in the second period, only to have the Cougars (6-25-1-1) scored twice on the PP early in the third. . . . Chilliwack had lost two straight and four of five. . . . Bruins G Braden Gamble, with starter Lucas Gore (shoulder) sidelined, stopped 26 shots. . . . Attendance was 2,553, the smallest crowd to watch the Bruins, who are in their fourth WHL season.
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In Everett, F Kellan Tochkin scored twice to lead the Silvertips to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent. . . . F Sena Acolatse gave Seattle a 1-0 lead at 2:23 of the first period. . . . Tochkin scored at 8:32 of the second and 17:11 of the third. . . . Tochkin has 10 goals this season, four of them in his last three games. . . . Everett (17-11-2-1) had lost five straight. . . . Seattle (12-18-1-3) had won two in a row. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard, who had stopped 52 shots in a 5-1 victory over the visiting Tri-City Americans on Friday, turned aside 42 shots in this one. . . . Everett G Kent Simpson stopped 20 shots. . . . Attendance was 6,760. . . . The Silvertips, faced with the loss of three of their top four defencemen in the next while, have acquired D Curtis Kulchar, 19, from the Kamloops Blazers for a 2011 fifth-round bantam draft pick. . . . . D Radko Gudas (Czech Republic) and D Rasmus Rissanen (Finland) could play at the World junior tournament, while D Ryan Murray will play for Team West at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. . . . Kulchar had four assists in 26 games with Kamloops.
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In Kamloops, D Kevin Connauton scored in the shootout to give the Vancouver Giants a 5-4 victory over the Blazers. . . . The Giants (22-11-1-2), who erased a 3-0 deficit and beat the visiting Blazers 5-3 on Friday, held a 3-1 lead in the second period and a 4-3 lead late in the third. . . . F Jimmy Bubnick tied the game for Kamloops with his second goal of the game at 16:05 of the third period. . . . F Craig Cunningham had a goal and two assists, giving him seven points in the two-game set. . . . Cunningham now has 54 points. He is eight behind F Brandon Kozun of the Calgary Hitmen and six in arrears of F Jordan Eberle of the Regina Pats, both of whom are attending the Canadian junior team’s selection camp. . . . Connauton, who has 15 goals, didn’t score but did have two assists. . . . Attendance was 4,755. . . . Bubnick’s first goal was the Teddy Bear goal. . . . Vancouver has won three in a row and four of five. . . . Kamloops (13-16-2-3) is 10-6-1-2 at home. . . . Prior to the game, the Blazers dealt D Curtis Kulchar, 19, to the Everett Silvertips for a 2011 fifth-round bantam draft pick. He got into 26 games with the Blazers this season but had been a healthy scratch in three of six games under new head coach Guy Charron. . . . And it would seem more changes are in the wind for the Blazers. After all, why else would Bruno Campese, the GM/head coach of the Prince Albert Raiders, spend a Saturday night in Kamloops watching a WHL game?
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In Lethbridge, the Hurricanes scored three power-play goals and beat the
Regina Pats, 5-1. . . . D Brennan Yadlowski set up three goals for Lethbridge (10-17-3-1), which had lost its last two outings. . . . F Graham Hood, traded by the Pats to Lethbridge earlier in the week, scored his sixth goal of the season. . . . Regina F Jordan Weal tied the game 1-1 at 2:10 of the first period, but Lethbridge scored the game’s last four goals. . . . Lethbridge held a 40-16 edge in shots, including 30-7 after two periods. . . . Lethbridge was 3-for-7 on the PP; Regina was 1-for-5. . . . Regina (16-17-3-0) has lost three in a row. . . . Attendance was 3,059.
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In Moose Jaw, the Kelowna Rockets scored two shootout goals and beat the Warriors, 2-1. . . . The Rockets (18-16-1-0) got a shorthanded goal from F Spencer Main in the first period. . . . Moose Jaw D Ryan Stanton tied it on the PP at 17:14 of the second. . . . Kelowna got shootout goals from F Shane McColgan and F Geordie Wudrick, while the Warriors’ lone goal came from F Antonin Honejsek. . . . G Mark Guggenberger went the distance, making 27 saves, in his second start since returning from hernia surgery. . . . Moose Jaw G Brandon Glover stopped 15 shots through OT. . . . The Warriors are 17-13-1-2. . . . Kelowna D Tyson Barrie had his 21-game point streak come to an end. . . . Attendance was 2,005. . . . The Rockets have won three of four on their East Division swing which continues Tuesday in Prince Albert and ends Wednesday in Saskatoon.
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In Saskatoon, F Derek Hulak scored in the shootout to give the Blades a 4-3
victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . Hulak was the only one of eight
shooters to score in the shootout. . . . The Blades (22-6-1-3) had lost two in a row and four of five. . . . Attendance was 3,874. . . . Red Deer D Colin Archer gave the Rebels a 3-2 lead with a PP goal at 1:28 of the third period. . . . Saskatoon D Stefan Elliott forced OT with his 11th goal at 18:36. . . . Red Deer (16-14-0-2) was 3-for-6 on the PP; the Blades were 0-for-3.
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In Spokane, F Taylor Vause’s shorthanded goal in the third period stood up as the winner as the Swift Current Broncos dropped the Chiefs, 2-1. . . . Broncos G Marc Friesen stopped 42 shots. . . . Broncos F Stepan Novotny got his 19th goal at 12:31 of the first period. . . . Vause picked up his sixth at 2:34 of the third. . . . D Brenden Kichton, with his second, got the Chiefs on the board on the PP at 3:27 of the third. That also was the Teddy Bear goal. . . . According to the WHL website, Spokane G James Reid stopped 137 of 139 shots, which will be a new single-game record. . . . The Broncos (17-15-2-0) had lost their last two games and now are 3-10-0-2 on the road. . . . The Chiefs (20-9-2-0) had a six-game winning streak snapped. . . . Attendance was 7,469.