Thursday . . . and Happy New Year!

Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes one of my favourite annual columns and he ends it with handing out the Trite Trophy. Take a few minutes and give this a read.
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There is a bit of a WHL flavour to the Central Hockey League’s All-Decade team (2000-09). . . . F Greg Pankewicz (Prince Albert, Regina, 1989-91) made the first team after putting up 464 points in 304 games. . . . The second team includes Jason Duda (Saskatoon, Medicine Hat, 1992-95), D Hardy Sauter (Spokane, Brandon, 1989-92) and G Rod Branch (Kamloops, Calgary, 1992-96). . . . Duda is third on the CHL’s career list in goals, assists and points. . . . Sauter, now the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs, had 290 points in 315 games. . . . Branch put up 106 victories and 16 shutouts in 202 games.
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In the OHL, the Owen Sound Attack beat the host Barrie Colts 6-4 on Thursday night. What’s the big deal? Well, the loss ended the Colts’ franchise-record 22-game winning streak. The OHL record (25) is held by the 1983-84 Kitchener Rangers. Barrie hadn’t lost since Oct. 22 when it was beaten 4-3 in a shootout by the Sarnia Sting.
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Well . . . what happens now with D Luca Sbisa? He will fly home to Switzerland on Saturday where he will see doctors and hopefully find out the severity of an abdominal injury. Sbisa, a 19-year-old who played for Switzerland at the World Junior Championship, plays for the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes and it was widely speculated that he would be on the move prior to the Jan. 10 trade deadline. . . . Lots of observers were trying to figure out what he might be worth to a championship contender, especially considering that he also had been named to Switzerland’s Olympic team. . . . But who knows what is in his immediate future now?
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Ahhhh, finally there was some excitement at the World Junior Championship, as Canada beat the U.S., 5-4 in a shootout, in a thriller. But, please, do we really need TSN’s talking heads to tell us repeatedly what a great game we are watching? Are we not intelligent enough to realize that without being beaten over the head with it? . . . Yes, it was a great game. But it was one of the greatest. Those are reserved for elimination games. Period. . . . There now have been 20 games played in this tournament. Two of them have been decided by one goal. One has been decided by two goals. The other 17 have been decided by three goals or more.
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THURSDAY:
In Kennewick, Wash., F Neal Prokop scored twice to spark the Tri-City Americans to a 5-2 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . The Americans (29-9-0-0) have won seven in a row and have moved into first place overall. . . . They now are 15-3-0-0 at home. . . . Prokop opened the scored with his 10th goal just 14 seconds into the game. . . . D Brock Sutherland upped the lead to 2-0 with his first goal of the season at 8:47. . . . F Levko Koper scored twice for the Chiefs, giving him 18. His first goal, shorthaned at 13:22 of the first, cut the deficit to 2-1 but Prokop got the eventual winner at 11:59 of the second. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped 32 shots, including a third-period penalty shot by F Ryan Letts with the Americans leading 4-1. . . . Owsley, who has won six straight starts, went 9-1-0-0 in December. . . . Spokane G James Reid stopped 37 shots. . . . The Chiefs (21-13-3-0) have lost five in a row. . . . Spokane was 1-for-2 on the PP; the Americans were 0-for-7. . . . The Americans lead the season series, 3-2. . . . It was the 20th renewal of the New Year’s Eve clash. The Ams hold a 13-5-0-1 edge. Oh, and there also was one tie. . . . Remember them? . . . Attendance was 5,963.
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In Chilliwack, F Ryan Howse scored at 3:36 of OT to give the Bruins a 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . Howse moved into the WHL goal-scoring lead with his 30th score of the season. It was his 72nd career goal and that is a franchise record, one more than Oscar Moller scored during his days in Chilliwack. . . . The Bruins took a 3-1 lead into the third period. The Rockets forced OT when F Brett Bulmer got his seventh at 4:29 and D Tyson Barrie notched his eighth, on the PP, at 8:19. . . . The Bruins (18-17-1-5) have won three in a row and five of six. . . . The Rockets (18-20-2-0), who are missing eight regulars, have lost five in a row. They have been outscored 22-8 in those games. . . . The Rockets, with two callups in the lineup, only dressed 16 skaters. . . . Attendance was 3,086.
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In Edmonton, F Jesse Sinatynski scored three straight second-period goals as the Brandon Wheat Kings dumped the Oil Kings, 6-2. . . . Sinatynski, a 17-year-old freshman from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., has six goals this season. . . . F Brenden Walker drew assists on all three goals. . . . The Wheat Kings (26-13-0-2) took a 6-0 lead into the third period. . . . F Brett Raedeke, the Oil Kings’ alltime leading scorer, had Brandon’s third goal. He was dealt to the Wheat Kings for F Klarc Wilson, 16, and a conditional draft pick earlier in the week. . . . Wilson played but went pointless. . . . The Oil Kings (10-21-4-5) have lost three in a row. . . . Attendance was 5,382.
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In Everett, F Darian Dziurzynski scored both Saskatoon goals as the Blades beat the Silvertips, 2-1. . . . He got his second goal of the season just 25 seconds into the first period. . . . F Shane Harper tied the score with his 22nd, on the PP, at 9:11 of the second period. . . . Dziurzynski, who had one goal in his previous 36 games, got the eventual winner, on the PP, just 1:23 later. . . . F Jeremy Boyer assisted on both Saskatoon goals. . . . Saskatoon G Steven Stanford stopped 19 shots, while Everett’s Kent Simpson stopped 32. . . . The Blades (26-7-1-3) are 2-0-0-0 on their U.S. Division swing. . . . Everett (19-16-2-1) has lost three in a row and four of five. . . . Attendance was 5,354. . . . The Silvertips were without F Dan Iwanski (knee) and D Jay McGrath (knee). . . . The Blades dressed 17 skaters as F Randy McNaught (flu) sat out.
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In Cranbrook, the host Kootenay Ice scored five second-period goals and went on to beat the Regina Pats, 8-4. . . . The Ice (22-15-1-2) has won six in a row. . . . The Pats (16-23-3-0) have lost nine straight. . . . F Joe Antilla had two goals and an assist for the Ice, with F Matt Fraser scoring once and setting up two others. . . . Ice F Dustin Sylvester scored once, giving him 13 points in his last six games. . . . Regina G Brett Martyniuk stopped 22 shots. He was acquired the previous day from the Tri-City Americans. . . . Ice F Jesse Ismond had three assists. . . . Kootenay G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 18 shots. . . . Regina led 1-0 after one period, only to be outscored 5-1 in the second. . . . Attendance was 2,951.
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In Portland, G Ian Curtis stopped 33 shots to lead the Winterhawks to a 6-0 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds of Kent. . . . It was Curtis’s third shutout this season and the third of his career. It also was the second time he has blanked Seattle (13-21-2-4). He also did it on opening night in Kent. . . . F Brad Ross had two goals, giving him 20, and added an assist, while F Spencer Bennett chipped in a goal and two assists, as did F Ryan Johansen. . . . Ross has nine points in his last games and 13 in his last seven. . . . Johansen has seven points in his last three outings and 12 in seven. . . . The Winterhawks (25-15-0-1), who have won three in a row, led 1-0 and 2-0 at the breaks. . . . The Thunderbirds have lost four straight. . . . Attendance in the Rose Garden was 8,726. . . . The Winterhawks have returned F Teal Burns, 17, to the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers. An eighth-round pick in the 2007 draft, he was pointless in three games with Portland. . . . D Derek Pouliot, the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, is expected to make his WHL debut with the Winterhawks on Saturday against the visiting Saskatoon Blades. He is from Weyburn, Sask.