Sunday . . . and a tip of the cap to the Chiefs!

The exodus of players from non-playoff teams has begun.
G Garrett Zemlak of the Prince Albert Raiders will be joining the ECHL’s Charlotte Checkers. Zemlak, 20, left Prince Albert on Sunday night and was to catch a Monday flight headed east. Before leaving Prince Albert, he picked up four postseason awards, including most valuable player and most inspirational player. He has signed an ATO (amateur tryout agreement) with the New York Rangers and will join their ECHL affiliate.
F Jordan Eberle of the Regina Pats, who scored 50 goals and finished second in the WHL points derby, will join the AHL’s Springfield Falcons on Tuesday. His NHL rights belong to the Edmonton Oilers.
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Lorne Molleken, the Saskatoon Blades’ GM/head coach, has said that G Steven Stanford will be the starter Saturday when they open at home against the Red Deer Rebels.
“Little things don’t seem to bother him,” Molleken told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, “and we’re going to be counting on him.”
Stanford, who was an early-season acquisition from the Prince Albert Raiders, had split time with Adam Morrison.
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Hey, Kelowna, are you ready for some junior B hockey?
There is speculation that two Kootenay International Junior Hockey League franchises may be relocating before another season gets here and at least one of them may be looking at Kelowna.
However, as things turn out, Bruce Hamilton, the governor, president and general manager of the Kelowna Rockets, may have something to say about that.
“No one can move into any of the buildings in the city without our approval,” Hamilton told me Sunday. “That’s in our deal with the city when we went into Prospera (Place).”
Ken Andrusiak, a former assistant coach with the Prince Albert Raiders who is a veteran Kelowna minor hockey coach, is said to be involved, along with Kelowna businessman Grant Sheridan, in an attempt to purchase the KIJHL’s Chase Chiefs from Fred Pittendreigh. They apparently would like to move the team to Rutland, which is located on the north side of Kelowna.
“What I’ve told those guys,” Hamilton said, “is that we would consider it. But I’m not going to lock into somebody without our option to chase them out if they become . . . it has to be locally owned so that we have some control.”
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The Vancouver Giants, it seems, will have a new director of broadcasting and media relations before another season gets here. Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reported on his blog (it’s over there on the left) that Morley Scott, who is in his first season with the Giants, will be returning to Edmonton. . . . According to Ewen, Scott, who spent 16 seasons as part of the Edmonton Oilers’ broadcast team, will return to Edmonton to join the Eskimos’ on-air team. . . . “A press conference is reportedly slated for Tuesday in Edmonton,” Ewen writes. . . . Scott replaced Dave Sheldon who replaced Joey Kenward. Which means the Giants will be looking for a radio voice for the third summer in a row. . . . There’s more at The Dub Hub, Ewen’s blog, over there on the left.
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THE PLAYOFF CHASE
Teams in the running for playoff spots, showing games remaining ( division leaders seeded 1-2; z — clinched conference championship; y — clinched division championship; x — clinched playoff spot):
EASTERN CONFERENCE
(top eight advance)
z-Calgary (0) 52-17-1-2-107
y-Brandon (0) 50-18-1-3-104
x-Saskatoon (0) 46-19-3-4-99
x-Kootenay (0) 43-24-3-2-91
x-Medicine Hat (0) 41-23-3-5-90
x-Red Deer (0) 39-28-0-5-83
x-Swift Current (0) 37-30-1-4-79
x-Moose Jaw (0) 33-27-4-8-78
Sunday: Red Deer 1 at Calgary 8; Swift Current 5 at Moose Jaw 4 (SO).
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PLAYOFFS:
Calgary (1) vs. Moose Jaw (8)
Brandon (2) vs. Swift Current (7)
Saskatoon (3) vs. Red Deer (6)
Kootenay (4) vs. Medicine Hat (5)
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WESTERN CONFERENCE
(top eight advance)
z-Tri-City (0) 47-22-1-2-97
y-Vancouver (0) 41-23-3-3-88
x-Everett (0) 46-21-3-2-97
x-Spokane (0) 45-22-3-2-95
x-Portland (0) 44-25-2-1-91
x-Kelowna (0) 35-31-2-4-76
x-Kamloops (0) 32-33-2-5-71
x-Chilliwack (0) 32-33-2-5-71
Sunday: Vancouver 3 at Seattle 4 (OT); Everett 2 at Spokane 3.
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PLAYOFFS:
Tri-City (1) vs. Chilliwack (8)
Vancouver (2) vs. Kamloops (7)
Everett (3) vs. Kelowna (6)
Spokane (4) vs. Portland (5)
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SUNDAY:
In Calgary, F Brandon Kozun drew four assists to lead the Hitmen to an 8-1 victory over the Red Deer Rebels and win the WHL scoring championship. . . . Kozun, who didn’t play in the third period, finished with 107 points, including 75 assists, to finish a point ahead of Regina Pats F Jordan Eberle. The two also are pretty good friends. . . . The Hitmen finished up on a nine-game winning streak as they finished first overall. They have finished atop the Eastern Conference each of the last three seasons. . . . Calgary went 5-0-0-1 against Red Deer. . . . Calgary F Joel Broda scored twice and set up two others. Broda, who led the WHL with 53 goals last season, finished with 39. . . . F Kris Foucault also scored twice for Calgary, to finish with 22. . . . The Rebels closed by posting just one regulation-time victory in their last 11 games. . . . Attendance was 14, 335.
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In Spokane, F Mitch Holmberg, a freshman from Sherwood Park, Alta., broke a 2-2 tie at 9:27 of the third period to give the Chiefs a 3-2 victory over the Everett Silvertips. . . . The goal was Holmberg’s fourth in 52 games and it decided the Western Conference and U.S. Division titles, winning the latter for a third straight season. Had Everett won this game, it would have finished atop the standings. Instead, the Tri-City Americans wound up on top. Tri-City and Everett finished tied in points (97), and the Americans won the tiebreaker, which was regular-season victories, 47-46. . . . The Chiefs and Silvertips exchanged goals, with F Tyler Johnson getting his 36th, on the PP, for the Chiefs at 12:20 of the first period. . . . F Kellan Tochkin tied it, at 6:08 of the second, for Everett, with D Tyler Spurgeon, with his eighth, putting the home side back in front at 8:121 on the PP. . . . Everett tied it at 16:55 on F Tyler Maxwell’s 33rd. . . . Spokane G James Reid stopped 19 shots, four fewer than Everett’s Thomas Heemskerk. . . . Attendance was 9,204. . . . Spokane F Ryan Letts in the second period after a knee-on-knee hit and is to be re-evaluated on Monday. . . . The Chiefs were without F Kyle Beach, who was on crutches Saturday night after suffering a leg injury during a 5-4 victory over the Americans in Kennewick, Wash. Beach will be evaluated early in the week but would appear to be questionable for the playoff opener. I was told by a source on Sunday that “it doesn’t look good” for Beach, who led the WHL with 52 goals. . . . Tri-City D Tyler Schmidt, who was hit with a clipping major and game misconduct for the hit on Beach, almost certainly will be hearing from Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president, hockey, who deals with disciplinary matters. . . . With NCAA basketball in their home arena, the Chiefs will open in Portland against the Winterhawks on Saturday. That series will follow a 2-3-1-1 format. . . . It says something about Spokane head coach Hardy Sauter, his coaching staff, the players and the entire organization. After losing their leading goal scorer in Kennewick, they easily could have lost to Everett, thus having a say in who finished atop the Western Conference and U.S. Division standings. The Chiefs didn’t do that, and it looks good on them! . . .
“As a group we talked, we believe that the game is fair,” Sauter told Dave Trimmer of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “If you self-sabotage or you don’t put your best effort forward, at some point it’s going to come back and bite you. Ultimately if you take someone for granted or don’t give someone the respect they deserve, you don’t feel good about yourself. So you sacrifice a lot of things just to have a good effort.” . . . As Trimmer points out: “If the playoffs hold to form, Spokane is going to face Everett, which won the season series, 6-3-1, instead of the Americans, who lost eight of 12 to the Chiefs, including six of the last seven.”
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In Kent, Wash., F Luke Lockhart scored in OT and G Calvin Pickard stopped 51 shots to lead the host Seattle Thunderbirds to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Giants. . . . Lockhart scored his eighth goal of the season at 2:26 of OT. . . . The Giants had forced OT when F JT Barnett got his 21st goal, shorthanded, at 19:53 of the third period. . . . The Giants actually scored twice ewith G Derek Tendler on the bench, as D Neil Manning got his 17th goal at 18:42. . . . In what surely has to be one of the great season-long goaltending performances in WHL history, Pickard played in 62 games for a team that has long been out of the playoff picture. Amazingly, he finished with a 3.09 GAA and a sparkling .914 save percentage. . . . F Prab Rai, in his final WHL season, scored his 41st goal for the Thunderbirds. . . . F Brendan Gallagher got his 41st for Vancouver. . . . Vancouver D David Musil had three assists, while F Craig Cunningham had two. He finished with 97 points, good for sixth in the points derby. . . . Tendler made 25 saves. . . . Attendance was 3,260. . . . The Giants sat out D Kevin Connauton. He and Tyson Barrie of the Kelowna Rockets led all WHL defencemen in points (72).
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In Moose Jaw, the Warriors and Swift Current Broncos were fighting to see who would play the Calgary Hitmen and who would get the Brandon Wheat Kings in the first round of the playoffs. . . . And it went to the ninth round of a shootout before the Broncos emerged with a 5-4 victory. . . . F Jordan Peddle, who scored three goals in 69 regular-season games, was the 17th shooter and he beat G Jeff Bosch. . . . When Moose Jaw F Cody Smuk, shooter No. 18, was unable to score on G Morgan Clark, the Broncos had won the shootout, 3-2, and clinched seventh place and a date with Brandon. . . . Of course, the women’s world curling championship will take the Broncos out of their home arena, so they will play first-round home games in Regina. . . . Broncos F Michael Stickland had forced OT with his 25th goal at 18:42 of the third period. . . . That was Stickland’s third goal of the game. . . . Swift Current F Cody Eakin had a goal, his 47th, and three assists. . . . The Warriors got two goals from F Dylan Hood, giving him 24. . . . Bosch finished with 38 saves, four more than Clark. . . .. Attendance was 2,487.