Friday . . .

F Jason Bast, the captain of the Moose Jaw Warriors, left Friday to join the ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings. The Moose Jaw Times-Herald reports that Bast didn’t make it to Victoria. His plane landed in Kelowna as heavy winds prevented flights into the B.C. capital. “I was supposed to get in (Friday) watch their game and play (Saturday),” Bast told Matthew Gourlie of the Times-Herald. “I don’t know what’s going to be happening now. I haven’t skated in a week and they wanted me to do a pre-game skate (Saturday), but I don’t know if I’ll get there on time now.” Bast is an undrafted free agent; the Salmon Kings are the ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. . . . Gourlie also reports that F Quinton Howden, who led the Warriors in scoring this season, will be on the roster of the Canadian team that will play in the IIHF U-18 world championship in Belarus later this month. . . . D Ryan Stanton of the Warriors, who has signed with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, has joined their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
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Now that their season is over, two members of the Spokane Chiefs are off to the professional ranks. . . . LW Kyle Beach of the Spokane Chiefs is off to join the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. Beach was selected by Chicago with the 11th overall pick of the 2008 NHL draft. He led the WHL with 52 goals this season. In 251 regular-season WHL games, he put up 273 points, including 134 goals, and 775 penalty minutes. . . . Former Spokane head coach Bill Peters is the head coach in Rockford. . . . F Mitch Wahl of the Chiefs has signed an ATO with the Abbotsford Heat, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames. Wahl was a second-round pick by the Flames in the 2008 NHL draft. He finished sixth in the WHL scoring race this season, with 96 points, including 30 goals. . . . Spokane D Jared Cowen is expected to join the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. He was the ninth overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft and has signed with the Senators.
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WHL PLAYOFFS
SECOND ROUND
(Best-of-7)
(x — if necessary)
(All times local)
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Calgary (1) vs. Medicine Hat (5)
(Calgary leads series 1-0)
Friday: Medicine Hat 2 at Calgary 5
Sunday: Medicine Hat at Calgary, 4 p.m.
Tuesday: Calgary at Medicine Hat, 6 p.m.
Wednesday: Calgary at Medicine Hat, 6 p.m.
x-April 9: Medicine Hat at Calgary, 6 p.m.
x-April 11: Calgary at Medicine Hat, 5 p.m.
x-April 13: Medicine Hat at Calgary, 6 p.m.
———
Brandon (2) vs. Saskatoon (3)
(Brandon leads series 1-0)
Friday: Brandon 6 at Saskatoon 5
Saturday: Brandon at Saskatoon, 6 p.m.
Wednesday: Saskatoon at Brandon, 5 p.m.
April 9: Saskatoon at Brandon, 5:30 p.m.
x-April 10: Saskatoon at Brandon, 5:30 p.m.
x-April 12: Brandon at Saskatoon, 6 p.m.
x-April 14: Saskatoon at Brandon, 5 p.m.
———
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Tri-City (1) vs. Kelowna (6)
(Tri-City leads series 1-0)
Friday: Kelowna 3 at Tri-City 5
Saturday: Kelowna at Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
Tuesday: Tri-City at Kelowna, 7 p.m.
Wednesday: Tri-City at Kelowna, 7 p.m.
x-April 9: Kelowna at Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
x-April 11: Tri-City at Kelowna, 5 p.m.
x-April 13: Kelowna at Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
———
Portland (5) vs. Vancouver (2)
(all Portland games at Memorial Coliseum)
Saturday: Vancouver at Portland, 7 p.m.
Sunday: Vancouver at Portland, 5 p.m.
Wednesday: Portland at Vancouver, 7 p.m.
April 9: Portland at Vancouver, 7:30 p.m.
x-April 10: Portland at Vancouver, 7 p.m.
x-April 13: Vancouver at Portland, 7 p.m.
x-April 14: Vancouver at Portland, 7 p.m.
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FRIDAY:
In Calgary, the Hitmen jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back as they went on to a 5-2 series-opening victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . Calgary F Kris Foucault opened the scoring at 14:52 of the first period, F Del Cowan struck at 15:20 and Foucault scored again at 18:26 on the PP. . . . F Joel Broda added another PP goal for Calgary, at 17:09 of the second. . . . The Tigers got two late second-period goals, from D Jace Coyle, at 18:25, and F Tristan King, at 19:28 on the PP. . . . F Brandon Kozun scored the game’s final goal for Calgary midway through the third period. . . . F Tyler Shattock had two assists for Calgary, while Kozun added one assist. . . . Calgary was 2-for-4 on the PP; Medicine Hat was 1-for-3. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 15 shots, nine fewer than Medicine Hat’s Tyler Bunz. . . . Attendance was 8,431.
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In Saskatoon, F Brent Raedeke broke a 5-5 tie in the third period to gave the Brandon Wheat Kings a 6-5 victory over the Blades as this series opened. . . . The Wheat Kings are the No. 2 seed in the East, but the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is in the Keystone Centre so the series is opening with two games in Saskatoon. . . . F Michael Ferland scored his first three WHL playoff goals for Brandon and set up another. He gave the visitors a 2-0 lead with goals at 1:43 and 5:00 of the first period. . . . Ferland tied the score 5-5 at 12:23 of the second, and Raedeke, a Reginan who was acquired from the Edmonton Oil Kings in January, broke the 5-5 tie at 10:29 of the third. . . . The Blades took a 3-2 lead on two goals by F Marek Viedensky and one from D Stefan Elliott. Elliott scored on the PP at 2:08 of the second and Viedensky got his second of the game just 49 seconds later. . . . Brandon F Brendan Walker tied it with his first goal of the playoffs at 3:31 of the second. . . . Saskatoon F Jeremy Boyer restored the one-goal lead at 6:47 on the PP, with Brandon F Luke Schenn, who is from Saskatoon, getting the equalizer on the PP at 9:21. . . . Schenn has six goals in these playoffs. . . . Saskatoon F Walker Wintoneak gave his side a 5-4 lead with a shorthanded goal at 10:30 of the second. . . . Walker also had two assists for Brandon, as did D Alexander Urbom. . . . Ferland, a 17-year-old freshman from Brandon, had nine goals in 61 regular-season games. . . . Brandon D Brodie Melnychuk set up two goals and was plus-5. . . . F Derek Hulak, F Josh Nicholls, Wintoneak and F Gaelan Patterson each had two helpers for the Blades. . . . Brandon G Jacob DeSerres turned aside 35 shots. . . . Saskatoon G Steven Stanford, who gave up three goals in four games in the first-round sweep of the Red Deer Rebels, stopped 24 shots. . . . Saskatoon was 3-for-5 on the PP; Brandon was 1-for-4. . . . Attendance was 6,418. . . . Saskatoon F Curtis Hamilton left at 19:21 of the first period and didn’t return. He was hit from behind by Brandon F Jay Fehr, who was given a double minor. Hamilton twice missed long stretches of the season with a twice-broken collarbone but he told me late Friday night that he doesn‘t think it’s his collarbone again. “We’re not sure,” he said, adding that he is scheduled for X-rays on Saturday but that “it’s not looking good.” There apparently is a good chance that he has injured the AC joint (acromioclavicular joint) in the shoulder. That is the kind of injury that D Travis Hamonic, then with the Moose Jaw Warriors, suffered while with Team Canada at the world junior tournament. . . . Saskatoon G Adam Morrison didn’t dress after suffering an undisclosed injury in practice at some point during the week. The Blades used Matt Canaday, 19, from the junior B Saskatoon Westleys to back up Stanford and will have Adam Iwan, a 16-year-old from Winnipeg, on the bench for Game 2. Iwan was a 10th-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft. . . . The Blades are without GM/head coach Lorne Molleken and skaters Randy McNaught, Darian Dziurzynski, Sena Acolatse and Duncan Siemens. They all were suspended for their actions in Game 2 of the first round. McNaught will sit out two more games, while Molleken will be out for one more. The other three are eligible to return for Game 2. . . . With Molleken out, assistant coach David Struch is running the Saskatoon bench. . . . Brandon D Jordan Hale sat out with a suspension left over from the first-round sweep of the Swift Current Broncos. He is eligible to return for Game 3. . . . With Hale out and D Darren Bestland (undisclosed) also missing, Brandon dressed D Jordan Fransoo, 16, from the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts.
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In Kennewick, Wash., the Kelowna Rockets scored in the first and last minute of the first period but still dropped a 5-3 decision to the host Tri-City Americans. . . . Kelowna F Geordie Wudrick scored his WHL-leading ninth playoff goal just 43 seconds into the game, but the Americans got the game’s next two goals, from D Tyler Schmidt and F Justin Feser, before the period ended. . . . Kelowna F Lucas Bloodoff, with his third of the playoffs, tied the score at 19:57, on the PP. . . . After a scoreless second period, the host team outscored the visitors 3-1 in the third. . . . F Adam Hughesman, on the PP at 4:21, broke the 2-2 tie and, just 25 seconds later, F Sergei Drozd upped the lead to 4-2. . . . Kelowna F Brandon McMillan, with his first of these playoffs, got his side to within one at 15:19. . . . Tri-City F Johnny Lazo closed out the scoring at 16:31. . . . McMillan also had two assists. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped 26 shots, 10 fewer than Kelowna’s Mark Guggenberger. . . . The Americans were 1-for-4 on the PP; the Rockets were 1-for-2. . . . Attendance was 3,977. . . . Wudrick left the game for a bit in the second period after taking a hard hit from Tri-City F Brooks Macek.