Semifinal Friday . . . pregame

DAY 8 AT THE 2010 MASTERCARD MEMORIAL CUP . . .

It’s semifinal Friday, which means it’s the Calgary Hitmen against the host Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Hitmen, the WHL champions, will be designated as the home team, thanks to a 5-1 victory over Brandon Wednesday in the final round-robin game of what started as a four-team tournament.
Let’s take a look at some numbers . . .
13-3: That is Calgary’s record against Brandon in WHL playoff and Memorial Cup games over the last four seasons. The Hitmen swept the Wheat Kings from the WHL Eastern Conference final last season and took them out in five games this season.
11-2: That is the combined scored of the last two games between these teams. Calgary won Game 5 of the WHL final 6-1 and dropped the Wheat Kings 5-1 here Wednesday.
5-1: That was the score, in Calgary’s favour, after the first period on Wednesday.
10: The Calgary line that features Jimmy Bubnick between Kris Foucault and Tyler Shattock had 10 points in the first period of Wednesday’s game.
12: Bubnick, Foucault and Shattock were a combined plus-12 in that first period.
8: Bubnick leads the Memorial Cup scoring race with eight points, two more than Windsor Spitfires LW Taylor Hall. Foucault and Shattock each has six points.
6: Bubnick was a sixth-round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in the NHL’s 2009 draft. He has yet to sign with them.
1: Hall will be a first-round selection in the 2010 NHL draft and may very well go first overall to the Edmonton Oilers.
5: The Wheat Kings have played three games here and are 1-2. In each of their losses, they gave up five goals in the first period.
17: The combined points of Bubnick, Shattock, D Giffen Nyren and D Zak Stebner, four players the Hitmen acquired from the Kamloops Blazers during the season.
1: The number of defending champions waiting in the wings. The winner will play the defending-champion Windsor Spitfires in Sunday’s final. The Spitfires are 3-0 and easily have been the best team here. A stumble on Sunday, however, and all of that is forgotten.
39: The number of shots on goal the Wheat Kings had in Wednesday’s loss to Calgary. However, after Brandon tied the game 1-1 early in the first period, G Martin Jones slammed the door.
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The Hitmen will have F Brandon Kozun back in the lineup for this semifinal game. How effective he will re remains to be seen.
Kozun was injured in Game 5 of the WHL final, a series in which the Hitmen beat the Tri-City Americans in five games. He was hurt when he went heavily — feet-first — into the boards. That occurred on May 7. He was off skates until May 13 when he took a brief spin around the ice here.
Kozun then sat out Calgary’s first game here, before trying to play in what turned into a 6-2 loss to the Windsor Spitfires on Monday. He was completely ineffective and really labouring in the few shifts he saw, and he wasn’t dressed for Wednesday’s 5-1 victory over Brandon.
However, he skated Thursday, which was an off-day here. Reports are that he looked a whole lot better, and he said he felt a lot better.
Kozun led the WHL in regular-season scoring, with 107 points. He also led the playoff scoring race, with 22 points.
Calgary head coach Mike Williamson told me shortly after Wednesday’s game that Kozun would play in the semifinal.
Perhaps Kozun’s presence will help the Calgary power play, which is 1-for-9 through three games.
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F Ian Schultz, Calgary’s captain, didn’t skate Thursday but will play tonight. He took a shot by Brandon D Travis Hamonic off a hand Wednesday and chose to rest the arm.
Calgary also should have F Cody Sylvester back in the lineup tonight. He missed Wednesday’s game with the flu, something that allowed F Justin Kirsch to get into the lineup.
And the CHL’s discipline committee chose not to suspend Calgary F Rigby Burgart for the cross-checking major and game misconduct he incurred late in Wednesday’s game. So he will be available tonight, as well.
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And what of Scott Glennie?
Glennie, who plays on Brandon’s top line alongside Brayden Schenn and Matt Calvert, left that Wednesday game in the second period and didn’t return.
Brandon GM/head coach Kelly McCrimmon said after the game that he didn’t think whatever was wrong with Glennie was serious, but that doctors didn’t want him going back into the game at the time.
The way McCrimmon spoke, I wondered at the time if Glennie might have a concussion; however, McCrimmon indicated Thursday that Glennie appeared to twisted his body awkwardly while attempting to make a check.
We may not find out until the pregame warmup whether Glennie is to play. He didn’t skate Thursday and wasn’t made available to the media.
Glennie had 89 points in 66 regular-season games, before adding 10 in 15 playoff assignments. He has one assist in three games here.
In fact, his line has combined for just five points, with Schenn and Calvert each having a goal and an assist.