Friday . . .

WHL PLAYOFFS
FOURTH ROUND
CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
(Ed Chynoweth Cup)
Calgary (1E) vs. Tri-City (1W)
(Calgary leads best-of-7 series 1-0))
(all times local)
Friday: Tri-City 0 at Calgary 7 (10,980)
Saturday: Tri-City at Calgary, 8 p.m.
Tuesday: Calgary at Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
Wednesday: Calgary at Tri-City, 7:05 p.m.
x-May 7: Tri-City at Calgary, 7 p.m.
x-May 9: Calgary at Tri-City, 5:05 p.m.
x-May 10: Tri-City at Calgary, 7 p.m.
x — if necessary.
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FRIDAY:
In Calgary, the Hitmen scored four goals in a 4:44 span of the first period and cruised to a 7-0 victory over the Tri-City Americans. . . . Game 2 in the WHL final goes Saturday night in Calgary. . . . The Hitmen now have won five straight playoff games, including a 6-1 victory over the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings in their last game prior to this one. . . . After F Cody Sylvester scored on a breakaway, the Hitmen went 2-for-2 on the PP to take the air right out of the Tri-City balloon. . . . Calgary D Matt MacKenzie scored both first-period PP goals, while F Misha Fisenko later added two goals. . . . F Brandon Kozun had a goal and an assist to lift his playoff-leading point total to 28. . . . Calgary D Ben Wilson had his first WHL playoff goal and an assist. . . . Sylvester has 10 goals in 19 playoff games, after scoring 10 times in 68 regular-season games. . . . F Del Cowan and D Michael Stone each had two assists. Cowan is from Hartney, Man., which is near Brandon, while Stone is from Winnipeg. The Memorial Cup, of course, will be held in Brandon. . . . Calgary G Martin Jones stopped 26 shots in earning his 20th career WHL shutout. He has four career playoff blank jobs, two of them this season. . . . The Americans have yet to beat Jones this season. He blanked them 3-0 in Calgary in their only other meeting this season. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley stopped five of nine shots and left trailing 4-0. Alexander Pechurskiy came on — he had played just 41 minutes in the playoffs — and was beaten three times times on 14 shots. . . . The Hitmen scored their first six goals on just 17 shots. . . . Calgary was 2-for-4 on the PP; Tri-City was 0-for-5. . . . The referees were Matt Kirk and Andy Thiessen. . . . The Hitmen have killed off the opposition’s last 18 power-play attempts. . . . Attendance was 10,980.
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In the QMJHL, the Moncton Wildcats smoked the host Saint John Sea Dogs on Friday night in Game 1 of the league’s first all-Maritimes final. . . . Game 2 is Sunday in Moncton. . . . Interestingly, Mike Kelly, the Sea Dogs’ associate coach and director of hockey operations, is a former head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . In the OHL, the Windsor Spitfires have won the first two games, so take a 2-0 lead into Sunday’s home game against the Barrie Colts. Peter Loubardias will have the call of that one on Sportsnet.
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Malcolm Cameron resigned earlier this week as head coach of the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. They were 87-42-14 in his two seasons there.
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The OHL’s Owen Sound Attack has chosen not to renew the contract of assistant coach Jeff Reid. Reid, a 27-year-old Owen Sound native, had signed a two-year deal in 2008.
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MORE CLEANING OUT OF THE BANTAM DRAFT NOTEBOOK:
The Lethbridge Hurricanes selected D Daniel Sosa of Seattle in the 11th round. He is the son of Carlos Sosa, who once was an analyst on Seattle Thunderbirds’ radio broadcasts and now is a well-known player agent in the Pacific Northwest. . . . Daniel is headed to Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask., for 2010-11. . . .
During the draft, the Seattle Thunderbirds traded their eighth-, ninth- and 10th-round selections to the Brandon Wheat Kings for a 2011 seventh-round pick. Seattle GM Russ Farwell said he dealt the picks because the Thunderbirds, who made a number of midseason deals as they went younger, didn’t have a lot of spots available on their 50-player list. Don’t forget that for each player a team adds at the draft, room must be made on the list. . . .
The Chilliwack Bruins have confirmed that Swedish F Alexander Wiklund won’t return. Wiklund, 20, would be a two-spotter and not to many of those players stick with WHL teams. The Bruins, right now, have Czech F Robin Soudek, who was acquired from the Edmonton Oil Kings on Thursday, and veteran F Roman Horak on their roster. They gave up a 2011 sixth-round pick for Soudek, 19. The pick they dealt to Edmonton had been acquired from the Portland Winterhawks for the 141st pick in the 2010 draft. . . .
The Chilliwack Bruins have released F Travis Belohrad, 19, who had five points in 50 games this season. He is from Superior, Colo. . . .
WHL teams now will be busy getting training camp invitations ready and out to prospective players. But teams aren’t allowed to contact players who were eligible for Thursday’s draft but weren’t taken until after Friday, May 7. . . . Most training camps will open on or around Aug. 26. . . .
Among veteran WHL players to be deleted during Thursday’s draft were F Corey Scott and Czech F Jakub Herman, both by the Moose Jaw Warriors, and F Clarke Breitkreuz, by the Prince George Cougars. . . . Steve Ewen, over at The Dub Hub, reports that Breitkreuz’s brother, Brett, who was with the Vancouver Giants, suffered a broken rib in Game 2 against the Portland Winterhawks and tried to play through it. . . .
The Calgary Hitmen used the 22nd pick, the last selection in the first round, to take F Greg Chase of Sherwood Park, Alta. He is a nephew to former NHLer Kelly Chase, who had a hard-nosed WHL career with the Saskatoon Blades (1985-88). Greg’s father, Kyle, is the governor for the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders and works as a morning man on Edmonton radio station Team 1260. . . .
During the bantam draft, the Edmonton Oil Kings moved to transfer D Philip Samuelsson, who turns 19 in July, to the college list. A son of former NHL D Ulf Samuelsson, Philip was a 10th-round pick by Edmonton in the 2007 bantam draft. However, the transfer didn’t go through (no reason was given at the time), and the Oil Kings had to delete a different player off their list. . . . Philip was among three Boston College freshmen in a vehicle that was hit by a trolley early Sunday and now may face alcohol-related charges. The B.C. Eagles won the NCAA hockey championship this season. . . .
The one selection in Thursday’s bantam draft that I really like occurred in the first round. Tri-City Americans GM Bob Tory traded up, cutting a deal with the Vancouver Giants, in order to select G Eric Comrie. He was, by all accounts, the best goaltender available. Tory knows the value of a good goaltender, having had Dan Blackburn with the Kootenay Ice, and Carey Price, Chet Pickard and now Drew Owsley with the Americans. Could it be that Comrie is the next starry young goaltender in Tory’s resume?
Mike Johnston, the GM and head coach of the Portland Winterhawks, is off to Switzerland on Sunday where he will help Sean Simpson, the head coach of the Swiss national team, in the world championship in Germany. No, Garry Davidson, Portland’s director of player personnel, won’t be going along. “No. I’m off to 100 Mile House,” Davidson said with a laugh during a break in Thursday’s draft. . . . A lot of WHL scouts put the draft behind them and get back to work this weekend with the U-17 B.C. Cup in 100 Mile House. B.C.’s top 1994-born players will be at the tournament. . . .
One of the best lines of the draft came from one member of a team’s front office. It was late in the proceedings, it had been a long day and this gentleman was almost all in. He thought his team was all done making picks when it was pointed out that his side was two selections away from being back on the clock. “When the (bleep) did that happen?” he said, before scurrying over to his team’s table to find out what was going on.
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Having attended my first WHL bantam draft and having had a day to reflect on it, I think the league is missing a glorious opportunity. The draft should be held on a Saturday sometime after the Memorial Cup. It should start in the afternoon and run into the evening, allowing players and parents the opportunity to attend. The WHL also could arrange to supply a webcast. And why not cut a deal with Shaw, its TV partner, to carry at least the first round? . . . Why not hold the awards luncheon as a kickoff to the WHL’s championship final, then let the bantam draft stand on its own on a later weekend?
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Last word on the draft. . . . Saw this headline at a popular Internet site, with the surname Forsberg missing: The Prince George Cougars select Swedish forward Alex with the first overall pick in the bantam draft.