Monday . . .

THE MEMORIAL CUP
(at Brandon)
(all games on Rogers Sportsnet)
(all times local)
Friday: Windsor vs. Brandon, 7 p.m.
Saturday: Calgary vs. Moncton, 2 p.m.
Sunday: Brandon vs. Moncton, 2 p.m.
Monday: Calgary vs. Windsor, 7 p.m.
May 18: Moncton vs. Windsor, 7 p.m.
May 19: Brandon vs. Calgary, 7 p.m.
May 20: Tiebreaker (if necessary)
May 21: Semifinal, 7 p.m.
May 22: No game scheduled.
May 23: Championship final, 2 p.m.
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In the QMJHL on Monday, the Moncton Wildcats scored a 7-4 victory over the visiting Saint John Sea Dogs to win the best-of-seven final series, 4-2. . . . Moncton, which built a 6-1 second-period lead, will play its first Memorial Cup game in Brandon on Saturday afternoon against the WHL-champion Calgary Hitmen. . . . The Wildcats last won the QMJHL title in 2006.
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The Calgary Hitmen, who won the WHL championship on Friday, took a couple of days off and returned to the practice ice Monday. They will skate again Tuesday in Calgary, before boarding a charter flight to Brandon on Wednesday. They play their first game at the Memorial Cup on Saturday afternoon, against the QMJHL-champion Moncton Wildcats.
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The Swift Current Broncos, who announced last week that assistant coach Tim Kehler’s contract wouldn’t be renewed, have signed Darren Evjen to a three-year deal as assistant coach. Evjen, a hugely successful midget AAA coach in Saskatoon, spent this season as the GM/head coach of the SJHL’s Notre Dame Hounds. He was an assistant coach with the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2006-07. Evjen is from Swift Current. . . . "I have known Darren almost all my life and we have kept in contact over the years,” Broncos GM/head coach Mark Lamb said in a press release. . . . Most WHL assistant coaches are on one-year contracts, or, at least, they are when they get started. By giving Evjen a three-year deal, It would seem that the Broncos have plans for him down the road. Perhaps he has been told he is their head coach in waiting.
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Mike Johnston, the GM and head coach of the Portland Winterhawks, is not with Switzerland at the world championship in Germany. Johnston was to have worked under Swiss head coach Sean Simpson during the tournament but, according to a press release from the Winterhawks, “stepped down for personal reasons.”
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Longtime coach John Marks is the new director of hockey operations and head coach of the MJHL’s Winkler Flyers. Marks, who is from Hamiota, Man., played 650 games in the NHL. He started his coaching career with the U of North Dakota Fighting Sioux in 1982. He spent this season as director of player personnel and head coach of the IHL’s Dayton Gems. . . . He replaces Mark Thiessen, who stepped down after the season.
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Todd Kinniburgh (Saskatoon, Medicine Hat, Portland, Prince Albert, 1988-90) has joined the AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm as its head scout for Alberta. He will work under Storm GM/head coach Mike Vandekamp and Bernie Pimm, the club‘s director of scouting. . . . The Storm also has signed F Spencer Mault, 18, who was the captain of the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers this season. He was an 11th-round choice by the Kootenay Ice in the WHL’s 2007 bantam draft.
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Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports on his blog (Slap Shots, over there on the left) that the Pats’ search for a new general manager is well under way. In fact, Brent Parker, the former GM who now is the franchise’s governor and president, already has talked with former Moose Jaw Warriors GM Chad Lang. That, of course, shouldn’t come as a surprise. . . . Some of the other names being mentioned may surprise you, so check it out.