Pregame . . . Calgary vs. Windsor

DAY 4 AT THE MASTERCARD MEMORIAL CUP . . .

Before I get started today, a big, big thank you to the folks in emergency at the Brandon Reginal Health Centre for their help on Sunday.
And a great big thank you to Laura Struthers, who bailed out my wife and I in the renal clinic on Monday.
I just can’t say enough for the help with which you provided us.
Thank you all so much.
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OK . . . on to the game . . .
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It’s the battle of the two unbeaten teams, if you can call teams unbeaten after one victory each.
The Windsor Spitfires, of course, had their way with the Brandon Wheat Kings, winning the opener 9-3 on Friday.
The Calgary Hitmen erased a 3-0 deficit and beat the Moncton Wildcats 5-4 on Saturday.
The Hitmen will scratch F Brandon Kozun, D Peter Kosterman, D Jaynen Rissling and F Justin Kirsch. . . . Kozun and Rissling are injured. Kozun was hurt in Game 5 of the WHL final, tried to play Saturday but was ineffective. The Hitmen are hoping the WHL regular-season and playoff scoring champ will be ready for Wednesday’s game with the Wheat Kings. Rissling left early in the first period of Saturday’s game after absorbing a hard check. With him out of the lineup, the Hitmen have inserted D Kyle Aschim, a 19-year-old from Prince Albert who has had concussion problems. He played in 12 of 23 playoff games.
The Spitfires have scratched D Saverio Posa and F James Woodcroft.
The referees are Darcy Burchell (OHL) and Matt Kirk, the Brandon native who is one of the WHL’s top officials. Linesmen are Kiel Murchison and Trent Knorr.
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With 13 minutes until faceoff, there are plenty of empty seats. Perhaps people are lined up to buy 50/50 tickets. . . . It will be interesting to see how the ice holds up tonight. It was another unseasonably warm day with some humidity. . . . Outside temperature at game time will be 25C with relative humidity at about 34 per cent. . . . I haven’t checked it out but I’m told the red seats in Westman Place used to be in the Winnipeg Arena. Gotta wonder why they brought the seats here and left behind the picture of the Queen? . . . By the way, the price of gas is more than 10 cents a litre cheaper here than in Regina. What's with that?
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An interesting note from Calgary’s victory on Saturday . . .
Kelly Kisio, Calgary’s GM, watched the first two periods from a seat in the top row of the stands in the south end of Westman Place. He was nowhere to be found when the third period started, though.
“I couldn’t watch any more,” he said with a laugh.
Mike Moore, Calgary’s director of business operations, also left his seat after two periods.
“I couldn’t take it,” said Moore, who watched the rest of the game from the top of some stairs in the north end. The Hitmen scored 3:08 into the third period and Moore informed the security guard standing near him that she now was his lucky charm.
It must have worked.
The Hitmen outscored the Moncton Wildcats 4-1 in the third period and pulled a 5-4 victory out of the fire.
Gotta wonder from where Kisio and Moore will take in tonight’s game?