Monday . . .

No doubt F Scott Glennie of the Brandon Wheat Kings was disappointed not to have been invited to the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp. So how did he spend Monday after the announcements were made? . . . Was he moping and pouting around Brandon? Was he hiding out in his room? . . . No, he was one of the Brandon traveling party that headed west to Elkhorn, Man., as the Wheat Kings’ Hockey Caravan spent time with players from another rural minor hockey association. . . . Do you think any of those children knew, or cared, that the mucky-mucks somewhere decided Glennie wasn’t good enough to warrant a chance to earn an opportunity to play for Canada? . . . Not on your life. . . . And I’m betting that Glennie came away from there with a smile on his face. . . .
———
Glennie was a first-round selection by the Dallas Stars in the 2009 NHL draft. Gary Roberts, the former NHLer who now works in player development with the Stars, was on the ice with the Wheat Kings on Monday. He was, according to the Brandon Sun’s Rob Henderson, “passing along some on-ice and off-ice tips to the players.” . . . “He’s been here for the past couple days and he’s a great guy and he knows a lot about his stuff,” Glennie told Henderson. “I was really happy that he came down here to see me. I really appreciate that.” . . .
———
Still with the Wheat Kings, what is with the Los Angeles Kings and F Brayden Schenn?
Geez, make a decision already!
Schenn, who has played eight NHL games this season, completed his conditioning stint with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs and is expected to skate with the Kings today. (Schenn had three goals and four assists, and was plus-3, in seven games with Manchester.)
Schenn, 19, has to play in the NHL or be returned to Brandon. For whatever reason, the Kings seem more intent on having him practice with them and watch them play, rather than return to the Wheat Kings.
Could be the Kings will stall for another couple of weeks and then loan him to Canada’s national junior team, which opens its selection camp in Toronto on Dec. 11.
———
The Prince George Cougars, who are in first place in the B.C. Division, have a chance to make some hay in December. They will play 12 of their next 14 games on home ice. The Calgary Hitmen are at the CN Centre on Wednesday night. . . . The Prince Albert Raiders have returned F Tyler Paslawski, 18, to the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks. That leaves the Raiders had 23 players, including nine defencemen and 12 forwards. . . . The Raiders have an important week ahead of them as they are in the Central Division for three games. They meet the Oil Kings in Edmonton on Wednesday, the Rebels in Red on Friday and the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Saturday. . . . Tim Tisdale, who scored the winning goal for the Swift Current Broncos in overtime in the 1989 Memorial Cup championship game, has taken over as GM of the midget AAA Swift Current Legionnaires. Tisdale has long been involved in minor hockey in Swift Current, from coaching to refereeing to working on volunteer boards. . . . F Linden Vey of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who is leading the WHL scoring race, is the league’s player of the week. He had nine points, including four goals, as the Tigers went 3-0-0 last week. He also was plus-6. . . . Adam Brown of the Kelowna Rockets is the nominee as CHL goaltender of the week. He was 2-0-0, 1.62, .946. . . . The Spokane Chiefs are listing G James Reid (ankle) as day-to-day. He was injured Friday during a 4-3 shootout loss to the Blazers in Kamloops. . . .
An interesting note from Graham Kendrick, Portland’s director of media and public relations, in his weekly Winterhawks’ update: “The Winterhawks' march to the league's top overall record . . . has been made with a roster comprised entirely of players the team drafted or listed. The Winterhawks don't have a single player on their roster acquired via trade.” That roster features 15 Portland draft picks, six players who were listed and two from the CHL import draft. . . . According to Kendrick, “No other team in the WHL has a roster without a single player having been acquired via trade.” . . . You would have to think the Winterhawks may bring in a player or two via the trade route over the next while. For starters, they have room for a 20-year-old . . .

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca  gdrinnan.blogspot.com Taking Note on Twitter

Ranford looking to next year

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Hockey Canada released the names of the 39 players it has invited to try out for the country’s national junior team on Monday.
The roster doesn’t include left-winger Brendan Ranford of the Kamloops Blazers, never mind that not one of the 23 forwards has scored more goals than the Edmonton native.
However, Ranford, an 18-year-old who leads the WHL with 24 goals, wasn’t all that disappointed.
“No, not really,” he said. “I looked at the list and there are a lot of good guys who are off the list. You can’t really complain about that. There are good players there and they should do well.”
The selection camp runs Dec. 11-15 in Toronto. The 2011 World Junior Championship is scheduled for Buffalo, Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.
Ranford, like so many other Canadians, young and old, always watches the tournament, and this one will be no exception.
Ranford will watch and hope for an invitation next November, when he will be 19 and in his last season of tournament eligibility.
“My biggest thing,” he said, “has always been my skating. I have to be the best skater that I can be and I have to improve on my speed and my quickness. Hopefully, that is going to help me make the camp next year.”
Of the 39 players selected for the camp, 17 are from the WHL, with 11 from the OHL, six from the QMJHL, four from the NCAA and one from the AHL.
Centre Chase Schaber and defenceman Austin Madaisky of the Blazers, like Ranford, were given at least some consideration — all three played for the WHL in the Subway Super Series — but they weren’t selected, either.
Others to have played in the Super Series who didn’t make the grade were defencemen Stefan Elliott of the Saskatoon Blades, Matt MacKenzie of the Calgary Hitmen, Neil Manning of the Vancouver Giants, Alex Petrovic of the Red Deer Rebels and Brett Ponich of the Portland Winterhawks, forwards Jimmy Bubnick of Calgary, Scott Glennie of the Brandon Wheat Kings, Jordan Weal of the Regina Pats, Red Deer’s Byron Froese, Portland’s Ty Rattie, Brendan Shinnimin of the Tri-City Americans, Brandon Herrod of the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon’s Darian Dziurzynski, and goaltender Kent Simpson of the Everett Silvertips.
Also missing from the roster is forward Brayden Schenn, 19, of the Brandon Wheat Kings. Schenn began the season with  the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and was assigned to the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs two weeks ago on a conditioning stint. He has since returned to the Kings, but was a healthy scratch Monday night amid speculation that he will be returned to Brandon.
There are only three returning players on the Team Canada roster — defencemen Jared Cowen of the Spokane Chiefes, Calvin de Haan of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and Ryan Ellis of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.
Defenceman Brandon Gormley of the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats dislocated his right kneecap in a weekend game. A first-round selection, 13th overall, by the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL’s 2010 draft, he won’t be available for the camp.
Canada earned a silver medal last season in Saskatoon, losing 6-5 in overtime to the United States in the championship final.
This year, Canada opens against Russia on Dec. 26.
The complete selection camp roster is in Scoreboard.

Probert tells his story

Tough Guy
By Bob Probert,
with Kirstie McLellan Day
HarperCollins Canada
Pages: 288   Price: $32.99

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

Why did Bob Probert choose to tell his story so explicitly in black and white?
In his wife Dani’s 10-line foreword, she explains that “as our kids got older, they started hearing stuff about him that wasn’t true. This really bugged Bob. He knew he was no angel, but he wanted the real story on record.”
Well, the real story now is on the record. Oh, is it!
And if you should choose to read this book, there won’t be any doubt left in your mind about Probert’s relationship with angels. You also will ask yourself this: If this was the real Bob Probert, what stories were his children hearing? Because there are some awfully wild tales here.
After Dani’s foreword, there is a prologue titled The Last Chapter in which Kirstie McLellan Day, who co-authored Theo Fleury’s book Playing With Fire, details Probert’s July 5 death.
After that chapter, Probert, in his own words, details his career in hockey, and it isn’t pretty. In fact, if you took out the booze, drugs, sex and fighting, well, there wouldn’t be much left.
Reading this book is pretty much like driving past a traffic accident — you don’t want to look, but you can’t stop yourself.
When you get to Chapter 1, you find that the first two words are “Tie Domi” and the sixth word is an f-bomb. The stage is set.
And as you read through this, you are likely to reach one conclusion — the fact Probert lived as long as he did was some kind of miracle.
Probert, of course, was well-known as a hockey brawler and it was common knowledge that he had drug problems that resulted in run-ins with the law. But the extent of Probert’s troubles are mind-boggling, to say the least.
He treated his stints in jail and in rehab as mere bumps in the road, and so did the NHL and a couple of its teams, at least so long as he was deemed to be a productive athlete.
In fact, some of the decisions made by other people who impacted Probert’s life were amazing. For example, while with the Detroit Red Wings he and the then-troubled Sheldon Kennedy became buddies.
“We were introduced and told we were going to be living together, to straighten each other out, if you can believe it,” Probert says.
Among other things, it was Probert who introduced Kennedy to cocaine.
Kennedy, who now is on the straight and narrow, was a pallbearer at Probert’s funeral.
When Probert chose to do this book, he decided to bare his soul and expose every secret and skeleton in his life’s closet. It’s just too bad he no longer is with us because it could have been quite a book tour.
Interestingly, there is a list of Probert’s on-ice pugilistic opponents in the back of the book.
During his NHL career, he had 246 fights.
Yes, it’s a tough way to make a living, and perhaps that had something to do with his lifestyle.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca  gdrinnan.blogspot.com  Taking Note on Twitter

DECEMBER 6, 1988, SPORTS
Copyright 1988/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

He May Look Soft, but He Rides Hard

   LAS VEGAS — There are lots of places I would not want to be. The three-yard line of the Chicago Bears, for example, with the ball, one minute to play, trailing by four points. In the ring with Mike Tyson when your mouthpiece has fallen out. On the track at Indy with your brakes out and the steering gone. On an ice floe with a polar bear or a pond with an alligator. Facing a charging lion when you're out of ammo.
   And, high among these also would be on the back of an enraged 2,000-pound brindle bull with only a hat, gloves, a hunk of plaited rope and the Lord's Prayer.
   I don't know why guys climb 25,000-foot mountains, jump cars in motorcycles, balloon the Atlantic solo or swim channels. But, riding bulls with horns like daggers, hooves that can chop trees and a temper of a drill sergeant whose shoes are too small, ranks right up there with all the other life-shortening hobbies you can conjure up.
   You would think you had a mental picture of a guy who would ride a bull in a rodeo. A wild-eyed, wild-haired, hare-brained young kid with the leather skin and chapped lips of a guy who never slept in a bed in his life or drank coffee out of anything but a can. A hundred years ago he would have been holding up stagecoaches or drawing down on frontier marshals and he would have the life expectancy of a sick coyote.
   Then, you meet Wacey Cathey and you think somebody's putting you on.
   If someone saw Wacey in a lawyer's office on Park Avenue, he would take him for a junior partner of the firm. If they told him he rode Brahma bulls for a living, he would edge away from them. Wacey doesn't look as if he could get onto anything more ferocious than a BMW.
   First of all, there are the glasses. Wire-rimmed, owlish, they make him look like something out of Bush's cabinet. He isn't even sunburned. He would look OK under a Homburg hat and wearing a briefcase and bench-made shoes. He puts his cowboy hat on and you figure he's going to a square dance, not a bull session.
   Yet, he's the oldest and certifiably the best bull-rider in the National Finals Rodeo, the Super Bowl of the cowboys-and-Indians set, up here at the Thomas & Mack Arena this week. The best 15 bull-riders in the world qualify for this event on the basis of money won and Wacey has won more than any of them — $70,413 to date in 150 rodeos this year.
   You wouldn't think to look at him that he spends his life on bull-back. As a matter of fact, you know these mechanical bulls they have in those campy Texas gin mills and elsewhere today? Well, my life's ambition is to get Wacey in one with me one night and have him order his sarsparilla and push his glasses up on his nose — and then go around and offer to bet any of the hotshot bar-stool cowboys in the joint that this tenderfoot can outride them.
   I'd do a land-office business, I'd make more money than a guy on a river boat with his own deck. Because Wacey, frankly, looks as if he'd have trouble staying on an exercycle. They'd just figure him for a bookworm who'd read too much Louis L'Amour or seen too many John Wayne movies.
   Wacey wouldn't be cocky about it because he's not the type to be cocky about anything.
   Those mechanical bulls can be jacked up electronically to make a boozy rider think he has been caught in a crashing plane or in a barrel going over Niagara. But, Wacey points out, they have one flaw.
   "They can be hyped up. But they can't do one thing a real bull can
do — which is to suddenly jump from here to that wall without warning. And to take off on you just when you think you're settling in," Wacey reminds you.
   Also, they can't try to stomp or gore you to death when you get bucked off. One of the real ones did that only this year — opened up an artery in the neck of a rider in Nevada till he bled to death. Another one chopped the ear off a veteran bullrider, Charlie Sampson, in a spill earlier in the season.
   Have you ever seen a Brahma bull up close? When their hind hooves are high in the air and you can seen their entire underbelly trembling with uncontrolled rage, their tiny demented eyes rolling malevolently in their massive heads, their mouths flecked with rabid foam, it's like looking into one of the inner circles of hell. Eight seconds can seem like a year in an interrogation cell in the Lubyanka.
   Bulls and riders get to know each other. They are like a canny old pitcher and a home run slugger who face each other scores of times over the years. It's Lefty Grove against The Babe, Koufax against Henry Aaron.
   The bull is the heavy hitter, the rider tries to guess which way he will spin, when he will jump, on which leg he will come down and tries to gauge his ride accordingly. It's like trying to guess which paw a grizzly will swat you with.
   On opening night of the rodeo, Wacey drew a knife-backed serial killer so anti-social he's known only by the number E-2 in the program but called Death Row in the pen area, and E-2 wasted no time in throwing Wacey over the horns.
   In some other events, no time or no score on a ride would be fatal in a go-round. Not in the bullriding. "Nobody has ever gone though all 10 nights without getting bucked," Wacey advises.
   The second night, he drew a horned nightmare named Cobra. Cobra's trick is to spin you into a wall where he has a chance to flip you into the seats or just down into dropkick position on the arena floor. Cathey not only managed to stay aboard but racked up a respectable 72 in the process.
   Cathey, going on 36, is the oldest cowboy in the bullpen. This is not so much because bullriders don't get a chance to grow old — the patriarch of the breed, the late Freckles Brown, always used to go around looking like something they found in a tomb on the Nile — as that most cowboys give up the bulls after a few years as soon as they realize putting out oil well fires is an easier way to make a living.
  Wacey's secret is not hard to guess: The bulls take one look at him and they figure this is one of those midnight cowboys who thinks this is just a video arcade game. They figure they'll throw him up in the lights. The next thing they know, the horn has sounded and he's sitting there like a guy on a bus reading the financial pages. He rides the bull like a commuter. Even to the bull, he looks like one.

Reprinted with permission by the Los Angeles Times.

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation | P.O. Box 995 | La Quinta | CA | 92247

Some Sunday stuff . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Jaroslav Obsut (Swift Current, Medicine Hat, 1995-97) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Atlant Mytishchi (Russia KHL) after securing his release from Spartak Moscow (Russia KHL). He has two goals and five assists in his 23 games this season with Spartak. . . . As a side note, Obsut was signed by Spartak last season at the insistence of Spartak's then-head coach, Milos Riha. Riha was fired in October and now is the head coach of Atlant. . . .
F Björn Svensson (Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, 2003-06) re-signed with Timrå (Sweden Elitserien) after the club had released him earlier this month. Svensson almost signed with Dusseldorf (Germany DEL), but Dusseldorf withdrew the offer at the last minute. It was then that Timrå decided that it would re-open discussions. Svensson has three goals and six assists in 24 games this season.
———
Hockey Canada will announce the roster for its selection camp this morning. That camp runs in Toronto, Dec. 11-15. . . . The television network RDS reports that the QMJHL will have six players invited — F Louis Leblanc (Montreal Juniors), F Michael Bournival (Shawinigan Cataractes), F Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), D Brandon Gormley (Moncton Wildcats), D Simon Despres (Saint John Sea Dogs) and G Olivier Roy (Acadie-Bathurst Titan). . . . Gormley, a first-round pick by the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL’s 2010 draft, went down with a knee injury on the weekend. Reports are that he could be on the shelf for a month, which would be a big loss for Canada. . . . The camp begins December 11th and runs through to the 15th. Canada is scheduled to play exhibition matches against Switzerland in Oshawa on December 20, Sweden in Toronto on December 21 and Finland in Kitchener on December 23. The real fun begins on Boxing Day when Canada takes on Russia.
———
Switzerland has released its 28-player pre-tournament roster, and it includes forwards Sven Bartschi and Nino Niederreiter of the Portland Winterhawks and D Dave Sutter of the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . The tournament is in Buffalo this time, from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. . . . The Kamloops Blazers are expecting to lose C Dalibor Bortnak to the Slovakian team that will play in Buffalo.
———
The NHL’s Minnesota Wild has recalled D Jared Spurgeon (Spokane, 2005-10) from the AHL’s Houston Aeros. Spurgeon, who turns 21 today, had nine points and 10 penalty minutes in 21 games with the Aeros. But eight of those points have come in his last eight games. He also scored the shootout winner in a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday. Spurgeon signed with the Wild as a free agent on Sept. 22. He will wear No. 26 with the Wild which is to play the Flames in Calgary tonight.
———
In Sunday’s only WHL game, Medicine Hat F Hunter Shinkaruk had the lone shootout goal as the Medicine Hat Tigers got past the host Portland Winterhawks, 3-2. . . . F Linden Vey scored his 18th goal for the Tigers. He leads the WHL with 47 points. . . . The Winterhawks got goals from their Swiss connection — Nino Niederreiter, with his eighth, and Sven Bartschi, with No. 18. . . . Bartschi tied the score 2-2 at 19:11 of the second period. . . . Medicine Hat G Tyler Bunz stopped 41 shots, including eight in overtime. . . . Portland held an 8-0 edge in OT shots. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth turned aside 20 shots. . . . The Winterhawks have lost three straight games, all of them this weekend and two of them in shootouts. . . . Attendance was 2,318. Who was to know there were so many CFL fans in the Portland area? . . . The Winterhawks are at home Wednesday when the Kootenay Ice, one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams, drops by for a visit.
———
SUNDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Zero.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca  gdrinnan.blogspot.com  Taking Note on Twitter

Ranford wraps up terrific November

BRENDAN RANFORD

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Brendan Ranford has done his part. The rest is up to Hockey Canada.
The invitations go out today for the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp, which is to be held in Toronto, Dec. 11-15.
If Ranford, Kamloops Blazers’ starry left winger, was on Hockey Canada’s radar screen earlier in the season, he was the merest of blips. Of late, however, he has come on like a politician in the last days before an election.
Ranford had his sixth three-point game in his last eight outings Saturday night, but it wasn’t enough as the Blazers were beaten 7-5 by the Prince George Cougars before 4,099 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
Ranford, an 18-year-old from Edmonton, finished November with 22 points, including 11 goals, in 10 games. On the season, he has a WHL-leading 24 goals and his 44 points have him second in the WHL points derby, two behind forward Linden Vey of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
If you’re into plus/minus, Ranford is at plus-4 on a team that has the 22-team league’s second-poorest defensive record and has allowed 23 more goals than it has scored.
Still, he has no idea whether he will get a call.
“I feel I’ve played well lately,” Ranford said. “If I don’t (get picked), I don’t. I won’t be totally disappointed. I tried to do my best.”
Ranford, who was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers with the second-last pick of the 2010 NHL draft, got a chance to strut his stuff for Hockey Canada head scout Kevin Prendergast during the Subway Super Series here on Nov. 17. Team WHL lost to a touring Russian side, 7-6 in a shootout, but Ranford felt he played well.
He knows that if he doesn’t get invited to the national junior camp today, there’s always next year when he will be in his 19-year-old season.
Still, he would like an opportunity to show he belongs at that elite level, and you’ve got to think Canada might be able to make use of his hot stick.
Even with Ranford’s two goals, though, the Blazers weren’t able to beat the Cougars, who got a goal and three assists from Slovakian defenceman Martin Marincin. A second-round selection by Edmonton in the 2010 NHL draft, he has 30 points in his first 26 WHL games, which is why Oilers head scout Stu MacGregor was sporting the biggest smile in the arena on Saturday night.
The Cougars also got two goals from Charles Inglis and a goal and two assists from pesky Nick Bounassisi. Brett Connolly, with his 20th of the season, Cody Carlson and Taylor Stefishen, into an empty net, also scored for the visitors.
Jordan DePape, Colin Smith and Brady Gaudet, with his first WHL goal, replied for the Blazers, who trailed 4-2 with four minutes left in the second period, tied it with goals 1:44 apart, and then fell behind when Connolly pounced on a soft rebound and tapped it behind Kamloops goaltender Cam Lanigan with 18.3 seconds left.
If anything, the Blazers were again done in by penalties and suspect penalty-killing, which was torched three times in seven opportunities. Kamloops, which also scored three PP goals, continues as the WHL’s most-penalized team and its penalty killing, with a success rate of 71.7 per cent, is well behind the Calgary Hitmen and Prince Albert Raiders, both of whom are at 75.5 per cent.
As Ranford said: “We take penalties at the wrong times. They aren’t necessarily bad penalties . . . they just aren’t at the right times.”
The Blazers also got something of a bad break early in the first period when Gaudet was given a double minor for high-sticking after Cougars forward Brock Hirsche went down at the Kamloops blue line. Hirsche, who left the game and later was sporting a patch over his right eye, actually was struck by the puck rather than Gaudet’s stick. Marincin scored the game’s first goal on the resulting power play.
While the Blazers were playing their fourth game in five nights — they went 2-2-0 — the Cougars won their third game in four nights in three different cities. They blanked the Bruins 4-0 in Chilliwack on Wednesday, then beat the visiting Regina Pats 5-3 on Friday.
“We looked at the schedule when it came out,” said Cougars head coach Dean Clark, “and said this would be the toughest part. We took it easy, prepared accordingly and won all three games.”
The victory improved the Cougars’ record to 14-10-2 and lifted them into first place in the B.C. Division. (Actually, they are tied with the Vancouver Giants, but the Cougars have one more victory.) Last season, the Cougars finished with the poorest record (12-56-4) in the 60-team CHL.
Of course, the Western Conference is so tight that the Blazers, at 13-13-1 and tied for eighth with Chilliwack, are just three points behind the Cougars.
The Blazers now are off until Friday when they face the visiting Saskatoon Blades. Game time will be 7 p.m.
The defending-champion Calgary Hitmen are at the ISC on Saturday night.
JUST NOTES: Referees Colby Smith and Ryan Thompson gave the Cougars 11 of 20 minors and two of four majors. . . . Former Blazers G James Priestner gave up five goals, but made 36 saves, 17 more than Lanigan. . . . Carlson’s goal, a shorthanded effort, stood as the winner. The Blazers have given up a shorthanded goal in each of their last three games. . . . F Chase Schaber returned from a three-game suspension to draw three assists for Kamloops. He wore the captain’s C but for a second straight game there weren’t any alternates. . . . DePape, playing on the line with Ranford and Schaber, added two assists to his goal. . . . A post-game scoring change awarded assists on Gaudet’s goal to Willick and Smith Among the Kamloops scratches was C Dalibor Bortnak, with a sore knee after stopping a shot from Spokane D Jared Cowen on Friday night. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Marincin: Big just gets better; 2. D Daniel Gibb, Prince George: Big minutes, half-a-dozen blocked shots; 3. Ranford: Finished November with a flourish. . . . The Blazers have returned G Troy Trombley, 16, to the midget AAA Fort Saskatchewan Rangers. . . . The Cougars are 2-1-0 here but don’t visit again until March 18. The Blazers play in Prince George for the first time this season on Dec. 17 and 18.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca    gdrinnan.blogspot.com  Taking Note on Twitter

Christmas Cheer Fund gets help from Regina

 By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It would seem that news of The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund has spread far and wide.
The Regina Pats were at Interior Savings Centre on Tuesday and, prior to the game, I was approached by Brent Parker, an old friend who happens to be the WHL team’s governor and president.
“Do you still have that Christmas Cheer Fund?” he asked.
“Of course,” I responded.
With that, he reached into a pocket and handed me a crisp $100 bill.
“Put that in the fund,” he said.
With pleasure, Brent, and thanks a bunch.
It is moments like that that make this time of the year so special around here.
Moments, too, such as when Tim Shoults, the publisher in these parts, stops at my desk to tell me that Gail Cameron handed him a cheque for $50 while they were at a Downtown Rotary Club gathering on Monday.
It wasn’t the first time that has happened to Tim and the smile on his face said it all.
There also are the notes that arrive on my desk with more and more regularity as Christmas approaches.
Like this one:
“The Tablecloth Bridge Group would like to challenge any other bridge groups to meet or beat their donation of $50.” No signature. Just a Christmas challenge.
We get Christmas cards, too, like the one in which Lorna McMillan, a long-time supporter of your Christmas Cheer Fund, wishes us luck.
We also are hearing from people via email.
Norio Sakaki took time out from his hockey career to let us know that his “Kamloops Senior Hockey Players are on board again this year.”
Jim Doan of the Western Karate Academy has things rolling again. He has the annual Kick-A-Thon scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and already pledges are well over $300. He also was excited over the fact that he had great luck collecting prizes from such local businesses as Kelly O’Bryan’s and Game On! He even got some help from Uncle Chris the Clown.
“Last year was a lot of fun,” Jim writes, “and, as you know, we were able to raise $6,000. The economy may be in the doldrums, but we are still expecting to have good news for you in a few weeks.”
Oh, and I almost forgot. The gang at Investors Group is back on board with us, which, again, is much appreciated. Dean Nicholson reports that the posters are up and that they are “starting to collect donations for the Christmas Cheer Fund as well as the Christmas Amalgamated hampers for the families that we adopted.”
Dean also got in a dig about enjoying the shovelling, but we won’t go there, will we?
Yes, every day is a good one in these parts.
I mean, it isn’t even December yet and the elves already have counted out almost $9,000 for your Christmas Cheer Fund. The sky, it seems, really is the limit.
———
Don’t forget that The Daily News picks up all administrative costs, which means that every cent that comes in to us goes out early in the new year.
This year, the proceedds will be shared by five local charities — the Canadian Association for the Mentally Ill, the Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice House, the New Life Mission, the WunderCafe Soup Kitchen, and the YMCA-YWCA Y Women's Emergency Shelter.
If you would like to climb on board with us, feel free to come into our office at 393 Seymour St., and someone will be pleased to help. Or use one of the forms that you will find located daily in this newspaper.
And we still have Cheer Fund Christmas cards available, with instructions on how get your hands on them located in this newspaper. If you check out Today’s Cheer, you will fine that Sherry Sim bought two boxes. All the proceeds go to your Christmas Cheer Fund.

TODAY’S CHEER:
Anonymous    $25.00
Anonymous    $15.00
Anonymous    $100.00
Anonymous    $28.00
Anonymous    $25.00
Gail Cameron and Don Whyte    $50.00
Dianne and Dal Sohi    $200.00
Heather, Quigley and Lily    $50.00
Anonymous    $150.00
Fearon and Richard Blair    $75.00
Karl Dalin    $100.00
Donna and Dick Sharpe (in memory of Dick Laidlaw, former Kamloops Sentinel publisher)    $50.00
Margaret Houghton    $100.00
Ridley Dodds    $100.00
Anonymous    $7.75
Table Cloth Bridge Group    $50.00
Robin Johnson and Lorna McMillan    $50.00
Sherry Sim    $25.98
Sherry Sim    $100.00
Brent Parker    $100.00
Doris Finlay    $25.00
The Takeuchi family  $200.00
Anonymous    $500.00
A. and G. Morrissette    $100.00
Anonymous    $100.00
Bunko Babes    $55.00
Anonymous    $50.00

TODAY’S CHEER    $2,431.73
PREVIOUS TOTAL    $6,277.00
OVERALL TOTAL    $8,708.73

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

Yes, P.G. is in first place

Last season, the Prince George Cougars went 12-56-4. That was the poorest record in all of the 60-team CHL.
So raise your right hand if you thought they had a chance to be leading the B.C. Division with November about to turn into December.
Actually, they are tied for the lead but, at 14-10-2, they have one more victory than do the Vancouver Giants (13-9-4) so, at least for now, the Cougars are the No. 2 seed in the West Conference.
And who would have thought that?
More on this in the nightly roundup but the Cougars won their third game in a row on Saturday night. Not only that, it was their third victory in four nights. And they won each of those games in a different city.
It is fair to say that no one is kicking sand in the Cougars’ faces these days.
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The fans have spoken. Take a trip over to hockeyfights.com and check out the fights involving goaltenders. There are a bunch of videos there and the favourite one of the bunch involves two WHL goaltenders of rather recent vintage. Check it out right here.
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Last season, F Mitch Fadden (Seattle, Lethbridge, Tri-City, 2003-09) appeared on the verge of earning a spot in the NHL. This season, he is leading the ECHL in scoring. What happened? Woody Wommack of the Naples News has that story right here.


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Some Saturday highlights from WHL games:
In Saskatoon, F Curtis Hamilton had two goals and an assist to lead the Blades to a 6-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Hamilton has 15 goals on the season and is sure to be among those players receiving invitations Monday to the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp. . . . The Raiders had beaten the visiting Blades 3-1 on Friday. . . . F Josh Nicholls added a goal and two assists for the Blades. . . . F Lukas Sutter, who scored his first WHL goal on Friday, added another in this one. . . . Attendance was 4,474. . . .
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In Brandon, D Collin Bowman scored at 18:48 of the third period to break a 3-3 tie and give the Moose Jaw Warriors a 4-3 victory over the Wheat Kings. . . . The Warriors had beaten Brandon 5-4 in Moose Jaw on Friday, with the winning goal coming from F Mackenzie Royer with 9.2 seconds left in the third. . . . This also was Moose Jaw’s third victory over Brandon in eight days. . . . On Nov. 20, the Warriors won 4-2 in Brandon when F Quinton Howden broke a 2-2 tie at, yes, 18:48, of the third period. . . . Brandon now has lost seven in a row. Earlier this season, it went through a nine-game losing skein. . . . F Shayne Wiebe had all three of Brandon’s goals, giving him 15 on the season. His third goal, at 10:17 of the third, tied it at 3. . . . F Quinton Howden had two goals for Moose Jaw, giving him 15. . . . Moose Jaw G Thomas Heemskerk stopped 46 shots. . . . Attendance was 3,841. . . .
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In Lethbridge, F Brad Hoban drew three assists to help the Swift Current Broncos to a 4-3 victory over the Hurricanes. . . . The Broncos have won three in a row. . . . Swift Current D Reece Scarlett opened the scoring with his second goal of the season at 6:24 of the first period and the teams alternated goals after that. . . . Swift Current F Adam Lowry broke a 3-3 tie on the PP at 14:00 of the third. . . . F Cody Eakin had two assists for the Broncos. . . . The Hurricanes got a goal and an assist from each of F Russell Maxwell and Mark Reners. . . . Lethbridge F Neil Tarnasky got his first career goal in his 18th game of this season. He was goalless in 57 games last season. . . . Attendance was 3,075. . . .
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In Calgary, F Michael St. Croix continued his hot November with two goals and assist to led the Oil Kings to a 3-1 victory over the Hitmen. . . . The Oil Kings have won three in a row. . . . Edmonton G Jon Groenheyde stopped 17 shots. He is 5-3-0, 2.93, .897 since coming over from the Kamloops Blazers in a trade. . . . St. Croix, who has 16 points in 11 games this month, now has 29 points in 26 games on the season. . . . He broke a 1-1 tie with his 14th goal at 3:24 of the third period. . . . Attendance was 9,760. . . .
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In Kamloops, D Martin Marincin scored a goal and earned three assists as his Prince George Cougars beat the Blazers, 7-5. . . . Marincin, a second-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in the 2010 NHL draft, has nine goals and 21 assists in his first 26 WHL games. . . . F Charles Inglis scored twice for the Cougars, who won three games this week. They beat the Bruins 4-0 in Chilliwack on Wednesday and the visiting Regina Pats 5-3 on Friday. . . . F Brendan Ranford had two goals -- he leads the WHL with 24 -- and an assist for Kamloops. . . . F Brett Connolly scored his 20th goal of the season for Prince George. He left the game seven minutes into the third period with an apparent injury to his right arm. After a trip to the dressing room, he came back and finished up. The team reports that he was hit by a puck. . . . The Cougars lost F Brock Hirsche in the first period when he was hit in the right eye by a puck. He had a patch over the eye after the game, but the team said he will be fine. . . . F Nick Buonassisi had a goal and two assists for the Cougars. . . . C Chase Schaber drew three assists for the Blazers in his return from a three-game WHL-issued suspension. . . . Kamloops F Jordan DePape chipped in a goal and two helpers. . . . Each team scored three PP goals, while the Cougars also got a shorthanded marker. . . . The Blazers have surrendered a shorthanded goal in each of their last three games. . . . Cougars G James Priestner, who began his WHL career in Kamloops, stopped 36 shots. . . . Attendance was 4,099. . . .
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In Everett, the Medicine Hat Tigers scored the game’s last three goals and beat the Silvertips, 5-3. . . . F Linden Vey, who leads the WHL with 46 points, had a goal, his 17th, and two assists. . . . F Emerson Etem scored twice for the Tigers, getting them into a 3-3 tie at 12:50 of the second period and providing insurance at 18:48 of the third. He has 17 goals. . . . F Dylan Bredo, with his second of the season, got the winner, unassisted, at 12:59. It was his third goal in 76 career games. . . . F Jari Erricson, a 16-year-old freshman from Prince George, scored three times for the Silvertips. They were his first WHL goals and came in his 17th game. . . . The Tigers, who play in Portland on today, have won six in a row. . . . Attendance was 5,225. . . .
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In Red Deer, F Daulton Siwak’s shootout goal gave the Rebels a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Giants. . . . D Colin Archer’s third goal of the season, at 1:46 of the third period, gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead. . . . Vancouver tied it on goals by D Neil Manning, his seventh, just 16 seconds later, and F Jordan Martinook, at 4:34. . . . Red Deer also got a shootout goal from F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while F Craig Cunningham scored for Vancouver. The shootout went 10 deep. . . . Red Deer G Darcy Kuemper stopped 38 shots. . . . Vancouver went 0-1-1 on its two-game trek into Alberta. The Giants head home for a Tuesday night date with Saskatoon as the Blades begin their B.C. Division tour. . . . Attendance in Red Deer was 5,254. . . .
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In Kent, Wash., the visiting Kootenay Ice scored six straight goals and beat the Seattle Thunderbirds, 6-2. . . . F Steele Boomer erased a 1-0 Seattle lead with his fifth and sixth goals. They both came on the PP at 13:07 and 17:33 of the first. . . . The Ice had been blanked in each of its previous two games. Boomer‘s first goal ended a scoreless stretch of 138:19. . . . F Kevin King had a goal and two assists for the Ice, which got two assists from each of F Matt Fraser and F Joe Antilla. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard was lifted at 5:03 of the second period after being beaten five times on 23 shots. . . . Uhh, it just happened to be Calvin Pickard Bobblehead Night. . . . Attendance was 4,074. . . . The Ice has added F Sam Reinhart, its first-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft, to its roster for three games. He has 32 points in 16 games with the major midget Vancouver-North West Giants. . . .
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In Spokane, F Geordie Wudrick’s PP goal just 42 seconds into OT gave the Kelowna Rockets a 3-2 victory over the Chiefs. . . . Wudrick scored twice, giving him 12 on the season. He has five goals in last two games. . . . The Rockets took a 2-0 lead into the third period but the Chiefs tied it on goals by F Tyler Johnson, his 16th, on the PP at 8:58, and F Matt Marantz, shorthanded, at 13:05. Marantz’s goal, which went in off a Kelowna defender, originally was given to F Steven Kuhn, but was changed after the game. . . . D Tyson Barrie and F Shane McColgan each had two assists for Kelowna. . . . Mac Engel was in goal for the Chiefs after James Reid suffered a leg injury in Kamloops on Friday. The Chiefs lost 4-3 to the Blazers in a shootout in that one. . . . With Reid listed as day-to-day, the Chiefs had Branden Amatto, a 19-year-old local player, backing up Engel. . . . Kelowna has won four in a row and 10 of 11 in November. . . . Attendance was 5,918. . . .
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In Kennewick, Wash., F Brendan Shinnimin was the only one of five skaters to score in the shootout as the Tri-City Americans beat the visiting Portland Winterhawks, 3-2. . . . The Americans, who have won three in a row, led 2-0 going into the third period but gave it up as F Brendan Leipsic scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season for Portland. . . . Portland G Keith Hamilton stopped 40 shots, five more than Tri-City’s Drew Owsley. . . . F Jordan Messier got his 16th goal for the Americans. . . . The Winterhawks have lost two in a row for the first time this season. They are at home to Medicine Hat today. . . . Attendance was 4,871.
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SATURDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Five minors:
Edmonton F Travis Ewanyk
Calgary F Jimmy Bubnick
Spokane F Darren Kramer
Kamloops F Dylan Willick
Everett D Ryan Murray

The Portland Winterhawks are big and talented and the best team in the WHL. They know that. And they know they have a target on their backs but it doesn’t seem to bother them one little bit. Hey, they’re already talking Memorial Cup. If you want more, check out this right here from Kerry Eggers in the Portland Tribune. . . . The Everett Silvertips, one of the Winterhawks says, were intimidated by Portland’s skill. Seriously! . . . Of course, all of this was said and written before the Winterhawks went into Chilliwack on Friday night.
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How is Calgary Hitmen general manager Kelly Kisio dealing with the rotten start his club has gotten off to this season? Well, it seems he is watching a lot of late-night TV. George Johnston of the Calgary Herald details all of that right here.
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The AJHL set a single-game attendance record Friday as the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons doubled the Drayton Valley Thunder 4-2 in a game that was played outdoors. The game drew 5,726 fans, breaking the previous record of 4,400. . . .
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Some Friday highlights from the WHL:
In Swift Current, the Broncos won their fourth straight home game, beating the Lethbridge Hurricanes, 4-2. . . . F Jordan Peddle had a goal and an assist for the Broncos, with F Cody Eakin getting two assists. . . . Swift Current D Graeme Craig, a 17-year-old from Red Deer, scored his first WHL goal. It came in his 89th career regular-season game. . . . The Broncos had a 48-19 edge in shots, including 16-1 in the third period. . . . Attendance was 2,035. . . . The Broncos had F Taylor Vause (hamstring) back in the lineup, while F Dillon Wagner played his first game of the season after having undergone offseason knee surgery. . . .
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In Moose Jaw, Mackenzie Royer scored a PP goal with 9.2 seconds left in the third period as the Warriors beat the Brandon Wheat Kings, 5-4. . . . Royer has scored in each of four games since he was acquired from the Calgary Hitmen earlier this month. . . . The Wheat Kings led 3-1 midway through the game, but couldn’t hang on. . . . The Warriors took a 4-3 lead on goals by D Collin Bowman, F Quinton Howden and F Cody Beach. . . . Brandon tied it on F Mark Stone’s second goal of the game at 10:27 of the third. . . . Stone has 16 goals this season. . . . F Brayden Cuthbert scored his first WHL goal for the Warriors. He just happens to be from Brandon. It was his 24th game. . . . Moose Jaw F A.J. Johnson drew three assists. . . . Brandon has lost six in a row. . . . The start of the game was delayed when a pane of glass was broken during the warmup. . . . Attendance was 2,522. . . . The teams will meet tonight in Brandon. . . . Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald reports that Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak “sat 20-year-old Dylan Hood and 19-year-olds Antonin Honejsek and Jesse Paradis for the first 10 minutes of the third period. Paradis didn’t earn a shift in the third period and will be scratched tonight.” . . . Hunchak told Gourlie: “We didn’t get efforts from a handful of guys. It’s not acceptable and as a result a 20-year-old and two 19-year-olds sit for the better part of 20 minutes of the hockey game.”
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In Prince Albert, F Brandon Herrod scored twice to help the Raiders to a 3-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades. . . . Herrod, who has 11 goals, broke a 1-1 tie at 16:59 of the first period. . . . F Lukas Sutter scored his first WHL goal for the Blades. It came in his 31st game, the 24th this season. . . . Sutter scored after Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix wrote a story on how the freshman still was looking for his first goal. . . . F Jonathan Parker added his 16th for the Raiders. . . . Attendance was 2,891. . . . The start of the game was delayed by some issues with the playing surface. Perhaps it hasn’t yet been cold enough to make ice in Prince Albert? Hey, just kidding. . . .
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In Calgary, Red Deer F Adam Kambeitz scored at 19:58 of the third period to give the Rebels a 4-3 victory over the Hitmen. . . . Calgary F Kris Foucault had tied the score on the PP at 17:09 of the third. . . . Red Deer had a 25-15 edge in shots, including 14-3 in the third. . . . Foucault scored twice, giving him seven. . . . Calgary D Matt MacKenzie had two assists. . . . Attendance was 7,710. . . .
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In Edmonton, the Oil Kings broke a 4-4 tie with two goals 43 seconds apart late in the third period and beat the Vancouver Giants, 6-4. . . . F Josh Laswoski broke a 4-4 tie with his second goal of the game at 16:06 and F. T.J. Foster provided insurance at 16:49. . . . F Brendan Gallagher scored twice for Vancouver and now has 22 goals. He is tied for the WHL lead with F Brendan Ranford of the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Oil Kings, who came into the WHL for the 2007-08 season, had never beaten the Giants. . . . Edmonton F Michael St. Croix had two assists and now has 26 points in 25 games. . . . Edmonton D Mark Pysyk and F Kristians Pelss also had two assists each. . . . Attendance was 4,726. . . . Vancouver head coach Don Hay has 499 career regular-season coaching victories. He now will go after No. 500 tonight in Red Deer against the Rebels. . . . F Brennan Rowinski, who was acquired by Vancouver from the Moose Jaw Warriors earlier in the month, played his first game with the Giants. He had offseason knee surgery and played two games with the Warriors before the trade. But the Vancouver medical staff didn’t clear him for game action until now. . . .
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In Kamloops, the Blazers got two goals in the shootout and beat the Spokane Chiefs, 4-3. . . . The Chiefs had beaten the Blazers 10-1 in Spokane on Wednesday. . . . The Blazers had a 2-0 lead on two goals by F Jordan DePape. . . . Spokane got two goals from F Tyler Johnson, one of them while his side was down two men, to tie it. . . . D Jared Cowen, who had scored three times Wednesday, put Spokane ahead 3-2 as he finished off a 3-on-2 rush at 5:51 of the third. . . . Kamloops F Dylan Willick forced OT at 18:40. . . . F Brendan Ranford and D Austin Madaisky of Kamloops scored the shootout goals. . . . Ranford finished with three assists and now has 41 points, two behind scoring leader Linden Vey of the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . The Chiefs lost G James Reid to a leg injury at 9:23 of the second period. He needed help getting off the ice. At the end of the period, he went onto the ice but wasn’t able to put any weight on the leg. He wasn’t on the bench for the third period. . . . Mac Engel replaced Reid and stopped 16 of 17 shots but was 0-for-2 in the shootout. . . . The shootout never looked worse than it did in this game. After the Zamboni scraped the ice, a problem with one net delayed things about 15 minutes. Finally, both teams were allowed to shoot at the same net. . . . Attendance was 3,974. . . .
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In Prince George, F Troy Bourke scored three times to lead the Cougars to a 5-3 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . Bourke, 16, was the 26th pick in the 2009 bantam draft. He has nine goals this season. He scored three in five games last season. . . . Yes, it was his first WHL hat trick. . . . Prince George D Sena Acolatse had two assists and now has 25 points in 21 games. . . . The Pats finished their B.C. Division tour at 1-2-2. . . . The Cougars held a 5-0 lead, with Regina scoring three times in the third period. . . . Pats D Brandon Davidson set up two of those goals. He has 15 points in his last 12 games. . . . Attendance was 2,098. . . .
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In Kennewick, Wash., G Drew Owsley stopped 35 shots to lead the Tri-City Americans to a 4-0 victory over the Kootenay Ice. . . . It was his second shutout of the season and the seventh of his career. . . . F Brendan Shinnimin scored twice. . . . Attendance was 4,455. . . .
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In Chilliwack, the Bruins scored five times in the third period in spanking the Portland Winterhawks, 7-2. . . . Portland led 2-0 in the second period on goals by its Swiss players, Nino Niederreiter and Sven Bartschi. Niederreiter has seven goals; Bartschi has 17. . . . The Bruins tied it on second-period goals by D Brandon Manning and D Jeff Einhorn. . . . Einhorn’s goal was his first of the season and his eighth in 220 career games. . . . Chilliwack F Kevin Sundher had two of the third-period goals. He also had two assists. . . . Chilliwack G Lucas Gore stopped 30 shots. . . . F Ryan Howse scored his 19th goal of the season for Chilliwack. . . . Attendance was 3,256. . . .
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In Everett, F Burke Gallimore’s two goals led the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 4-1 victory over the Silvertips. . . . Gallimore, who has 14 goals, gave Seattle a 2-0 lead early in the second period. . . . D Ryan Murray got Everett within one on a late second-period PP. . . . Seattle got insurance from F Marcel Noebels, with his seventh goal, just 17 seconds into the third. . . . Gallimore iced it with an empty-netter. . . . Attendance was 7,027.
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FRIDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Six minors:
Lethbridge F Cason Machacek
Moose Jaw D Collin Bowman
Moose Jaw F Jordan Wyton
Red Deer D Matthew Pufahl
Kamloops D Austin Madaisky
Portland F Oliver Gabriel

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

Peter King, Sports Illustrated’s top NFL writer says he likes “Cameron Wake, the Miami outside linebacker, who rushes the passer the way Pete Rose ran the bases. Irrepressible.” . . . Wake, of course, is the former B.C. Lions pass-rusher who twice was the CFL’s defensive player of the year. . . . One more from King: “If I hear one more time what a wonderful influence Randy Moss is in the locker room, I'm going to puke. What kind of great influence can he be if he keeps getting kicked off team (Oakland) after team (New England) after team (Minnesota)?” . . .
Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “Are we supposed to be excited that Tiger Woods is now on Twitter? Come on, the man hasn't said anything interesting in 14 years; why would you think he's going to say anything interesting in 140 characters?” . . . Someone at ESPN.com asked L.A. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson for his opinion on first-year NBAers. His response: "We like them as people, it's just that they're inexperienced . . . and have no purpose on earth." . . . The Kamloops Youth Soccer Association held its annual meeting on Wednesday night. A little birdie tells me that seven people showed up. Wonder if any of the grumpy anonymous letter writers put in an appearance? . . .
Junior football’s Surrey Rams are on the move. The BCFC team, which has been in Surrey for more than 60 years, will play out of McLeod Stadium in Langley next season. The Rams will introduce Tyson St. James as their head coach early in December. A defensive lineman at UBC, he was taken by the Saskatchewan Roughriders with the first overall pick in the 2000 CFL Canadian college draft, but injuries cut short his career. . . . Speaking of the Roughriders, as of Thursday afternoon, Reebok had received 26,000 orders for championship caps should the green guys win Sunday’s game. . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “LeBron James says the Miami Heat needs to have more fun. Sorry, LeBron, the rest of us are having fun.” . . .
Howie Rose, the radio voice of the New York Islanders and the Mets, finally broke the other night. As the NHL team was losing a 13th straight game the other night, Rose, when he thought his mike was dead during a commercial break on the MSG network, came out with: "Iiiii, yii yiiii, is it spring training yet? Let me know how this game turns out. Not that I particularly care." . . . He still has his hockey job. Perhaps because he later apologized. . . . Guard Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns has missed some playing time because of a sore groin. He’s 36 and, as TNT analyst Charles Barkley pointed out: "Just like Brett Favre is finding out, Father Time is undefeated." . . . Headline from TheOnion.com: Tournament Bass Refuses To Talk To Reporters After Tough Day Getting Caught. . . . Henry Burris as the CFL’s most outstanding player? Over Anthony Calvillo. . . . Burris, the Calgary Stampeders’ quarterback, threw 20 interceptions and isn’t in the Grey Cup game. Calvillo, the Montreal Alouettes’ quarterback, tossed seven picks and is in the big game. . . . Case closed! . . .
Mario Balotelli, a star with soccer’s Manchester United, chose to dump his gal pal Melissa Castagnoli by text message the other day. She just happens to be an Italian model and TV personality. She went on the air and read his texts on TV. . . . Now that is sweet revenge. . . . CFL commish Mark Cohon says attendance was down 4.5 per cent this season. . . . On that same subject, WHL attendance may be headed for a decrease for a third straight season. . . . Were you aware that the Kamloops Blazers’ attendance has decreased every single season since 2001-02? . . . Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, came up with this one: "I'm not sure Brett Favre gets it. The last time he went through airport security he told the TSA guy, 'Nice picture — can you send it to this girl I know?' " . . .
The police in Fargo, N.D., thought it might be a good idea to use North Dakota State football coach Craig Bohl to get a traffic safety message across to the masses. They had planned on having him do a 30-second spot aimed at repeat offenders. But then they discovered he had picked up at least 18 traffic tickets since 2003. As Police Chief Keith Ternes told The Associated Press, the ads aren’t as effective when “"the messenger might be somebody we're trying to reach." . . . Here’s Roughriders linebacker Barrin Simpson, pretty much summing up things: "You have to be in it to win it and we in it." . . . Yes, but have they learned to count? . . . Montreal, by 10.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, follow him at twitter.com/gdrinnan, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.

Blazers gain measure of revenge

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Unlike Sesame Street, Friday night’s WHL game at Interior Savings Centre was not brought to you by the letter ‘A’.
The Kamloops Blazers’ coaching staff, having watched its charges drop a 10-1 decision to the Chiefs in Spokane on Wednesday night, chose to have the team, already without captain Chase Schaber, play without alternate captains in Friday’s rematch at Interior Savings Centre.
School remains out on whether it worked as the Blazers, outplayed for much of the first 45 minutes, got a late goal from forward Dylan Willick to tie the game and then beat the Chiefs 4-3 in a shootout before 3,974 fans.
As goaltender Cam Lanigan stopped Spokane centre Tyler Johnson to end the shootout, the Blazers poured off their bench in celebration, the sense of relief quite palpable in the building.
The victory lifted the Blazers (13-12-1) into a three-way tie for sixth place in the ultra-tight 10-team Western Conference. The Chiefs (12-9-3) and Chilliwack Bruins are tied with Kamloops.
Blazers defencemen Corey Fienhage and Bronson Maschmeyer and forward Jordan DePape wore letters in Spokane on Wednesday. Fienhage, forward Shayne Neigum and defenceman Austin Madaisky had them Tuesday in a 4-3 overtime victory over the visiting Regina Pats.
Schaber, the captain since the season began, completed a three-game WHL-issued suspension last night.
“It’s nothing negative,” head coach Guy Charron said of the decision to strip some of his leadership group of the letters. “It’s a situation where . . . I don’t know how to really explain it. The game we lost in Everett (a 4-2 decision on Nov. 19) we had issues that we had to iron out.
“At this point it doesn’t mean that the players won’t get the letters. It comes with a responsibility. For some of them . . . they have to learn. It’s like with your kids — sometimes you have to reprimand them a little bit to maybe get the message across.
“It’ll all get sorted out at a certain point. But for now we’ve decided that was the thing to do.”
On Radio NL’s postgame show Wednesday night, assistant coach Scott Ferguson made reference to some finger-pointing among players that had taken place during the loss in Spokane.
Charron chose not to go there.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t want it to be negative.”
Madaisky, who scored one of two Blazers’ shootout goals, said the coaching decision didn’t have any impact.
“It’s a roomful of leaders in there,” the third-year defenceman said. “And the guys know who talks sometimes and who doesn’t. We don’t need the other teams or the fans or media to see the A’s on the jerseys. The guys in the room know who the leaders are.
“There are some guys who don’t say anything but they go out on the ice and lead by example. Dylan Willick is a good example of that. He’s a very quiet kid but when he hits the ice . . . he competes hard.”
Willick was his usual gritty self Friday night, zipping and buzzing and blocking shots. He got rewarded at 18:20 of the third period when, with goaltender Cam Lanigan on the bench, he corralled a loose puck off a faceoff in the Spokane zone and beat goaltender Mac Engel to get the Blazers into overtime.
Engel had come on during the second period to replace Spokane starter James Reid, who suffered an injury to his right leg when he got caught up in a bit of traffic. It was Engel’s fifth appearance of the season and third in November.
The shootout was delayed by about 15 minutes due to a problem with one net. Finally, referees Ryan Benbow and Ryan Bonnett decided to let both teams shoot at the same net.
Brendan Ranford beat Engel. Lanigan stopped Spokane forward Blake Gal. Madaisky scored. Then Lanigan stoned Spokane spark plug Tyler Johnson for his 43rd and last save of the game.
“He played very well,” Charron said of Lanigan, who had been lit up for eight goals in Spokane. “He had an excellent game.”
Madaisky was able to unveil his shootout move. He skated straight down the centre of the ice, got to within 15 feet, hesitated, and blasted a shot past Engel’s catching mitt.
“I’ve done that move maybe 10 to 15 times in practice and haven’t missed yet,” a smiling Madaisky said.
Earlier in the game, the Blazers had gotten up 2-0 on a pair of goals by winger Jordan DePape but Johnson got those back, scoring while his side was two men short in the second period and adding a power-play goal early in the third.
Spokane defenceman Jared Cowen gave his side a 3-2 lead by finishing off a 3-on-2 with Johnson and Levko Koper at 5:51 of the third.
The Blazers held a 7-5 edge in first-period shots but were outshot 17-7 in the second as Spokane took over.
Madaisky, like many of his teammates, struggled early in what was their third game in four nights.
“I don’t know what was going on,” Madaisky said, adding that he got great support from partner Tyler Hansen, who “I thought had a great game . . . if it wasn’t for him I may not have seen any ice in the third period.”
Madaisky took four minor penalties and was in the penalty box when Johnson scored Spokane's tying goal.
“After you take eight minutes in penalties,” Madaisky admitted, “it goes to your head and you start thinking you can’t do anything out there. It got to the point where I was thinking I couldn’t touch anybody. I have to thank (Ferguson) . . . he stuck with me.”
Madaisky and his teammates picked it up in the third period, though, especially in the back half and it paid off.
“I sensed some fatigue tonight,” Charron said. “This was our fifth game in eight nights and it’ll be six in nine (tonight). . . . We kept plugging away.”
The Blazers are back at it tonight, this time against the visiting Prince George Cougars.
JUST NOTES: Referees Ryan Benbow and Ryan Bonnett gave the Blazers six of 10 minors and one of two majors. . . . Ranford was credited with two assists after the game, giving him three on the night. He has 41 points, one off the WHL lead. . . . Kamloops F Dalibor Bortnak missed the last five minutes of the first period and the early part of the second after blocking a Cowen shot with his left knee. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Willick: Nothing but hard work, this time with a goal; 2. Johnson: Veteran loves this building; 3. Lanigan: Kept his guys in it and won it in the shootout. . . . After tonight, the Blazers don’t play until Friday when they meet the visiting Saskatoon Blades. 
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

Robert MacLeod of The Globe and Mail interviewed OHL vice-president Ted Baker about that league’s move to get rid of what it calls staged, or premeditated fights. That piece is right here.
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The WHL, of course, moved prior to the 2008-09 season to get rid of such fights. However, I don’t know that the WHL had the same problem that OHL commissioner David Branch has indicated his league has had -- players hooking up on Facebook and setting up fights.
Here’s a chunk of what Branch said during an appearance on Prime Time Sports on Toronto‘s FAN 590 (thanks to Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports):
"What the new rule is to address (is) those situations we feel, certainly at our level, have crept in at the start of the game or the start of the period, but particularly at the start of the game.
"The puck hits the ice, two players drop their gloves and go at it . . . you could reasonably suggest it's been premeditated and arrangements were made.
"I know through some focus groups we had with some of our players on social networking . . . that is one of the things that has been happening, where players have been, you know, prearranging what might occur in the way . . . of physical interaction for the next time they meet.
"We're addressing that and hope (the rule) will serve to remove it."
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Is the WHL, along with the two other major junior leagues, going to have to spend some serious time thinking about and discussing the role of fighting in its game?
While it may not be politically correct to stand up and say fighting belongs in hockey, does the WHL need to take a look at fighting’s role in relation to attendance?
If you tour around the Internet, you will have noticed that people are starting to talk about the WHL and its attendance figures. For starters, people are using figures that are available right here.
You can read whatever you want into those figures, but one thing can’t be denied. League-wide attendance figures are down for a third consecutive season.
After games of Tuesday, attendance is down 17 fans per game, or 0.41 per cent. Those figures have nine teams down and a dozen showing an increase. The Medicine Hat Tigers are the other team; they sell 4,006 tickets per game and have for a number of seasons now.
It’s worth noting that six of the teams showing an increase are up less than five per cent. It is, then, a fine-edged sword.
Last season, league-wide attendance was down 277 fans per game (5.97 per cent); it was down 79 fans (1.67) in 2008-09.
Does the WHL’s stand against some but not all fighting have any bearing on those figures?
If you watched the video of the dustup between the Kamloops Blazers and the Winterhawks in Portland on Saturday night, you know that the fans loved it. If you missed it, the incident took place following the buzzer to end the second period, and the crowd noise gains momentum as the people in the seats come to realize what is happening on the ice.
It is safe to say that no one left the building.
It also is safe to say that this altercation was a one or a two on a scale of 1-10 when compared with the bench-clearing brawls of yesteryear.
One WHL team official suggested Thursday that he thought there was some over-reaction -- the WHL handed out $6,000 in fines (all of which were mandated by league rules) and 15 games in suspensions -- because, in his words, “there really was only one fight.”
As of late Thursday night, the video had been viewed 5,658 times on YouTube.
But, then again, if fighting really does draw fans, what’s the problem in Kamloops?
The Blazers lead the WHL in penalty minutes and in fighting majors -- and their roster includes LW Brendan Ranford, who leads the league in goals.
Through 12 home dates, attendance is down 299 fans per game. In fact, attendance in Kamloops appears headed down for a ninth consecutive season. In 2002-03, the Blazers averaged 5,373 fans, up 34 from the previous season. This season, the Blazers’ average attendance is 4,019.
Last season, the Prince George Cougars led the WHL in fighting majors. And we all know what’s going on with attendance there.
So maybe that theory is full of holes, too.
Maybe there is no definitive answer.
In order to fill its arena, perhaps a team needs a perfect storm -- a good, hard-working team, some toughness, some marketing and a whole lot of word of mouth.
But its all fodder for discussion, isn’t it?
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The Prince Albert Raiders have dealt D Emerson Hrynyk, 18, to the Chilliwack Bruins for G Cole Holowenko, 17, who is with BCHL’s Westside Warriors.
A shoulder injury limited Hrynyk to eight games this season, although he was a healthy scratch for a 3-2 victory over the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday. From Okanagan Falls, B.C., he had six points in 50 games with the Raiders. He joins a Bruins team that has a couple of defencemen on the limp. Zach Habscheid (knee) is week-to-week; Jesse Pauls (broken leg) is out indefinitely.
Holowenko was a second-round selection by the Bruins in the 2008 bantam draft. He will stay in Westside, as the Raiders continue to go with veteran Jamie Tucker and freshman Eric Williams.
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D Kyle Aschim, 20, has joined the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Aschim (Prince Albert, Calgary, 2006-10) was plagued by shoulder problems last season with the Hitmen and had offseason surgery. Although he has been with Victoria for about a month, he played his first game with the Grizzlies on Thursday as they fell 4-3 to the host Surrey Eagels. . . . The rumours are out there again. Yes, the ones connecting the WHL to Victoria or Victoria to the WHL. The WHL has meetings coming up in January so it is no surprise that these rumours are making the rounds again. . . . People within the WHL have long said that the only way the league considers going back to Vancouver Island is if there are two teams there. And that won’t happen until a city other than Victoria builds a WHL-calibre arena. . . . If there was such a facility in Nanaimo, chances are the WHL would be looking at going back. . . . Victoria, which is home to the ECHL’s Salmon Kings, last had a WHL team for the 1993-94 season. The franchise moved to Prince George over the summer of 1993. . . . If you were wondering, the WHL’s Christmas trade moratorium runs from Dec. 15 through Dec. 27. . . . Hockey Canada will issue invitations to its national junior team’s selection camp on Monday. Gotta wonder if they are RSVP? . . .
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Years ago, when he covered the WHL’s Winnipeg Clubs and Monarchs, he was Pat Doyle, a sports writer with the Winnipeg Tribune. He later wrote for the Toronto Sun and Winnipeg Sun. Today, he is Patti Dawn Swansson. Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun has that story right here.
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The OHL’s Guelph Storm have shuffled the deck, at least a little bit. Mike Kelly is the team’s new vice-president and general manager, replacing Jason Brooks, who stays on as head coach. . . . The Storm is 10-9-3, good for fourth in the Midwest Division. . . . Kelly is a flash from the past -- he was the Storm’s GM for six seasons a while ago. . . . Kelly was helping run an Italian league team from North America and also was a part-time scout for the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes when he chose to return to the Storm. . . . This Mike Kelly is not to be confused with Mike Kelly, who is the director of hockey operations and associate coach with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs and who once coached the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . But you have to wonder how much of their mail gets mixed up?

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

Saip waiting for move

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Linden Saip, not that long ago a defenceman with the Kamloops Blazers, is at home, waiting for the phone to ring.
Craig Bonner, the WHL team’s general manager, is on the road, waiting for the phone to ring.
Saip, a 19-year-old defenceman from Delta, left the Blazers on Nov. 1. At the time, he said he felt it was “time to move on . . . I just kind of feel my role here is diminishing.”
On Thursday afternoon, Saip said he hasn’t had any second thoughts.
“No,” he reiterated. “My time was done there.”
These days, Saip, who was in his third season with the Blazers, is at home, “skating a bit” and working out in a home gym.
“I’m waiting for the release thing to happen,” Saip said Thursday afternoon.
His junior A rights are held by the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles, but, when asked about going that route, Saip said: “I haven’t quite decided yet. We’ll see what happens then I’ll lay my options out.”
He did admit to having “heard from BCHL and WHL teams.”
Saip also admitted that he wants to play again.
“Yeah . . . I’m hoping that it gets straightened out,” he said. “I am anxious to get back.”
Bonner, meanwhile, is in Saskatchewan, getting a look at some East Division teams and some Blazers’ prospects. He spent Wednesday in Prince Albert watching the Raiders beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 3-2, and was in Regina yesterday.
Bonner said he has had WHL teams ask about Saip, but added “I’m waiting on him to want to continue to play in the Western league.”
“I contacted the family last week,” Bonner continued, “and just said, ‘Let me know . . . there are teams interested. When you want to play in the Western league, let me know.’
“It’s up to him. I’ve got teams interested. Once he says, ‘Yeah,’ we’ll go from there.”
Bonner said he has heard from “quite a few teams,” but that it hasn’t moved past the inquiry stage.
“I haven’t really gotten into price,” he stated. “I have an idea in my head but I didn’t want to start getting into it and then have him say he didn’t want to play.”
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Saip had seven points, three of them goals, and 28 penalty minutes in 13 games with the Blazers this season.
p p p
The Blazers are back at it tonight against the visiting Spokane Chiefs. This will be the Blazers’ third game in four nights, and they are at home again Saturday when the Prince George Cougars come calling.
Kamloops opened the week Tuesday with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Regina Pats at Interior Savings Centre. The Blazers left for Spokane immediately afterwards, and got spanked 10-1 by the Chiefs on Wednesday.
While the Blazers welcomed back left-winger Brendan Ranford in Spokane, they remain without forwards Chase Schaber and JC Lipon. Schaber will complete his three-game suspension tonight, while Lipon also will sit on Saturday. All three were suspended by the WHL following a melee after the second period of a 6-4 loss to the Winterhawks in Portland on Saturday.
Forward Aspen Sterzer, 16, was brought in from the EDGE Academy in Calgary and has played two games. He is expected to play again tonight.
Veteran goaltender Jeff Bosch, who was believed to have suffered a concussion during a fight in Portland, will return from a two-game absence tonight, but it wasn’t know last night whether he will start or back up Cam Lanigan, who gave up eight goals in Spokane.
Troy Trombley, 16, came in from the midget AAA Fort Saskatchewan Rangers and backed up the last two games. He made his WHL debut in Spokane, allowing two goals on nine shots in 14 minutes.
p p p
JUST NOTES: Game time tonight and Saturday is 7 o’clock. . . . Blazers F Dylan Willick, 18, and F Colin Smith, 17, have won academic awards and will be saluted prior to Saturday‘s game. Willick, from Prince George, is completing English 110 at TRU. Smith, from Edmonton, is a full-time student at Valleyview Secondary, where he is taking Chemistry 12, English 12, Foods and Nutrition 11, and Peer Helping 12. . . . After playing the Cougars, the Blazers will be off until Dec. 3 when they meet the Saskatoon Blades at ISC.
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SCOUTING REPORT
Spokane Chiefs (12-9-2)
at Kamloops Blazers (12-12-1)
Today, 7 p.m., Interior Savings Centre

Key injuries: Kamloops -- D Josh Caron (collarbone, out), G Jeff Bosch (concussion, probable). Spokane -- D Garrett Leedahl (concussion, out), F Dominik Uher (shoulder, out).
Overview: The Blazers, 5-5-0 in their last 10, are tied for last place in the 10-team Western Conference, but are only four points out of second. . . . The Chiefs, 6-2-2 in their last 10, are tied for fifth, one point ahead of Kamloops. . . Spokane is 2-0 against the Blazers, having won 10-1 at home on Wednesday and 4-3 in a shootout here on Oct. 6. . . . Chiefs D Jared Cowen scored three times in the rout, doubling his season total to six. . . . Kamloops LW Brendan Ranford leads the WHL with 22 goals. He has 16 points, including nine goals, in his last seven games. . . . Kamloops will be without C Chase Schaber and RW JC Lipon, both of whom are serving WHL suspensions. . . . The Blazers lead the WHL in penalty minutes (643) and fighting majors (47). The Chilliwack Bruins, in two fewer games, have 581 penalty minutes and 37 fights. . . . F Darren Kramer, who joined the Chiefs on Oct. 6 from the AJHL’s Grande Prairie Storm, leads the WHL in fighting majors, with 14 in 18 games. F Ryan Hanes of the Blazers is tied for third, with nine. The two fought Wednesday in Spokane. . . . The Blazers have the WHL’s poorest penalty killing, at 71.9 per cent, while the Chiefs are fourth (85.7).

 

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca

     

gdrinnan.blogspot.com

     

Taking Note on Twitter

Recchi reaches milestone

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Mark Recchi has moved into even more elite NHL company.
Recchi, one of Kamloops’ favourite native sons, scored two third-period goals Wednesday night, reaching the 1,500-point career mark as his Boston Bruins scored a 3-1 victory over the host Florida Panthers.
One of five owners of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, Recchi is the 13th player in NHL history to reach 1,500 points.
Paul Coffey, a Hall-of-Fame defenceman, is 12th on the all-time list, with 1,531 points.
“It was a big goal . . . it gave us a two-goal cushion,” Recchi told Nadko Funayama, NESN-TV’s rinkside reporter. “It’s nice to get it in a big win.”
It should come as no surprise that Recchi was quick to pass along some of the credit.
“My teammates are unbelievable,” said Recchi, who will turn 43 on Feb. 1. “They support me along the way. Obviously, you can’t do it without them. It’s been a long career and it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Boston head coach Claude Julien told Funayama: “It’s quite a milestone.”
Julien said that in congratulating Recchi he told the NHL’s oldest active player “I’m glad all these things are happening with our team.”
Recchi, who in 2000 was named Kamloops’ male athlete of the 20th century, played his first NHL game with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988-89. They had selected him in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL draft. He also has played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning. He has won Stanley Cups with the Penguins (1991) and Hurricanes (2006).
Recchi now has scored 567 goals, good for 20th on the all-time list. Mike Bossy, the former New York Islanders sniper, is next, at 573. Recchi is 15th in assists, with 933, one in arrears of former defenceman Al MacInnis. Also within reach are Jaromir Jagr (953) and Doug Gilmour (964).
Recchi has played in 1,591 regular-season NHL games, good for ninth place on the all-time list. If he stays healthy this season, he has a chance to move past Ray Bourque (1,612), Larry Murphy (1,615), Scott Stevens (1,635) and Dave Andreychuk (1,639), which would leave him fifth.
Recchi, who will turn 43 on Feb. 1, now has 15 points, including four goals, in 20 games. He has scored three times in his last five games, including two game-winners.
Last night, Recchi broke a 1-1 tie at 2:54 of the third period, taking a pass from David Krejci after some solid forechecking by Jordan Caron and beating Florida goaltender Tomas Vokoun. With the Bruins enjoying a two-man advantage, Recchi added insurance at 16:00, banging in a short rebound from just off the right post.
Recchi played 13 minutes 39 seconds over 17 shifts. He had four shots on goal and was plus-1 as the Bruins won for the eighth time in 10 road games. They were beaten 3-1 by the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.
The Bruins (12-6-2) are one point behind the Northeast Division-leading Montreal Canadiens.
The Bruins next play Friday afternoon when they are at home to the Carolina Hurricanes. After hitting the road to play the Atlanta Thrashers on Sunday and the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, the Flyers will be at home to Tampa Bay on Dec. 2. Then the Bruins will travel to Toronto for a Dec. 4 clash with the Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada.

 

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca

     

gdrinnan.blogspot.com

     

Taking Note on Twitter

Derrick Pouliot of the Portland Winterhawks
in one of the club's third jerseys.
(Photo courtesy Bryan Heim/Portland Winterhawks)

’Tis the season. No, not for that. For third jerseys.
And the Portland Winterhawks are the latest WHL team to enter the fray.
The Winterhawks unveiled their third jerseys Wednesday night and went on to score a 4-2 victory over the Everett Silvertips before 7,444 fans at the Rose Garden.
The jersey in the photo above is that third jersey.
It’s different, as third jerseys should be. And the more I look at it, the more it grows on me.
Earlier, the Saskatoon Blades unveiled the denim look -- the Canadian tuxedo -- and got a whole bunch of publicity and reaction throughout the hockey world.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes, Brandon Wheat Kings, Kamloops Blazers, Chilliwack Bruins . . . everyone is getting in on the act.
And while they should.
With attendance figures falling like snowflakes in some communities, teams are having to pull out all stops in trying to lure fans into their buildings. And once they get them there, they have to put on an entertaining show in the hopes of turning them into regular customers.
The Winterhawks, for one team, are hard at work and seem to be on the right track.
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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Radek Duda (Regina, Lethbridge, 1998-2000) has been assigned on loan by Chomutov (Czech Republic 1.Liga) to Plzen (Czech Republic Extraliga) for the rest of this season. He had 23 goals and 37 assists in 44 games for Chomutov last season and has one goal in two games with Plzen this season. . . .
D David Turon (Portland, 2002-03) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Lausitzer Fuchse Weisswasser (Germany 2.Bundesliga) after terminating his contract with Dukla Trencin (Slovakia Extraliga). He had two goals and one assist in 25 games with Dukla this season. . . .
F Troy Ofukany (Kelowna, Regina, Red Deer, 2004-08) signed a tryout contract with the Luleå Rebels (Sweden Division 1). He had eight goals and five assists in 49 games with the Wichita Thunder and Odessa Jackalopes (both Central Hockey League) last season.
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The OHL has had it with staged fighting and has moved to bring an end to it, starting with games of Friday.
From an OHL press release:
“The Ontario Hockey League today announced a new playing rule that will come
into effect with the commencement of games on Friday, November 26, 2010.
“The new rule is: ‘If two or more players should enter into a fight prior
to, or at the drop of the puck at the commencement of any period of a game,
then such player(s) shall be assessed an automatic game misconduct. In
addition to any penalties assessed, the OHL Member Team shall be fined
$500.00 and the player(s) suspended for one (1) game. For any subsequent
offence by the same team, the fine shall increase in $500.00 increments, and
for any subsequent offence by the same player the minimum suspension would
double from the previous occurrence.’ ”
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In case you have forgotten, the AJHL is staging an outdoor game Friday in Fort McMurray with the Oil Barons playing host to the Drayton Valley Thunder. The AJHL’s single-game attendance record apparently is 4,400. The outdoor game is expected to draw 5,000 or more fans.
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Here is a Thanksgiving Day story for you that involves Mandi Schwartz and her family. It’s a must read on this particular day.
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Some Wednesday highlights:
For starters, the 10-team Western Conference got put in the mixing bowl and tossed around like so much salad . . . again.
What a horse race this is going to be.
The Kamloops Blazers beat the visiting Regina Pats on Tuesday night and vacated the cellar. The Blazers lost to the Chiefs in Spokane last night and fell back into the basement.
But, as incredible as this may sound, the Blazers are four points out of second place.
The Portland Winterhawks won again and now hold a 14-point lead over the second-place Vancouver Giants.
The Giants have 29 points and are just one point ahead of the Tri-City Americans. The Seattle Thunderbirds are a point behind the Ams. The Chiefs, Kelowna Rockets, Prince George Cougars and Everett Silvertips are one point behind Seattle.
The Chilliwack Bruins and Kamloops are tied for last, one point that group of four.
Amazing!
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In Prince Albert, the Raiders scored three times in the third period and beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 3-2. . . . F Brandon Herrod, with his ninth, broke a 2-2 tie at 17:08 of the third period. . . . F Todd Fiddler had a goal, his sixth, and an assist for the Raiders, as did F Jonathan Parker, who got his 15^th goal. . . . D Antoine Corbin had two assists for the Raiders. He has played four games since coming over from the Kelowna Rockets and has three two-point games. . . . Raiders G Eric Williams stopped 34 shots. . . . Attendance was 1,893. . . .
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In Swift Current, F Killian Hutt scored his ninth goal on a PP at 4:28 of OT to give the Broncos a 3-2 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . Brandon D Ryan Pulock forced OT with his second goal of the season at 7:05 of the third on the PP. . . . F Scott Glennie had two assists for Brandon. . . . F Adam Lowry had a goal and an assist for the Broncos, while D Kyle Verdino had two assists. . . . Broncos G Mark Friesen stopped 34 shots. . . .
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In Edmonton, F Dylan Wruck broke a 3-3 tie with a PP goal at 13:32 of the third period as the Oil Kings edged the Calgary Hitmen, 4-3. . . . Calgary had won the last 16 games between these teams, including four in the playoffs. . . . Since entering the league, the Oil Kings are 4-18-0 versus the Hitmen. . . . Wruck has 10 goals this season. . . . F Michael St. Croix drew three assists for Edmonton. . . . F Trevor Cheek had two assists for the Hitmen. . . . Calgary scored all three of its goals on the PP as it erased a 2-0 deficit. . . . F Kristians Pelss, with his second goal of the season, pulled Edmonton even at 7:16 of the third period. Pelss, 18, will play for his native Latvia at the Division 1A U-20 world junior championship in Bobruisk, Belarus, Dec. 13-19. . . . Edmonton G Jon Groenheyde stopped 32 shots. . . .
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In Lethbridge, the Hurricanes got three shootout goals and beat the Red Deer Rebels, 5-4. . . . F Cam Braes had two goals for Lethbridge and F Mitch Maxwell drew three assists. . . . D Alex Petrovic and F Dalton Siwak each had a goal and an assist for Red Deer. . . . Siwak forced OT with his seventh goal at 15:08 of the third. . . . F Mark Reners, F Jacob Berglund and F Austin Fyten scored for the home team in the shootout, while only F Byron Froese was able to counter for Red Deer. . . .
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In Kelowna, F Geordie Wudrick scored three times to lead the Rockets to a 6-1 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . The Rockets scored three goals in the game’s last minute, the first into an empty net. . . . Kelowna D Tyson Barrie had two assists. . . . Barrie became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer among defencemen last weekend. He now has 190 points, including 146 assists, in 219 regular-season games. The previous record (186 points) was held by Burt Henderson, who played with the Rockets from 1993-96. That included two seasons in Tacoma. . . . The Rockets, who were 4-10-0 not that long ago, now are 13-11-0, meaning they have won nine of their last outings. . . . Wudrick, who played his 300^th game last weekend in Prince George, has 10 goals in 23 games this season. It was his second hat trick of this season and the third of his career. . . . He got his third goal at 19:59 of the third period. . . . Kelowna G Adam Brown stopped 32 shots. . . . Regina F Thomas Frazee had a nine-game point streak end. . . . Kelowna F Max Adolph (concussion) returned to the lineup after a nine-game absence. . . . Rockets F Andreas Stene will play for Norway at the World Junior tournament in Buffalo, Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. He has six points in 18 games with Kelowna. . . . F Gal Koren of the Rockets will play for Slovenia in the U-20 Division 1, Group B championship in Bled, Slovenia, Dec. 12-18. Gal, who has been out with a concussion, is pointless in nine WHL games. . . .
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In Chilliwack, G James Priestner stopped 28 shots to lead the Prince George Cougars to a 4-0 victory over the Bruins. . . . It was the first of eight scheduled meetings between these teams this season. . . . The Bruins, who are 2-3-4 over their last nine games, are three games into a six-game homestand. . . . It was Priestner’s first shutout this season and the third of his career. It was his first shutout since March 8, 2008, when, while with the Kamloops Blazers, he beat the Cougars 1-0 in Prince George. . . . F Brett Connolly had two assists for Prince George. . . . Attendance was 2,267. . . . The Bruins had F Robin Soudek back in the lineup for the first time since Nov. 11 when he was hit from behind by Vancouver Giants D Wes Vannieuwenhuizen, who drew a seven-game suspension. . . . . “I've seen it a few times, and I think the hit was probably partly my fault because I turned my back to him,” Soudek told Eric Welsh of the Chilliwack Progress. “As soon as I hit the boards, everything in my neck cracked and I was just happy I was able to move my fingers and toes. But they did the X-rays and everything was OK. The concussion was the worst, because some days you feel pretty good and think it might be gone. And the next day you've got symptoms back. It's not a fun time.” . . .
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In Portland, the Winterhawks got two goals and an assist from F Oliver Gabriel as they beat the Everett Silvertips, 4-2. . . . The Winterhawks are 21-4-1 and that’s the WHL’s best record. . . . Attendance in the Rose Garden was 7,444. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth stopped 22 shots, 12 fewer than Everett’s Kent Simpson. . . . The Silvertips remain without F Landon Ferraro (concussion). . . .
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In Spokane, D Jared Cowen scored three times as the Chiefs spanked the Kamloops Blazers, 10-1. . . . The teams meet again Friday in Kamloops. . . . Cowen, who was playing in his 201^st regular-season game, enjoyed his first three-goal game. . . . He has six goals this season and 25 for his career. . . . F Tyler Johnson, F Steven Kuhn, F Anthony Bardaro and F Matt Marantz each had a goal and two assists for the Chiefs, while F Brady Brassart and F Levko Koper each had two assists. . . . F Brendan Ranford scored for the Blazers, giving him a WHL-leading 22 goals. . . . The Chiefs scored four times in the first period and six times in the third. . . . This was the worst beating absorbed by the Blazers since Jan. 17, 1997, when they lost 12-1 to the Winterhawks in Portland. . . . The last time the Blazers surrendered at least 10 goals in a game was Oct. 12, 2009, when they were beaten 12-5 by the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . In their last two visits to Spokane, the Blazers have been outscored, 17-1. The Chiefs beat them 7-0 on Feb. 17. . . .
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In Kent, Wash., F Adam Hughesman scored the lone goal of the shootout as the Tri-City Americans beat the host Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-4. . . . The Americans, who came in having lost six of seven, trailed 3-0 at 12:31 of the second period and 4-2 late in the third. . . . F Kruise Reddick, at 17:23, and F Jordan Messier, 18:01, scored for the Americans to force OT. . . . F Neal Prokop, who suffered a badly broken leg in the first round of the playoffs last spring, returned to the Americans’ lineup. Tri-City dressed Prokop, Reddick and D Zak Stebner as its 20-year-olds, choosing to sit D Tyler Schmidt. The Americans have 14 days to declare three 20-year-olds. . . . Prokop had one assist, setting up Messier’s tying goal. . . . Hughesman had two assists in regulation time, while F Brendan Shinnimin had a goal and an assist. . . . Seattle got two goals from F Colin Jacobs and two assists from F Tyler Alos. . . . Talk about busy goaltenders! Drew Owsley of the Americans stopped 42 shots, while Seattle’s Calvin Pickard turned aside 55. . . . Attendance was 2,639. . . . From the Americans’ Dan Mulhausen: “Owsley matched his season-high with 42 saves in collecting his 50th WHL win. Meanwhile, Pickard faced 50-plus shots for the fourth time in his career, finishing with 55 saves in the tough luck loss. Three of the four times he has faced 50 or more shots in a game have come against Tri-City, including a career-best 57-save shutout on Oct. 2, 2009.”
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WEDNESDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Two minors:
Seattle F Travis Toomey
Seattle F Brenden Dillon

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