D Dwayne Newman (Brandon, Victoria Cougars, 1987-92) signed a one-year contract with the Chelmsford Chieftans (England National League). He had one goal and 10 assists in 54 games with the Peterborough Phantoms (England Premier League) this season. Chieftains head coach Garry Clarke already has named Newman team captain for next season, his 16th season in England.
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ON THE ICE TUESDAY:
 |
| JOE ANTILLA |
In Cranbrook, F Joe Antilla scored at 6:12 of OT to give the host Kootenay Ice a 3-2 victory over the Portland Winterhawks. . . . The Ice holds a 2-1 lead in the WHL final, with Game 4 in Cranbrook tonight. . . . Game 5 will be played Friday in Portland. . . . Antilla, who had 21 goals in 72 regular-season games, has nine goals in 17 games in these playoffs. Antilla scored the winner from the left faceoff circle. Antilla turned 20 on Jan. 17. He is from Madeira Park, B.C. . . . F Kevin King gave the Ice a 1-0 lead at 17:53 of the first period, with his fourth goal of the series. . . . The Winterhawks replied 61 seconds later when F Ty Rattie scored. . . . The Winterhawks took the lead at 3:54 of the third when F Sven Bartschi scored his 10th goal of the playoffs and fifth of this series. He is on a 
five-game goal-scoring streak. . . . Ice F Drew Czerwonka forced OT with his second goal of these playoffs at 13:58. . . . Ice G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 34 shots, four fewer than Portland’s Mac Carruth. . . . The Ice was 0-for-3 on the PP; the Winterhawks were 0-for-1. . . . Referees were Devin Klein and Nathan Wieler. . . . Ice D James Martin is perhaps looking at a suspension after taking a charging major and game misconduct for a hit on Portland D Troy Rutkowski at 14:16 of the third. . . . Portland F Ryan Johansen took a roughing minor at the same time. In the end, the Winterhawks weren’t able to do anything on the three-minute power play. . . . Attendance was 3,402. . . . The Winterhawks played without two suspended players. F Tayler Jordan has served his one-game sentence and will return for Game 4. F Brad Ross remains under a ‘tbd’ suspension. . . . Ice F Matt Fraser, who was helped off the ice and appeared unable to put weight on his left leg after the collision with Ross, was back in the lineup for Game 3. . . . After the game, Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch compared the hit by Martin on Rutkowski to a hit by Portland F Riley Boychuk on Ice D Hayden Rintoul in Game 2. That hit drew an elbowing major and game misconduct, but no suspension.———
From the WHL school of marketing . . .
For US$25, you can get your Hockey’s Most Wanted t-shirt from the Portland Winterhawks. Yes, each t-shirt features a ‘wanted poster’ on which are mug shots of F Brad Ross, F Tayler Jordan and F Riley Boychuk. Ross and Jordan missed Game 3 of the WHL final with suspensions, while Boychuk escaped suspension after being hit with an elbowing major and game misconduct in Game 2. . . . Hey, at least they didn't use mugshots of referees!If you’re interested, you are able to order a shirt right here.
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In the OHL, the host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors dropped the Owen Sound Attack 7-3 to take a 3-2 lead in the championship final. . . . They’ll play Game 6 in Owen Sound on Thursday.
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F Sven Bartschi of the Portland Winterhawks is the CHL’s player of the week. He had seven points, including five goals, in three games last week. . . . The Winterhawks have signed G Jarrod Schamerhorn, who played this season with the major midget Kootenay Ice. Schamerhorn, a 16-year-old from Kelowna, attended the Winterhawks’ training camp prior to this season and was then added to their list. He has worked with Portland goaltending coach Tyler Love for a while now. The 6-foot-1, 183-pound Schamerhorn was 4-14-3 with a 4.69 GAA for an Ice team that finished 8-25-7. . . . The Swift Current Broncos have released F Brandon Bruce and D Ryan Aasman. . . . Bruce, from Cranbrook, had one assist and four penalty minutes in 34 games. He’ll turn 18 on May 28. . . . Aasman, from Medicine Hat, was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds early in the season. He had two assists and four penalty minutes in 33 games with the Broncos. The Prince Albert Raiders selected Aasman with the eighth ovreall pick in the 2007 bantam draft. In 161 regular-season games, Aasman, 19, has one goal and 11 assists.———
THE COACHING GAME: The OHL’s Sarnia Sting has named Jacques Beaulieu as its new general manager and head coach. He was GM/head coach of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs (2006-09) and, according to a Sting news release, “was responsible for drafting or trading for 12 players on the current Sea Dogs roster.” The Sea Dogs were the CHL’s top-ranked team for much of the season and now are in the QMJHL’s final. Beaulieu spent the last two seasons as an associate coach with the OHL’s London Knights. . . . The Kamloops-based Thompson Rivers University WolPack is looking for a head coach following the resignation of Lorne Cumming. The WolfPack won the B.C. Intercollegiate league’s regular-season title with a 19-4-1 record and reached the championship final, where it lost to Simon Fraser University. Cumming was honoured as the BCIHL’s coach of the year.———
In case you missed this, I lifted it off Alan Caldwell’s blog (Small Thoughts At Large — the link is over there on the right). He put this together after the bantam draft last week. It has to do with birth months and this, I think, is one of the more intriguing stories in the world of sports today. After you check it out, go and find a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, and enjoy the essay on the subject of the relationship between success and birth dates.
From Small Thoughts At Large:
One more stat category I missed in that review of the draft picks (below): what month were the most players born in? I think we already know the answer to this, but here's the math:
232 players picked. Of those, the numbers by birth month:
January: 41 (17.7%)
February: 36 (15.5%)
March: 32 (13.8%)
April: 34 (14.7%)
May: 25 (10.8%)
June: 13 (5.6%)
July: 13 (5.6%)
August: 14 (6.0%)
September: 5 (2.2%)
October: 10 (4.3%)
November: 4 (1.7%)
December: 5 (2.2%)
Overall, 62% of draft picks were born in the first four months (33%) of 1996. Assuming that births of baby boys were evenly spread over the 12 months of the year, you can see what a disadvantage the boys born in the last third of the year (10.3% of picks) had against the bigger, older boys from the early months.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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