Taking Note

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Jason Beckett (Seattle, 1997-2000) signed a one-year contract with Kallinge/Ronneby (Sweden, Division 1). He had one goal and five assists in 39 games with Jesenice (Slovenia, Austria Erste Bank Liga) last season. Beckett was introduced to the local media Friday and is expected to be in the lineup for Sunday's game. . . .
F Codey Burki (Brandon, 2002-07) has been assigned on loan by Lugano (Switzerland, NL A) to La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland, NL B). He had seven goals and five assists in four games on loan to Thurgau (Switzerland, NL B) last season. The loan agreement is on a game-by-game basis. Lugano says that Burki is awaiting Swiss citizenship. . . .
F Marek Curilla (Kootenay, Medicine Hat, 2005-06) has been assigned on loan by Slovan Ustecti Lvi (Czech Republic, 1.Liga) to Zvolen (Slovakia, Extraliga) until Oct. 31. He had 15 goals and 11
assists in 40 games for Slovan last season and was pointless in three games thus far this season. . . .
G Ville Kolppanen (Lethbridge, 2009-10) has signed a two-year contract extension with Ilves Tampere (Finland, SM-Liiga). He was recalled from loan to LeKi Lempäälä (Finland, Mestis), and assigned on loan to Snezhnye Barsy Astana (Kazakhstan, Russia MHL, the top Russian junior league) until the end of January. He had allowed two goal in two games with a .969 save percentage for LeKi this season. Last season, Kolppanen had a 2.89 GAA and a .903 save percentage in 19 games for Ilves A-Juniors (Finland, A-Junior SM-Liiga). The contract extension runs through the 2013-14 season.
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There are a lot of great people in hockey and Glen Hanlon, the Vancouver Giants’ assistant coach, is one of them.
So it was great to chat with him before the Giants game in Kamloops on Friday night.
He also is one of hockey’s great story tellers.
He said he got quite a chuckle one day when a Giants player asked him if he had gone to the NHL draft when he was eligible to be selected.
“Yeah,” Hanlon said. “I went to the Brandon Sun and spent the draft hunched over the teletype machine watching for my name.”
He didn’t have to wait too long. He was selected in the third round, 40th overall of the NHL’s 1977 draft. He also was a third-round pick in the WHA draft, taken 30th overall, by the Houston Aeros.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers got three goals from F Emerson Etem on Friday as they beat the Oil Kings 5-3 in Edmonton. It was the fourth time in his career that Etem has scored at least three goals in a game. However, it was the first time he has done it since his freshman season. That season, he scored 37 times, including two-three-goal games and a four-goal effort. Last season, Etem struck for 45 goals but never scored more than two goals in a game, something he did on 10 occasions. Etem now has 149 points, including 86 goals, in 139 career regular-season games. . . . The Oil Kings drew 7,273 fans to their home-opener. . . .
F Max Reinhart had two goals and two assists to lead the host Kootenay Ice to a 5-2 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . It was Regina’s first loss in four games this season. The Pats hadn’t started 3-0 since 1984-85. . . . It was the fifth time Reinhart has had at least four points in a game. Last season, he enjoyed a five-point outing and two four-point games. . . . Regina got a shorthanded goal from D Brandon Underwood, who now has two scores in four games this season. He went into the season with two career goals in 149 regular-season games with the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Ice also got a goal and two helpers from F Dylen McKinlay, an offseason acquisition from the Victoria Royals. . . .
Morgan Rielly, one of the WHL’s bumper crop of defencemen, helped the Warriors to a 6-5 shootout victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. The Warriors trailed 5-3 when Rielly scored at 16:50 of the third period and then drew the lone assist on a PP goal by F Sebastian Svendsen at 19:14. Rielly then scored the shootout goal that ended the game. . . . F Brandon Herrod had two goals and two assists for the Raiders. It was the second four-point night of his career, the first since 2009-10. . . . Attendance in Moose Jaw was 3,545. . . .
In Prince George, G Keith Hamilton stopped 48 shots through overtime as the Victoria Royals went on to a 5-4 shootout victory over the Cougars. . . . Neither of Prince George’s two shootout participants was able to beat Hamilton, who also came out the winner on a second-period penalty shot by F Tayler Thompson. . . . Attendance in Prince George was 4,530. . . . On Sept. 24, Hamilton made 48 saves as the Royals beat the visiting Vancouver Giants, 4-3. . . . The Royals acquired Hamilton, a 19-year-old from Kelowna, from the Portland Winterhawks over the summer. . . .
The Swift Current Broncos won for the first time in four games, beating the Wheat Kings 5-4 in a shootout. . . . That left the Broncos at 1-2-1. . . . Brandon now is 0-2 at home. . . . The Broncos, who were without F Dillon Wagner (knee), lost F Andy Blanke, who left after a first-period scrap with Brandon F Michael Ferland. . . . Brandon had F Brenden Walker in the lineup for the first time since he suffered an concussion in a playoff game against the Medicine Hat Tigers last spring. . . .
In Portland, G Ty Rimmer improved to 2-0 as the Tri-City Americans beat the Winterhawks, 4-1. Rimmer stopped 32 shots as the Americans moved to 3-0 for the second straight season. . . . Tri-City meets the Chiefs in Spokane tonight.
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JUST NOTES: The U of Calgary Dinos and the WHL announced Friday the creation of the Ed Chynoweth Memorial Hockey Award. It wwill go annually to a former WHL player who is attending the U of Calgary and playing for the Dinos. . . . If you’re a long-time hockey fan, you may remember hearing about Sven Tumba, or Sven Johansson, as he was born. The Swedish hockey star also was known to some as Tumba Johansson. Tumba, who was one of the first Europeans to skate in an NHL training camp, died today in Stockholm. He was in camp with the Boston Bruins back in the day. There’s more on Tumba right here.
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Ken Dryden, who knows a thing or two about hockey and about writing, has put fingers to keyboard and come up with a brilliant piece about headshots in sports. It you haven’t already seen it, it is right here, and it is only the best piece written on this subject to date. Dryden’s piece explains better than anything else I have seen exactly why headshots -- intentional, accidental and incidental -- and fighting must be taken out of the game of hockey, and why it has to happen now. Not tomorrow. Right now.
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Ken Dryden and Globe and Mail columnist Roy MacGregor are preparing for an online discussion on “why we need to rethink hockey.” It will begin Monday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT).
For more info, click right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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