Taking Note

Seattle’s Justin Hickman (9) celebrates the Thunderbirds’ first goal
— he scored it — of Saturday’s game against the visiting
Victoria Royals. The ice was pink for ‘Pink The Rink Night’.
(Photo by Kyle Scholzen/Seattle Thunderbirds)

SOME SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
In Kent, Wash., F Brendan Troock scored two third-period goals, the last one breaking a 4-4 tie at 17:03, as the Seattle Thunderbirds beat the Victoria Royals, 5-4. . . . That was Seattle’s first victory in four games this season. . . . Troock also had an assist. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 39 shots. . . . The Royals had erased a 4-2 deficit when F Kevin Sundher scored at 10:52 of the third period and F Austin Carroll counted at 13:30. . . . The ice in the ShoWare Center was pink as the T-Birds held their first ‘Pink The Rink Night’ in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Valley Medical's Glow Women's Health and Wellness Program. The first 3,000 fans received pink T-Birds baseball caps courtesy of Glow. The Seattle players wore pink skate laces and used pink tape on their sticks. . . .
The Regina Pats honoured the memory of the late Rick Rypien, a former team captain, prior to their Saturday night game with the visiting Prince George Cougars. Rypien’s mother, Shelly, handled the ceremonial faceoff and the Pats announced that their annual Unsung Hero Award has been renamed the Rick Rypien Award because, the club said in a news release, “he best exemplified hard work not just on the ice, but also what he meant to his teammates and all the work that Rick did in the community.” . . . On the ice, G Drew Owsley stopped 19 shots as the Cougars beat the Pats, 2-0. . . . Owsley has two shutouts this season and 11 in his career. . . . F Jordan Tkatch got the winner, his fourth goal in as many games. . . . The Cougars had lost two in a row; the Pats had won two straight. . . .
In Swift Current, G Jon Groenheyde stopped 21 shots to help the Broncos to a 6-3 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. It was Groenheyde’s first appearance with the Broncos since being acquired earlier in the week from the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . This one was 3-3 with about eight minutes left in the third period when F Coda Gordon scored two goals 46 seconds apart for the Broncos. . . . Gordon, a 17-year-old freshman from Cochrane, Alta., has 10 points, including four goals, in six games. . . .
In Portland, G Brendan Burke, 16, stopped 26 shots in earning his first WHL victory as the Winterhawks beat the Prince Albert Raiders, 5-4. . . . Burke is the son of former NHL G Sean Burke. . . . Portland got nine points from the line of Sven Bartschi, Ty Rattie and Nic Petan. . . . Bartschi had two goals and two assists, Rattie drew three helpers and Petan had one of each. . . . Portland was 3-for-6 on the PP. . . .
In Saskatoon, the Blades beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-1 in a game that featured 116 minutes in penalties. . . . The Oil Kings took 60 of those minutes. . . . Saskatoon G Andrey Makarov stopped 33 shots. . . .
In Red Deer, the defending-champion Kootenay Ice improved to 4-1-2 as they beat the Rebels, 2-1. . . . G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 33 shots and F Elgin Pearce broke a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the season at 15:48 of the second period. . . . All three goals came via the PP; however, the Rebels failed to score on two power plays in the game’s last five minutes. . . . D Jagger Dirk drew assists on both Ice goals. . . .
In Vancouver, F Jayden Hart, a 17-year-old freshman from Spruce Grove, Alta., ended a six-round shootout with a goal that gave the Medicine Hat Tigers a 5-4 victory over the Giants. . . . Hart, whose older brother, Tyler, is a defenceman with the Giants, had scored his first WHL goal in the first period. . . . Vancouver tied the game 4-4 when F Jordan Martinook scored with 1.4 seconds left in the third period. . . . Medicine Hat F Emerson Etem scored the game’s first goal, his 11th of the season. Originally, he was credited with four goals in Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Royals in Victoria. However, on Saturday, the last of those goals was changed to F Hunter Shinkaruk, with Etem drawing an assist. . . . F Brendan Gallagher had two goals for the Giants, giving him four on the season. . . . Gallagher was stymied on a first-period penalty shot by G Kenny Cameron, who was making his first WHL start. . . . Medicine Hat F Cole Grbavac, the Tigers’ captain, was back in the lineup after not playing Friday because of what was termed a minor injury. . . .
In Spokane, F Anthony Bardaro had two goals and two assists to lead the Chiefs to a 5-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . F Mitch Holmberg added two goals and an assist for the Chiefs. . . . The Rockets have lost two in a row after opening the season with three victories. . . . Kelowna managed just 12 shots on Spokane G Mac Engel -- three, four and five by period. . . . The Rockets a post about a minute into the game. The Chiefs then proceeded to get 15 shots on goal and score three times before Kelowna mustered its first shot on goal. . . . Spokane F Darren Kramer had three assists for the first three-point night of his career. Kramer, who led the WHL with 46 fights last season, is the Chiefs’ new captain. He was coming off his first two-goal game in Friday’s 6-4 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops. . . . Kramer, who totalled 14 points in 68 games last season, has seven points in four games this season. Oh, and he has been in two fights, the first with Kamloops D Tyler Hansen on Friday, the second last night with Kelowna F Tyrell Goulbourne.
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Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star has spoken with Dr. Charles Tator, perhaps Canada’s most pre-eminent expert on concussions. Dr. Tator has some concerns with some of the information coming out of the clinic in Boston that is examing the brains of select dead athletes; in fact, Dr. Tator wonders if there isn’t some grandstanding taking place.
Starkman’s piece is right here.