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| The first star in Lethbridge on Wednesday night? (Photo from Lethbridge Hurricanes' Facebook page) |
F Pavel Brendl (Calgary, 1998-2000) signed a one-month contract with Pardubice (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had seven goals and eight assists in 16 games with KalPa Kuopio (Finland, SM-Liiga) and nine goals and one assist in 24 games for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (Russia, KHL) last year. Brendl has been without a contract this season and Pardubice is currently going through injury issues.
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D Chad Starling (Kamloops, 1998-2000) had planned on playing hockey again this season. In fact, Starling, 31, had planned on returning to the ECHL, a league in which he played 503 games between 2000 and 2009. But it just didn’t happen. In fact, his career may well be over, amid a bunch of nattering about immigration policies and B-1 and P-1 forms. These days, Starling is at home in Delisle, Sask., where he is working for his family-owned business.
J.P. Hoornstra of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has the complete story right here and it should be compulsory reading for anyone in the hockey business, especially players at any level.
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JUST NOTES: F Anthony Paskaruk, a seventh-round selection by the Spokane Chiefs in the 2009 bantam draft, has committed to Clarkson University where he will play for the Golden Knights, who play out of Potsdam, N.Y. Paskaruk, 17, is from Airdrie, Alta., and is playing for the AJHL’s Brooks Bandits. . . . The Chiefs have assigned F Cody Nelson, 17, to the MJHL’s Portage Terriers. He had nine penalty minutes in three games. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks have signed D Ben Betker, 17, and he made his WHL debut against the Blazers in Kamloops last night. Betker, who was added to the Winterhawks’ 50-player list in June, had three points in 13 games with the BCHL’s Westside Warriors. Last season, he had 13 points in 38 games with the major midget Kootenay Ice. . . . The Winterhawks also announced that they have moved a Nov. 22 game against the Regina Pats to the Rose Garden. . . .
G Andrey Makarov of the Saskatoon Blades will be in the Russian lineup for the Subway Super Series game in Regina on Nov. 16. Makarov, 18, played last season with the QMJHL’s Lewiston Maineiacs, who folded after the season. . . . F Darian Dziurzynski of the Brandon Wheat Kings is on a ‘tbd’ suspension for the charging major he incurred in a 7-3 victory over the Broncos in Swift Current on Tuesday night. . . .
F Adam Rehak, 19, has left the Medicine Hat Tigers and returned to his native Czech Republic to deal what the teams says is a family issue. However, Rehak’s name no longer appears on the Tigers’ roster on the WHL website and, according to the Tigers’ statistical page, Rehak no longer is on the team. He had four points in 16 games. . . . That leaves the Tigers with one import player — D Patrik Parkkonen of Finland.
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There were a couple of monster deals made in the OHL on Wednesday as the Windsor Spitfires unloaded a couple of star players. The Spitfires, who won the 2009 and 2010 Memorial Cups, are hoping to be the host team for the 2014 tournament. The building process for that 2013-14 teams appears to have started.
The Spitfires traded G Jack Campbell, who was selected 11th overall by the Dallas Stars in the NHL’s 2010 draft, to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and F Tomas Kuhnackl to the Niagara IceDogs.
In exchange for Campbell, the Spitfires got D Mackenzie Braid, 18, F Patrick Sieloff, 17, who is with the U.S. National Team Development Program and has committed to Miami U in Ohio, a third-round pick in the 2012 OHL draft, second- and third-round picks in 2013, two second-round selections in 2014 and a second-rounder in 2015.
Campbell had a 3.13 GAA and .906 save percentage in 12 games this season. From Port Huron, Mich., he was the starting goaltender for the U.S. as it won the 2008 and 2009 IIHF U-18 championships and the 2010 World Junior Championship.
In exchange for Kuhnhackl and a second-round pick in the CHL’s 2013 import draft, the Spitfires received F Phillip DiGiuseppe, 18m who is in his first season with the U of Michigan Wolverines, G Jaroslav Pavelka, 18, second-round selections in the 2012, 2014 and the 2015 OHL drafts and a first-round pick in the 2013 import draft.
Kuhnhackl, a 39-goal man last season, is from Germany. He is just back from a knee injury and has four points in four games.
Coincidentally, Kuhnhackl’s parents — his father Erich is generally recognized as the greatest player in German hockey history — were to arrive in Windsor on Friday to visit with their son.
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Four B.C.-based on-ice officials have received IIHF assignments. . . . Referee Matt Kirk of Vancouver will work the Division 1, Group B World championship in Kryncia, Poland, April 15-21. . . . Linesman Kiel Murchison of Surrey has been selected to work the World Junior Championship in Calgary and Edmonton, Dec. 26-Jan. 5. . . . Justin Hull of Burnaby will travel to Brno and Znojmo, Czech Republic, for the U-18 World championship, April 12-22. . . . Referee Trevor Hanson of Langley is scheduled to work the Division 1, Group A U-18 World championship in Piestany, Slovakia, April 11-17.
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In Lethbridge, the Hurricanes snapped a 13-game losing streak — in the first game after an anonymous fan performed an exorcism at centre ice — by beating the Everett Silvertips, 4-3, in a shootout. . . . F Cam Braes, Lethbridge’s third shooter, was the only skater to score in the shootout. . . . The Hurricanes won two of three September games and then lost all 13 games they played in October. . . . Everett F Josh Birkholz scored on a penalty shot to give his side a 3-0 lead at 6:36 of the second period. . . . The Hurricanes pulled even with two PP goals after Everett F Jordyn Boyd was given a major penalty for clipping. . . . Everett took 53 of 99 penalty minutes. . . . The Silvertips, with the flu bug going through their dressing room, had F Ty Mappin and F Carson Samoridny in their lineup. Mappin, 15, was the seventh overall pick in the 2011 bantam draft. He is playing for the midget AAA Red Deer Rebels. Samoridny, 17, has 11 points, including nine goals, in 15 games with the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints. . . . Everett next plays Friday in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice. That game will feature Silvertips freshman F Ryan Chynoweth, 16, against the team of which his father, Jeff, is president and GM. . . . Trevor Crawley of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman has more on that matchup right here. . . .
In Saskatoon, the Blades opened a 4-0 lead early in the third period and went on to beat the Calgary Hitmen, 4-1. . . . F Josh Nicholls scored his 11th goal of the season for the winners, who got 39 saves from G Andrey Makarov. . . . Calgary had won the first two games of what is a six-game road trip. . . . The Hitmen were without F Brady Brassart, who sat out a one-game suspension for a checking-from-behind major one night earlier in Prince Albert. . . .
In Kamloops, F Sven Bartschi had a goal and two assists to help the Portland Winterhawks to a 4-2 victory over the Blazers. . . . Bartschi had missed the previous six games with a hip injury. . . . The Blazers had won four in a row. . . . F Logan McVeigh scored his second goal of the season for Kamloops. Both have come shorthanded. The Blazers have seven shorthanded goals in 15 games, after scoring four all of last season.
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For today’s good read, we go to Yahoo! Sports and a tremendous piece of writing by Nicholas J. Cotsonika. He explores where we are and how we got here in terms of brain injuries, CTE, concussions and all the rest. If you have been following the debate about concussions, you won’t want to miss this piece, which tells the story from all the angles.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
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