Taking Note

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Doug Lynch (Red Deer, Spokane, 1998-2003) was signed to a contract extension for the rest of this season by Red Bull Salzburg (Austria, Erste Bank Liga) at the end of his three-month contract. He has four goals and five assists in 16 games for Red Bull this season. Last season, Lynch had seven goals and 21 assists in 44 games for Red Bull.
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Neate Sager of Yahoo! Sports either has too much time on his hands, or he’s a real hard-core junior hockey fan.
Bet on the latter.
F Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers goes into the weekend with 22 goals in 16 games, which is eight more goals than any other WHL player.
“So just for fun,” Sager writes, “and to be a huge stat nerd, someone pored through 15 years of WHL game-by-game stats to look up how many other players had scored so prolifically through their first 16 games.”
We will leave it to you to figure out who that someone was.
His findings are reported right here.
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The WHL firmed up a pair of suspensions on Thursday.
F Darian Dziurzynski of the Brandon Wheat Kings will sit two games for a charging major he incurred late in their 7-3 victory over the Broncos in Swift Current on Tuesday. He will sit out Friday and Saturday games against the visiting Calgary Hitmen and Medicine Hat Tigers. (The latter game, by the way, signals Chapter 2 in the Clouston Contest, with Shaun, the head coach of the Tigers, holding 1 -0 edge over Cory, the Wheat Kings’ head coach.)
F Jordyn Boyd of the Everett Silvertips received a one-game suspension after being hit with a clipping major in a 4-3 shootout loss to the host Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday.
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In the QMJHL, meanwhile, F Jonathan Lessard of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar was hit with a 15-game suspension. He initiated a knee-on-knee hit on Quebec Remparts F Nick Sorensen on Oct. 28. Sorensen, a freshman from Sweden, suffered a season-ending knee injury on the play. According to the Remparts, Sorensen has ACL and MCL damage and won’t play for up to six months.
As a sidebar to that suspension, Patrick Roy, the Remparts’ GM/head coach, was fined $2,500.
The QMJHL employs a discipline system that employs an independent disciplinarian, in this case a gentleman named Raymond Bolduc.
After the game in which Sorensen was hurt, Roy told the media that the league’s disciplinary system had one problem, that being that Bolduc was “too nice”, resulting in discipline that wasn’t nearly stiff enough.
Gilles Courteau, the QMJHL commissioner, said in a statement: "At no time will I permit that a staff member of a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club make inappropriate comments toward League personnel, especially in regards to their capacity to accomplish a mandate which I have given them."
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JUST NOTES: The ECHL’s Alaska Aces have released G Andrew Hayes (Brandon, 2007-10). The move was made in order to make roster room for G Adam Courchaine, who played with the Aces last season but opened this season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. The NHL’s Boston Bruins re-assigned Courchaine to the Aces on Thursday. . . . Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun reports that Hayes “is expected to go to the University of Regina.” . . . The Vancouver Giants have Russian F Alex Kuvaev, 18, on their list. Kuvaev had 24 points in 58 games with the Lethbridge Hurricanes last season, but was dropped prior to the 2011 CHL import draft. The Kootenay Ice picked up his rights, but dropped him after learning that he had signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo had acquired Kuvaev’s rights from HC Vityaz Chekhov. The Giants are playing with just one import — Slovakian F Marek Tvrdon, who has 20 points in 17 games after shoulder woes limited him to 12 games (and 11 points) last season . . . .
D Zach Habscheid of the Victoria Royals will be back in the lineup tonight against the visiting Vancouver Giants. Habscheid, 19, has missed 11 games since suffering the fourth concussion of his career on Oct. 6. . . . The Royals continue to be without D Tyler Stahl, 19, who has sat out 13 games since suffering a concussion on Oct. 1.
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From today’s Regina Leader-Post:
“Delisle Chiefs goalie Cam Irwin scored an empty-net goal with 44 seconds left in Wednesday's Prairie Junior Hockey League game against the visiting Saskatoon Quakers.
Irwin, who also made 20 saves, helped the Chiefs win 7-4. Paul Sonntag led the Chiefs with two goals and an assist.”
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The Connolly family quite enjoyed it when F Brett Connolly of the Tampa Bay Lightning scored his first NHL goal the other night.
Dave Kearsey of the Western Star in Corner Brook, Nfld., has that story right here.
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
This comes from the aforementioned Brett Connolly, who on Thursday afternoon tweeted:
“Nothing like buying your first car. And nothing like going to the rink in flip flops. What a job.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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