F Jozef Balej (Portland, 1999-2002) signed a contract for the rest of this season with Kometa Brno (Czech Republic, Extraliga) after his release earlier Friday by Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had five goals and six assists in 20 games with Slovan this season.
———
There were reports Friday night that Moose Jaw Warriors D has a has a torn ACL in one knee and will require surgery. That being the case, he could miss the remainder of the season.
Warriors head coach Mike Stothers told Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that Rielly will be out for “a significant amount of time.”Gourlie wrote: “The Warriors won’t know how long that is until he is re-evaluated, but it is possible he suffered a season-ending injury to his right knee.”
“He has somebody else to see yet,” Stothers told Gourlie. “Regardless of what the next opinion is, he’s going to be out a significant amount of time.”
Rielly, a 17-year-old from Vancouver, has been projected as an early selection, perhaps top five, in the NHL’s 2012 draft. He has 18 points, three of them goals, in 17 games. Last season, as a freshman, he had 28 points in 65 games.
———
JUST NOTES: The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed D Kevin Wolf, a 10th-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft who is from St. Paul, Minn. Wolf played last season with the Chicago Fury major bantam team. This season, he is with the U-16 midget AAA Fury team. The 6-foot-6, 195-pounder has 10 points and four penalty minutes in 18 games.
———
In Brandon, D Ryley Miller ran his goal-scoring streak to two games as the Wheat Kings beat the Swift Current Broncos, 4-1. . . . Miller, a 19-year-old from Spruce Grove, Alta., had played 155 regular-season games without scoring even one goal. Now he has one in each of his last two games. . . . Last night, he also had an assist and a scrap for a Gordie Howe hat trick. . . . The second period took 40 minutes to play as it was interrupted by 64 minutes in penalties. . . . Brandon F Dominik Favreau, who had missed 16 games with a knee injury, scored a goal at 6:15 of the first period. . . .In Moose Jaw, F Quinton Howden scored at 3:35 of OT to give the Warriors a 3-2 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . The Warriors, who have won seven in a row, had won 3-1 in Regina one night earlier. . . . Howden has five goals this season. . . . Regina G Matt Hewitt actually stoned Howden on the original shot, but the rebound ended up in the feet of Pats F Dyson Stevenson, who hoofed it into his own net. . . . The Pats gave up two goals in the first four minutes of the third period, but tied it with two goals in the period’s final 4:37. . . . Eleven seconds before F Matt Marantz tied the score 2-2, Hewitt stopped Justin Hirsch on a penalty shot. . . . Moose Jaw F Cody Beach, who sat out as a “coach’s decision” on Thursday, was back in the lineup. . . . The Warriors also had D Dylan McIlrath back from an undisclosed injury. . . .
In Calgary, F Justin Hickman broke a 4-4 tie at 19:47 of the second period and the Seattle Thunderbirds held on for a 5-4 victory over the Hitmen. . . . Hickman scored twice, giving him four goals. . . . D Alex Roach, a free-agent signee of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings during training camp, scored his first goal of the season for the Hitmen. . . . F Alex Gogolev and F Danny Gayle each had a goal and two assists for the Hitmen. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 23 shots. . . . The teams combined to score seven times in the game’s first 12:10. Seattle emerged from that scorefest with a 4-3 lead. . . . Seattle now has won two in a row and is 2-3-0 as it heads into Cranbrook to meet the Kootenay Ice tonight and wrap up its six-game swing into the Central Division. . . .
In Medicine Hat, the Tri-City Americans scored two shootout goals and beat the Tigers, 4-3. . . . F Brendan Shinnimin and F Justin Feser, the Ams’ first and fourth shooters, were able to beat G Tyler Bunz. . . . At the other end, Tigers F Hunter Shinkaruk opened the shootout with a goal, but G Ty Rimmer then shut down F Emerson Etem, F Curtis Valk and F Reid Petryk. . . . Shinkaruk forced OT when he tied the game 3-3 at 8:51 of the third period. That was his 21st goal of the season. . . . Etem, who leads the WHL with 25 goals, had one assist. . . . F Curtis Valk scored twice for the Tigers, giving him three on the season. . . . Ty Rimmer made two saves off Etem in the dying moments of OT. . . . Tri-City has won four in a row, and also has won five in a row on the road. . . .
In Portland, the Winterhawks came from behind to tie the game five times and then beat the Spokane Chiefs 6-5 in a shootout. . . . Portland F Brad Ross forged a 5-5 tie with 40.5 seconds left in the third period with this second goal of the game and 12th of the season. . . . Portland outscored Spokane 4-3 in the shootout with F Taylor Leier, the 12th shooter, getting the winner. . . . F Ty Rattie also scored twice for Portland, while D Josh Morrow and F Sven Bartschi each had three assists. . . . Spokane F Connor Chartier, who had a goal and an assist, gave his side a 5-4 lead at 10:30 of the third period. . . . Spokane was 2-for-7 on the PP; Portland was 3-for-6. . . . The Chiefs are 9-4-2 overall but just 0-3-2 on the road. . . . They’ll do it again tonight in Portland. . . .
In Kelowna, the Rockets and Edmonton Oil Kings went 16 deep in the shootout before the home team won 2-1 on a goal by F Zach Franko. . . . The Rockets won the shootout, 3-2. . . . The Rockets had lost their previous seven games. . . . F Kristians Pelss gave the Oil Kings a 1-0 lead at 6:45 of the first period. . . . Kelowna F Colton Sissons tied it at 17:47 of the first. . . . After that, it was showtime for the goaltenders. Edmonton’s Laurent Brossoit stopped 23 shots, three fewer than Kelowna’s Jordon Cooke. . . .
In Everett, F Spencer Asuchak scored twice to help the Prince George Cougars to a 4-1 victory over the Silvertips. . . . The Cougars have won two in a row; the Silvertips have lost six straight. . . . The same teams meet again tonight in Everett. . . . ———
You can bet that D Bronson Maschmeyer of the Kamloops Blazers was paying particular attention to one AJHL game on Friday night. The Lloydminster Bobcats, with Bronson’s sister Emerance as the backup goaltender, were in Fort McMurray to play the Oil Barons. Brock Maschmeyer is a defenceman with the Oil Barons. . . . Emerance was on the bench in support of G Chase Martin as the Bobcats scored a 3-2 shootout victory. It was Lloydminster’s first victory in Fort McMurray in four years. . . . Emerance has played 98 minutes over three games this season, earning a tie and suffering two losses. She has a 4.92 GAA and a .810 save percentage. . . . Brock, who didn’t score in the shootout, has 16 points, including three goals, in 22 games. He played two seasons (2008-10) with the Bobcats and now is in his second season with the Oil Barons.
———
Also in the AJHL . . . the host Canmore Eagles, playing their first game since teammate Patrick Steel was found dead on Wednesday, posted a 6-3 victory over the Camrose Kodiaks. . . . Riley Point and Riley Reinbolt had two goals each for the Eagles, with Zack Rassell scoring once and setting up three others. G Michael Salmon stopped 21 shots for the victory.
“We actually don’t know what happened, we don’t have details, we’re kind of in the dark,” Andrew Milne, the Eagles’ GM/head coach, told Brent Wittmeier of the Edmonton Journal. “We’re just mourning the loss.”
Wittmeier’s report is right here.
———
You have to wonder when players and teams in the OHL will learn that commissioner David Branch is serious. I mean, Branch hands down a 20-game suspension earlier in the week and now he’s got another incident on his hands.
Check it out right here.
———
Jim Redden of the Portland Tribune starts a Friday story with:
“Mayor Sam Adams chose Veterans Day to announce plans for upgrading the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.”
That would be the home arena of the Portland Winterhawks and plans are to spend $30.5 million on the upgrade. Part of the upgrade will involve enlarging the ice surface.
Redden’s story is right here.
———
Of all the words that have been written since the Penn State sexual abuse scandal hit the headlines, not many, if any, could be construed as having been positive.
However, Sheldon Kennedy, who knows of what he speaks when it comes to this subject, is the voice of reason as he points out in a Toronto Star story that we in Canada have made some progress.
“We’ve never had a measuring stick in terms of how far we’ve come in this country until now,” Kennedy told Daniel Girard. “I think we need to be proud of ourselves for the efforts everybody’s made in making Canada a better place for our kids.”
That story is right here.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter
Posts
