Taking Note

THE WHL FINAL:
Game 7 . . .
In Edmonton, the Oil Kings jumped out to a 4-0 lead and went to a 4-1 victory over the Portland Winterhawks to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. The Oil Kings won the best-of-seven final, 4-3. . . . The Oil Kings, who are in only their fifth season in the WHL, will open the Memorial Cup tournament on Friday against the host Shawinigan Cataractes. Also competing will be the QMJHL-champion Saint John Sea Dogs, who also are the tournament’s defending champions, and the OHL-champion London Knights. . . . Prior to this season, when they finished with the WHL’s best record, the Oil Kings had never finished better than .500 in the regular season. . . . F Rhett Rachinski got the Oil Kings started when he scored 1:51 into the first period. . . . Edmonton F Tyler Maxwell scored a key goal with just 18 seconds left in the period. . . . The Oil Kings stretched the lead to 3-0 on F Michael St. Croix’s goal at 4:41 of the second period and F T.J. Foster made it 4-0 at 10:16. . . . Portland F Oliver Gabriel got his side on the board at 11:40 of the second. . . . Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit stopped 19 shots and was named the series MVP. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth turned aside 28 shots. . . . Edmonton was 0-2 on the PP; the Winterhawks didn’t receive even one opportunity. . . . Attendance was 12,514. . . . The Oil Kings held Portland’s big line — Marcel Noebels between Sven Baertschi and Ty Rattie — off the scoresheet for a second straight game. . . . This was the 10th time in WHL history that the championship final went to a seventh game. Prior to the game, @WHLFacts tweeted that the home team had won the previous nine times. . . . The Winterhawks franchise now is 0-3 in this situation, having also lost in Game of the final in 1987 (Medicine Hat) and Swift Current (1993). . . . A year ago, the Winterhawks also were in the WHL final, losing in five games to the Kootenay Ice. . . . This edition of the Oil Kings will be making its first Memorial Cup appearance. A previous incarnation of the Oil Kings appeared in the 1971 and 1972 Memorial Cups. More on those appearances later in the week. . . . The Oil Kings last won the Memorial Cup in 1963 and 1966, prior to the formation of the WHL which began play in 1966-67.
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Here is the way things unfolded during the WHL’s championship final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup:
Thursday, May 3: Portland 2 at Edmonton 3 (7,466)
Friday, May 4: Portland 5 at Edmonton 1 (10,720)
Sunday, May 6: Edmonton 3 at Portland 4 (10,947)
Tuesday, May 8: Edmonton 4 at Portland 3 (OT) (10,947)
Thursday, May 10: Portland 3 at Edmonton 4 (11,077)
Saturday, May 12: Edmonton 2 at Portland 3 (10,947)
Sunday, May 13: Portland 1 at Edmonton 4 (12,514)
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John MacKinnon, a sports columnist with the Edmonton Journal, was at Game 7. His column is right here.
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Evan Daum, a writer with the Edmonton Journal, filed a piece that centres on the Winterhawks to The Oregonian and it is right here.
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As if our elite junior-aged players don’t work out enough and don’t play enough high-intensity hockey games over the course of a year, Hockey Canada and the CHL have added four more games to their schedule.
Yes, they will be played during the summer.
They’re calling it the 2012 Canada-Russia Challenge and they’ll play Aug. 9 and 10 in Yaroslavl, Russia, and Aug. 13 and 14 in Halifax.
According to a Hockey Canada news release, the series is “being held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series.”
Also according to the news release, “The event will replace this season's Canada's National Junior Team Summer Development Camp and will serve as part of player evaluations for the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship, scheduled for Dec. 26, 2012 to Jan. 5, 2013 in Ufa, Russia.”
The Canadian roster this summer will feature more than 30 players, born in 1993 or later. The team will be selected by Hockey Canada head scout Kevin Prendergast and a coaching staff that has yet to be named.
If you happen to be in the Halifax area, you will be able to purchase two-game ticket packages for $86 plus applicable fees. No, that is not a typo.
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Jim Matheson’s Hockey World, from the pages of the Edmonton Journal, is right here. He leads with a look at how Oil Kings defenceman Griffin Reinhart has climbed the NHL draft rankings.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Chris Shaw won’t be back as an assistant coach with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. He worked under first-year head coach Jason Williamson this season. “I just decided we should go separate ways as we had a difference of opinion,” Williamson told Graeme Corbett of the Vernon Morning Star. “We worked out fine and the season went OK, but the organization needs to go in a different direction.”
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JUST NOTES:
D Michael Statchuk, a fifth-round pick by the Saskatoon Blades in the 2009 bantam draft, has committed to the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. He played this season with the midget AAA Prince Albert Mintos, putting up 29 points in 44 games.

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