The question was: Were the WHL to expand or relocate, what city should be at the top of the list?
In the end, there were 243 responses, with Winnipeg an easy winner, drawing 96 votes or 39 per cent. Langley, B.C., was next, with 68 votes (27 per cent), followed by Chilliwack (40) and Fort McMurray, Alta. (39), both at 16 per cent.
The lineup to get a team into Winnipeg forms on the left.
A new poll is up over there on the right, this one dealing with the NHL lockout.
Thanks for taking part.
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According to a report in the Columbus Dispatch, D Austin Madaisky, 20, needs surgery on a wrist and could miss up to three months of action. . . . Madaisky, who is under contract to the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and with the ECHL-Evansville IceMen, told me Saturday night that report is “a little pre-mature.” . . . Madaisky is to go to Columbus on Monday to meet with the team’s medical staff, “then see what they say.” . . . The doctors in Evansville have told him that he may have torn a ligament known as a scapholunate in one wrist but have suggested he get a second opinion. . . . Madaisky also said that he wasn’t injured while playing with the IceMen. He said the wrist has bothered him since he was in camp with the AHL-Springfield Falcons. . . . He has five points, including a goal, in eight games with Evansville.
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D Ryan Murray of the Everett Silvertips suffered a separated or dislocated shoulder — there are reports out there indicating one or the other — in Friday night’s 5-0 loss
to the Royals in Victoria.He has to undergo an MRI, something that is expected to happen in the next day or two. The extent of the damage then will be known.
Murray, the second overall pick in the NHL‘s 2012 draft, has signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He also is a lock for a roster spot with Canada’s national junior team.
“It’s not good news,” Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson told Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. “Right now his arm is in a sling, held tight to his body, and he’s in a lot of pain He’ll have an MRI early this week, and then we’ll know more.
“You’ll have to see how much damage he’s done to the labrum. Does he have any broken bones from the thrust of the fall? Once it’s come out, it tends to come out easier in the future. Our doctors will take a look at the tests and we’ll decide the next step.”
Last season, Murray suffered a high ankle sprain in October and only just got back in time to play for Canada in the world junior championship.
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The Saskatoon Blades will play their second game of a B.C. Division swing today in Vancouver against the Giants. And Saskatoon has added D Matthew Pufahl to its list of
walking wounded. Pufahl, 19, has an undisclosed injury after taking a hit from behind from Prince George Cougars F Caleb Belter on Friday night. Saskatoon also is without F Jessey Astles (wrist), F Brett Stovin (undisclosed) and D Dalton Thrower (undisclosed). . . . The Blades will get a look at F Nick Gomerich today and F Landyn Hickmott on Tuesday in Victoria. Both play for B.C. major midget teams -- Gomerich, a sixth-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft, is with the Nanaimo-North Island Silvertips, while Hickmott, a third-rounder in 2011, is with the Abbotsford-Fraser Valley Thunderbirds. Hickmott was the Blades’ first selection in that 2011 draft, going 66th overall.———
Former Spokane Chiefs D Jared Cowen underwent surgery Saturday and is expected to be sidelined for up to eight months. Cowen, who plays for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators but had been with the AHL-Binghamton Senators during the lockout, had a torn labrum in his left hip.
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In the AJHL on Friday night, the Grande Prairie Storm dumped the visiting Brooks Bandits, 4-1. The Bandits had gone into the game 20-0. The victory ran the Storm’s winning streak to nine games. . . . The Bandits set an AJHL record for longest winning streak from the start of a season; the Olds Grizzlies opened 1993-94 with 18 straight victories. . . . The Bandits fell one game short of tying the AJHL record for longest winning streak, though. The Calgary Canucks set that record at 21 in 1987-88.
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SATURDAY’S GAMES:
In Cranbrook, G Mackenzie Skapski stopped 28 shots to help the Kootenay Ice to a 4-0 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . Skapski has three shutouts this season and three in his career. . . . The Wheat Kings, who have lost four in a row, were blanked for the first time this season. . . . The Ice swept the doubleheader, having beaten the visiting Wheat Kings 5-3 on Friday. . . . F Sam Reinhart scored the Ice’s first two goals. He has eight on the season. . . . 
In Edmonton, G Luke Siemens stopped 50 shots and F Shane Danyluk scored in OT as the Prince Albert Raiders beat the Oil Kings, 4-3. . . . Danyluk has three goals this season. . . . The Raider led 3-0 late in the second period when the Oil Kings mounted a comeback. . . . Edmonton F Michael St. Croix forced OT when he scored at 16:17 of the third period. . . . Danyluk won it at 3:35 of OT. . . . The Raiders brought in G Rylan Parenteau from the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers. He is 6-2-0, 2.86, .897 with the Blazers. Parenteau was a third-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. . . . Parenteau was on the bench backing up Siemens, replacing Andy Desautels who was in that role in Friday’s 3-2 victory in Lethbridge. . . . The Raiders (15-6-2) moved into first place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Edmonton (13-5-4). . . . The Raiders have beaten the Oil Kings three times this season. . . . 
In Kennewick, Wash., F Justin Feser scored two shorthanded goals 1:01 apart in the first period and the Tri-City Americans celebrated their 25th anniversary with a 3-2 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . Feser’s 16th and 17th goals of the season gave the Americans a 3-0 lead. . . . Feser has 128 career goals. That puts him into seventh place on the Americans’ all-time list, one ahead of F Dylan Gyori. . . . The Rockets got second-period goals from Rourke Chartier and Ryan Olsen but couldn’t equalize. . . . Tri-City G Eric Comrie stopped 42 shots. . . . One night earlier, Comrie stopped 41 shots in a 3-2 victory over those same Rockets. . . . The Rockets had won five in a row going into Friday’s game. . . . 
In Victoria, F Morgan Klimchuk broke a 2-2 tie at 19:34 of the third period to give the Regina Pats a 3-2 victory over the Royals. . . . Klimchuk’s goal, his 13th, came 2:06 after D Jordan Fransoo had pulled the Royals into a 2-2 tie. . . . Regina G Teagan Sacher stopped 32 shots. . . . Pats D Luke Fenske had three assists. . . . Regina opened its B.C. Division swing with a 4-3 shootout loss in Vancouver on Friday. . . . The Pats play in Prince George on Tuesday and Kamloops on Wednesday. . . .
In Everett, the Silvertips scored the game’s last two goals to beat the Vancouver Giants, 6-5. . . . F Ty Mappin, with his second goal this season, pulled Everett into a tie at 11:13 of the third. . . . F Reid Petryk, with his second of the game, won it at 15:30. . . . The Silvertips played without D Ryan Murray (shoulder), who was injured Friday night in a 5-0 loss in Victoria. . . . The six goals were a season-high for Everett. Not only that, Everett had scored only five goals in its previous six games. . . . D Austin Adam (broken hand) returned to the Silvertips’ lineup. He was injured on the season’s opening weekend. . . . 
In Portland, F Taylor Leier and F Ty Rattie had two goals apiece as the Winterhawks dumped the Medicine Hat Tigers, 5-2. . . . Portland F Brendan Leipsic had two assists, giving him eight straight multi-point games and running his point streak to 10 games. He has 23 points, including nine goals, in those 10 games. . . . The Winterhawks had their 12-game winning streak end Friday when they lost 6-4 in Kamloops. . . . F Nic Petan added three assists for Portland. . . . Medicine Hat F Hunter Shinkaruk left in the first period after taking a check from Portland D Seth Jones. Shinkaruk apparently suffered a skate cut of some kind. . . . Rattie has 14 goals, while Leier has eight. . . . 
In Red Deer, F Turner Elson, the team captain, broke a 1-1 tie at 7:32 of the third period as the Rebels beat the Swift Current Broncos, 2-1. . . . It was owner/president/general manager Brent Sutter’s first game as the Rebels’ interim head coach. He removed Jesse Wallin as head coach earlier in the week. . . . F Rhyse Dieno, who was added to the Red Deer roster on Friday, had the Rebels’ other goal. . . . 
In Kamloops, F JC Lipon, the WHL scoring leader, struck for two goals and the winner in the circus as the Blazers got past the Prince George Cougars, 5-4. . . . Immediately after the game, Kamloops F Jordan DePape, 20, informed his teammate that he was ending his WHL career thanks to a shoulder injury that needs surgery. There will be more on DePape and his decision right here early Monday morning. . . . The Cougars held 2-0 and 4-3 leads, the latter coming when F Ryan Hanes, a Kamloops native and former Blazers skater, scored at 12:56 of the third period on the PP. He was playing his second game with the Cougars since joining them from the BCHL’s Cowichan Valley Capitals. . . . Lipon tied it at 15:24 with his 21st goal of the season. He became the WHL’s first 20-goal man this season when he scored the Blazers’ first goal, at 12:52 of the second. . . . Last season, Lipon had 19 goals in 69 games. . . . With the second goal, Lipon became the WHL’s first 50-point scorer this season. He leads the WHL in goals (21) and points (50). . . . Linemate Colin Smith had two assists and has 49 points. . . . F Brad Morrison, 15, picked up one assist in his WHL debut with the Cougars. By the third period, Morrison, the seventh overall selection in the 2012 bantam draft, was playing on perhaps the Cougars’ best line, with Alex Forsberg and Hanes. . . . F Cole Ully also scored twice for Kamloops. . . .
In Kent, Wash., F Todd Fiddler scored three times to lead the Spokane Chiefs to a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Fiddler has 15 goals in 22 this season after scoring 12 times in 73 games last season. He had four goals in 35 games with Prince Albert, before scoring eight times in 38 games after being acquired by the Chiefs. . . . He scored at 1:30 of the second period and 14:32 of the third to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead. He later added his third goal into an empty net to complete the first hat trick of his career. . . . Fiddler finished last season with 28 points in those 73 games. He has 26 points in 22 games this season. ———
CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
D Tyler Yaworski, Brandon
D Tanner Faith, Kootenay
F Rob Trzonkowski, Kamloops
CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT:
F Lucas Grayson, Everett
F Reid Petryk, Everett
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
Jordan DePape (@papskos17): “Wow, so thankful for all this support! Can’t believe it. Thank you. My phone has literally exploded and died in a matter of 30 minutes.”
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TWEET OF THE DAY II:
From Portland Winterhawks F Brendan Leipsic (@leip28): “Congrats on a great career @papskos sorry it had to end like this. #seeyousoon”
Leipsic and DePape both are from Winnipeg.
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TWEET OF THE DAY III:
From Prince George Cougars F Brock Hirsche (@bigsexytweet10): “@papskos17 best of luck in the future. I know what you are going through.”
Hirsche is fighting shoulder woes for a second straight season. He was on the Cougars’ bench as an assistant coach last night in Kamloops.
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TWEET OF THE DAY IV:
From Prince George F Ryan Hanes (@HANESR13): “Thank you to everyone who came out tonight! Fans are amazing even when I’m a cougar now! Love it!”
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