
F Oscar Möller (Chilliwack, 2006-08) signed a four-year contract extension with Skellefteå (Sweden, Elitserien). He has 12 goals and six assists in 22 games with Skellefteå this season. The contract ties Möller to Skellefteå through the 2016-17 season.
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The Cougars now have five goaltenders under contract, one from each birth year from 1993 through 1997 — in order, Engel, Devon Fordyce, Brett Zarowny, Ty Edmonds and Kustra. . . . A while back, the Cougars also signed G Tyler Santos, who was born in 1995, but they have since dropped him from their list.
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In a column on the hit by Vancouver Canucks F Jannik Hansen on Chicago Blackhawks F Marian Hossa, Cam Cole of the Vancouver Sun touched on the NHL’s approach to contact with the head.
“If incidental head contact is cause for suspension,” Cole writes in Thursday’s Sun, “how is it possible for the league

“This paradox, as we’ve noted many times before, cannot withstand any reasonable examination.
“If any point-of-first-contact head blow is cause for supplemental discipline, a participant in a fight has to be tossed out of the game, at minimum.
“I say this as someone who understands the fight-in-anger and even enjoys seeing a good, venomous scrap where a wronged party – or a more muscular teammate of his – is taking the required pound of flesh from the perpetrator of a dirty hit or a spear or a high stick. But then the combatants have to go.
“On the other hand, the staged, pre-meditated fight, off a faceoff — or three of them in a row, as in Vancouver-Dallas last week — is ridiculous, and the league should be embarrassed. Except the league is embarrass-proof.”
Cole’s complete column is right here.
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The matchups, if the WHL playoffs opened today:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Edmonton (1) vs. Kootenay (8)
Saskatoon (2) vs. Swift Current (7)
Calgary (3) vs. Medicine Hat (6)
Prince Albert (4) vs. Red Deer (5)
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Portland (1) vs. Everett (8)
Kelowna (2) vs. Seattle (7)
Kamloops (3) vs. Victoria (6)
Tri-City (4) vs. Spokane (5)
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THURSDAY’S GAMES:
No games scheduled.
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