Winterhawks in front of 'Tips . . . Former WHLer next top cop in Toronto? . . . Gong show in NHL

F Stanislav Balán (Portland, 2005-06) has signed a one-year contract with Vítkovice Steel Ostrava (Czech Republic, Extraliga). This season, with Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic, Extraliga), he had 13 goals and 18 assists in 51 games. . . .
F Roman Horák (Chilliwack, 2009-11) has signed a one-year extension with Vityaz Podolsk (Russia, KHL). This season, he had 31 points, including 18 goals, in 53 games. . . .
D Michal Hlinka (Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, 2010-12) has signed a one-year extension with Dukla Trencin (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had 15 points, seven of them goals, in 43 games this season.
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THURSDAY’S GAME:

In Portland, the Winterhawks scored the game’s first five goals as they skated to a 5-3 victory over the Everett Silvertips. . . . Portland takes a 2-1 lead into Game 4 tonight at home. . . . The teams hadn’t played since Saturday because of arena availability issues in Portland. . . . Portland D Anton Cederholm opened the scoring with his first goal at 17:52 of the second period. . . . By coincidence, freelancer Scott Sepich wrote a feature on Cederholm and his father, who is in Portland this week from Sweden, for The Oregonian. That piece is right here. . . . F Nic Petan got his sixth goal at 18:13 of the second, on a PP, and F Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice, giving him eight, in the third period. . . . F Dominic Turgeon upped it to 5-0 at 14:27. . . . Everett scored three times in 1:46 late in the period, with D Kevin Davis, F Ivan Nikolishin and F Graham Millar scoring. . . . Petan also had two assists for Portland, as did F Miles Koules and F Chase De Leo. . . . F Logan Aasman had two assists for Everett. . . . Winterhawks G Adin Hill stopped 16 shots. . . . Everett starter Carter Hart gave up four goals on 34 shots. Reliever Austin Lotz was beaten once on two shots in 6:26 of playing time. . . . Portland was 2-for-5 on the PP; Everett was 0-for-2. . . . Everett F Dawson Leedahl returned to the lineup after a five-game absence, but the Silvertips remain without D Noah Juulsen and D Tristen Pfeiffer. . . . Leedahl was involved in a fight with F Keegan Iverson at 10:27 of the second period, then took a cross-checking minor at 19:01. Leedahl didn’t return to serve out his penalty to start the third period. Nikolishin actually finished serving the penalty. . . . Attendance was 5,518.

Joke that'll kill at your next dinner party: Q: What do you call it when Everett hockey players pay gratuities in quarters? A: Silver tips
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) April 17, 2015

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D Connor Hobbs of the Regina Pats has drawn one of those ‘tbd’ suspensions from the WHL for a hit in Game 4 against the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday night. Hobbs took out Brandon D Ryan Pilon, whose status for Game 5 in Brandon tonight isn’t known.
Here’s Rob Henderson, the Brandon Sun’s sports editor, with some thoughts earlier Thursday:
“It would be in the Wheat Kings’ best interest to end the series as soon as possible. In addition to the obvious desire to not let the Pats force a Game 6 on Sunday in Regina, the physical series is also taking a serious toll on both teams’ lineups.
“Wheat Kings Jayce Hawryluk, Rihards Bukarts, Colton Waltz and Ryan Pilon have all been injured since the series began, with Pilon being knocked out of Game 4 by the hit that led to Hobbs’ major. . . . Pats defenceman Sergey Zborovskiy still has one game left in his suspension for the hit that sidelined Hawryluk, while Regina’s Rykr Cole and Chase Harrison have also gone down to injuries in the series.”
Henderson added that Kelly McCrimmon, Brandon’s general manager and head coach, “didn’t divulge any information when asked if any of his injured players would return for tonight’s game.”
Brandon F Morgan Klimchuk, who has sat out six games, took part in Thursday’s optional skate.
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The Calgary Hitmen can eliminate the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers tonight and book a berth in the Eastern Conference final. . . . The Hitmen are coming off a 2-1 OT victory in Medicine Hat on Wednesday night that gave them a 3-1 lead in the series. . . . Calgary F Adam Tambellini, who leads the WHL playoffs in assists (10) and points (19), missed Game 4 with an undisclosed injury, but was back on skates Thursday. He likely will skate again this morning and then be re-evaluated. . . . You can bet that the Hitmen go into tonight’s game with their first-round series victory over the Kootenay Ice fresh in their minds. Calgary was ahead 3-1 in that series and it ended up going seven games. . . . The Tigers may be without F Blake Penner, who left Game 4 with an undisclosed injury. . . . Laurence Heinen wrote this story for the Calgary Herald.
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The NHL’s Colorado Avalanche is dropping its affiliation with the AHL’s Cleveland-based Lake Erie Monsters. . . . The NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets are expected to announce today that they are moving their affiliation from Springfield, Mass., to Lake Erie. . . . There is speculation that the Arizona Coyotes will hook up with Springfield, at least for one seasno. . . . Former WHL GM/coach/player Dean Chynoweth is Lake Erie’s head coach. . . . Jared Bednar, another former WHL player, is the head coach in Springfield. . . . Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, who broke the story, writes that the Springfield coaching staff, which includes another former WHLer in Nolan Pratt, would move to Lake Erie. . . . Portzline’s blog piece is right here. . . . Mike Chambers of the Denver Post reported last night that the Avalanche will affiliate with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage, which had been hooked up with the Florida Panthers. Next season, Florida will be affiliated with the AHL’s Portland Pirates, who had been Arizona’s farm team. Arizona, of course, will end up cutting a deal with Springfield, and the circle will be complete.
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The Globe and Mail is reporting that former WHLer Dale McFee, who is the president of the Prince Albert Raiders, is the “wild card contender” to become Toronto’s next police chief. McFee, who played four seasons with the Raiders (1982-86), also is a former Prince Albert police chief; he now is Saskatchewan’s deputy minister of corrections. . . . Robyn Doolittle’s story is right here.
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SUN FRONT: Game 2 btw #Sens & #Habs goes Friday. All we gotta say is HEADS UP, P.K. #ottnews #NHLPlayoffs #slashgate pic.twitter.com/qYJwF18yTL
— Ottawa Sun (@ottawasuncom) April 17, 2015

As Pierre LeBrun of ESPN notes in this piece right here, the NHL series between the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators already has degenerated into a “gong show,” and it's only one game old. . . . It could be that Ottawa F Chris Neil, who didn’t play in Game 1, will be doing his thing tonight in Game 2.
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Just as things heat up in the NHL players and we are wondering if something might relieve the pressure, if only for a few minutes, along comes a video starring ESPN’s Britt McHenry. . . . If you haven’t seen it or read about what happened, well, it’s like something out of Dumb and Dumber and Dumbest. Seriously, you thought stuff like this only happened in Judd Apatow movies. . . . At one point, McHenry says to the attendant at a towing company’s lot: “Maybe if I was missing some teeth they would hire me, huh? . . I’m in television and you’re in a f------ trailer, honey.” . . . Sheesh, wouldn’t you think that someone who is in the TV business would realize that she just might be on camera in a place like that?
Richard Deitsch of SI.com has more right here.
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The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed D Jarret Tyszka, who was the 16th overall selection in the 2014 bantam draft. From Langley, B.C., Tyszka played this season for the midget team at the Yale Hockey Academy, putting up 10 points, three of them goals, in 23 games.
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F Tyler Jeanson of the MJHL-champion Portage Terriers has signed a letter of intent with the Colgate University Raiders. Jeanson, 17, was selected by the Kamloops Blazers in the ninth round of the 2012 bantam draft. The MJHL’s rookie of the year last season, he had 54 points, including 23 goals, in 56 regular-season games this season.
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The Melfort Mustangs won the SJHL championship last night, beating the host Notre Dame Hounds 4-0 to win the series, 4-0. Trevor Blevins, the Mustangs’ head coach, is from Melfort. He was a player with the Mustangs when they last won the SJHL title, in 1996. . . . The Mustangs went 12-2 in their playoff run, with both losses coming in OT. . . . In the BCHL, the host Penticton Vees beat the Nanaimo Clippers 3-2 last night. The Vees take a 3-2 series lead into Nanaimo for Game 6 tonight. The Clippers had won Games 1 and 2, both in Penticton. . . . In the AJHL, the Spruce Grove Saints hold a 3-1 lead on the Brooks Bandits with Game 5 scheduled for Spruce Grove tonight. . . . Three teams — the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons, Melfort and the MJHL-champion Portage Terriers — now have spots in the Western Canada Cup. It runs in Fort McMurray, April 25 through May 3. The top two teams move on to the Royal Bank Cup, the national championship tournament. This year, it will be held in Portage la Prairie, Man.
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I hear contract talks with Canes head coach and GM Peter Anholt are proceeding and they hope to have him signed soon.
— Dylan Purcell (@dylpurcell) April 17, 2015

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Shinkaruk, Cederholm drafting, signings may indicate change in direction

The NHL's Vancouver Canucks are beginning to alter their reputation.
Vancouver has been known as a team that over recent seasons hasn’t had many prospects from the Western Hockey League in its system.
The Canucks management has been heavily criticized for missing out on players like forwards Brendan Gallagher and Milan Lucic, both of whom played for the city's own WHL team, the Vancouver Giants.
Instead, Lucic and Gallagher were drafted by the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens in the NHL drafts of 2006 and 2011, respectively.
“Well, I think that the scouts spend a lot of time watching talents across the world,” Pat Quinn, who is a part-owner of the Giants, said. “You can make your list up, which all the teams do. But when your time comes up, maybe the player that you think is appropriate at the time is not the right player and doesn't play in the Western Hockey League. I don't think it has anything to do with saying 'well, he's a Western Hockey League player so we're not taking him.' I don't think that's the case at all.
“But (the Canucks) did bypass some guys that, and hindsight is wonderful of course, but (they) did bypass some Western boys who are having significant careers. But again, in their defence, perhaps they wanted them, but it wasn't the right time and the right place so it doesn't happen. There's no reason not to take a player from the Western Hockey League.”
However, since the 2013 NHL draft, names from the WHL have started to show up in Vancouver.
When the Canucks selected Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter Shinkaruk with the 24th overall pick in 2013, some fans perhaps thought he was the only player from the WHL that they drafted that year.
But let’s not forget about defenceman Anton Cederholm, whom the Canucks selected with the 145th pick, knowing he was going to playing in the WHL. He played with Rogle Angelholm of the Swedish Elitserien prior to Vancouver drafting him, then joined the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, who selected him in the CHL’s 2013 import draft.
“(The Canucks) were a little bit of an influence since Vancouver is close to Portland,” Cederholm said. “In the end, it was all up to me. Our purpose was to get me to Portland . . .”
Cederholm finished with 16 points and a plus-42 in his freshman season with Portland, helping the Winterhawks to a 54-13-5 record and first place in the Western Conference. All of that helped him earn an entry-level deal with Vancouver.
Shinkaruk signed a three-year entry-level contract on June 8, and the Canucks decided to wait until doing the same with Cederholm.
But if that wasn't enough to show the Canucks that he deserved an entry-level contract, their scouts didn't have to go far to see him in the playoffs.
A season after the Giants missed the playoffs after finishing with the poorest record in the league, Vancouver bounced back, at least a bit, to finish No. 8 in the Western Conference. That put the Giants up against Portland in the first round
For Cederholm, he wasn't just given an opportunity to impress the scouts in the city of the NHL team that drafted him, it also allowed the fans the opportunity to see him play.
“I don't really feel any pressure (knowing that Canucks scouts are in the building),” he confessed when he arrived in Vancouver to play Games 3 and 4 with the Winterhawks leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. “I know all the guys, especially Dave Babych. He's been to most of our games and I know him
personally so there's not a lot of pressure put on myself. It's a fun experience playing in front of Vancouver Giants fans. I mean, they love the Canucks as well, so hopefully they'll have a little love for me (too).”
It wasn't just fun for Cederholm to play in Vancouver, his teammates enjoyed themselves, too, as they swept the Giants.
The Winterhawks ended up going all the way to the WHL final for the fourth consecutive season, but lost in seven games to the Edmonton Oil Kings, who went on to represent the WHL at the Memorial Cup tournament in London, Ont.
Cederholm finished with five points, including three assists, and was a plus-4 during Portland’s playoff run.
The Canucks' scouts gave their reports on Cederholm, who will be back in Portland next season as a 19-year-old, and management was convinced.
On Tuesday, the Canucks announced that they have signed Cederholm to a three-year entry-level contract.
And just like that Vancouver has signed two prospects from the WHL.
Trevor Linden, now the Canucks' president of hockey operations, is familiar with, and a supporter of, the WHL. After all, he played three seasons with the Tigers and assisted them in winning two consecutive Memorial Cups.
So don't be surprised if Vancouver is more active when it comes to adding players from the WHL to its list of prospects.
Don’t forget, too, that the Canucks have the sixth selection in the 2014 NHL draft, and four WHLers are projected to go within the first 10 picks.
So the Canucks won't have to wait long if they want to look at adding another one.


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Richard, Foreurs beat Oil Kings in 2OT

JUST NOTES:
The Vancouver Giants have received more than 100 resumes as they search to replace Don Hay, who left after 10 years as head coach and now is with the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Jay Janower of Global TV reports that the Giants’ management team has a five-man shortlist that includes three AHL coaches and two coaches who are involved at the Memorial Cup. . . . Janower’s two-minute report is right here.
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D Anton Cederholm of the Portland Winterhawks has signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. They selected him in the fifth round of the NHL’s 2013 draft. Cederholm, from Helsingborg, Sweden, had 16 points, four of them goals, in 71 regular-season games this season. He had five points, including two goals, in 21 playoff games. Cederholm is preparing for his 19-year-old season with Portland.
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The ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers have been granted a voluntary suspension by the league’s board of governors, so won’t operate in 2014-15. . . . All Las Vegas players on ECHL contracts became unrestricted free agents with the announcement. . . . The Wranglers weren’t able to find a place to play next season. . . . John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun has more right here.
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The Indiana Ice won the USHL championship -- the Clark Cup -- on Tuesday night and then skated off into the sunset. . . . The Ice beat the host Waterloo Black Hawks 3-2 to win the best-of-five final, 3-2. . . . The Ice franchise now goes dormant as it wasn’t able to find a place to play in 2014-15. The USHL plans to hold a dispersal draft of players on the Ice roster.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Paul McFarland is the new head coach of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. He had been on the Oshawa Generals’ coaching staff for two seasons as an assistant coach. . . . McFarland, 28, won a Memorial Cup as a player with the Kitchener Rangers in 2003. . . . With the Frontenacs, he replaces Todd Gill, whose contract wasn’t renewed after the team blew a 3-0 lead in a first-round playoff series and lost to the Peterborough Petes in seven games. . . . Doug Graham of the Kingston Whig-Standard has more right here.
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MEMORIAL CUP
(at London, Ont., all times Eastern)
(all games televised by Sportsnet)
Friday: Val-d’Or 1, London 0 (8,863)
Saturday: Guelph 5, Edmonton 2 (8,842)
Sunday: Edmonton 5, London 2 (8,863)
Monday: Guelph 6, Val-d’Or 3 (8,796)
Tuesday: Val-d’Or 4, Edmonton 3 (2OT) (8,745)
Wednesday: London vs. Guelph, 7 p.m.
Thursday: Tiebreaker, if necessary, 7 p.m.
Friday: Semifinal, 7 p.m.
Saturday: No game scheduled.
Sunday: Final, 4 p.m.
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TUESDAY’S GAME:
F Anthony Richard of the Val-d’Or Foreurs scored at 1:15 of the second OT period to give his guys a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . The last game of the round-robin is scheduled for tonight, with the host London Knights meeting the OHL-champion Guelph Storm. . . . The Storm already has clinched a berth in Sunday’s final. . . . A Guelph victory tonight means Edmonton and Val-d’Or will have a rematch in Friday’s semifinal game. . . . A London victory tonight will send the Knights into a Thursday tiebreaker against Edmonton. . . . "Right now, we know our fate. The kids are tired. Both teams battled hard," Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal said on the team’s website. "Both goaltenders played pretty well, I thought, but at the end of the day I thought we deserved the better fate." . . . The Oil Kings outshot the Foreurs, 50-33, and held a 3-2 lead with fewer than four minutes left in the third period. . . . Val-d’Or F Samuel Henley forced OT when he got the puck to the net and slid a backhander along the ice and just inside a post with 4:11 left in the third period. . . . With 15 minutes left in the third period, the Oil Kings held a 34-14 edge in shots, but Foreurs G Antoine Bibeau stood tall. . . . Included in Bibeau’s effort was a stop on a first-period penalty shot by F Edgars Kulda. Edmonton held a 2-0 lead at the time, on goals from F Reid Petryk and F Curtis Lazar, the latter via the PP. . . . "We got out to an early lead and didn't think we were playing all that particularly well, but I think that penalty shot miss by Eddie Kulda might have been the change in the game," Laxdal said. . . . F Shawn Ouellette-St-Amant got the Foreurs on the board at 17:04 of the first period, tipping in a point shot by D Ryan Graves. . . . Edmonton dominated play early in the second period but surrendered a shorthanded goal to Val-d’Or F Pierre-Maxime Poudrier at 9:38. . . . Edmonton F Henrik Samuelsson restored his club’s lead at 5:46 of the third period, but the Oil Kings weren’t able to hold it. . . . Bibeau stopped 47 shots. . . . Edmonton G Tristan Jarry turned aside 29 shots. . . . Edmonton was 1-for-3 on the PP and now is 2-for-16 in three games. . . . The Foreurs were 0-for-2. . . . Val-d’Or played without D Guillaume Gelinas, who suffered a knee injury in Monday’s 6-3 loss to the Storm. Gelinas was named the QMJHL’s top defenceman. . . . Guelph D Chadd Bauman received a kneeing major on the play on which Gelinas was injured. Bauman had yet to be suspended as the sun set on Tuesday’s action.
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From F Tayler Thompson (@TommyToey) of the RBC Cup-champion Yorkton Terriers: “So now that I'm an RBC cup champ what's the chances we can just forget about those bank payments I owe you guys? @RBC_Canada”

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