Ice signs head coach . . . Generals beat Rockets . . . Tigers get goaltender from 'Hawks

F Brett Breitkreuz (Kelowna, Edmonton, Vancouver, 2006-10) signed a one-year contract with Löwen Frankfurt (Germany, DEL2). This season, with the Augsburger Panther (Germany, DEL), he had four goals and four assists in 51 games. . . .
F Brandon Segal (Calgary, 1999-2004) signed a two-year contract with the Nürnberg Ice Tigers (Germany, DEL). This season, with Medveščak Zagreb (Croatia, KHL), he had 10 goals and 15 assists in 54 games.
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LUKE PIERCE

The Kootenay Ice has dipped into the junior A ranks for the seventh head coach in its history.
Luke Pierce 31, was named head coach on Tuesday and signed a three-year contract. He replaces Ryan McGill, whose contract won’t be renewed after it expires on June 30. (That was McGill’s second stint as head coach; counting him twice makes Pierce No. 7.)
Pierce, who is from Merritt, B.C., has been the GM/head coach of the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials since November 2009. He put up a 168-111-21 record there and had the team in the playoffs in each of the six seasons.
Meanwhile, assistant coach Jay Henderson has said he won’t be returning to the Ice. His contract also expires on June 30.
Of the WHL’s 22 teams, 20 now have head coaches. Pierce is the only one of those 20 head guys to have moved into the WHL directly from junior A.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes and Vancouver Giants are the only two teams presently without a head coach.
Taylor Rocca of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman has more on the Ice’s hire right here, including a neat piece on how Pierce’s name was brought to the attention of general manager Jeff Chynoweth.
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The Oshawa Generals clinched a berth in the Memorial Cup final with a 2-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets on Tuesday night. . . . The Generals won’t play again until Sunday’s final. . . . Oshawa improved to 3-0 with the victory, each of them by one goal, while the Rockets slipped to 1-2. . . . The host Quebec Remparts (1-1) and the Rimouski Oceanic (0-2) are scheduled to meet tonight. The Oceanic won the QMJHL title by beating the Remparts in double OT in Game 7. . . . If Quebec wins tonight, the Remparts and Rockets will play in the semifinal game on Friday. A Rimouski win tonight likely puts the Oceanic and Remparts into a tiebreaker on Thursday. The Rockets likely would avoid the tiebreaker on goal differential. . . . Last night, all three goals came in the second period. . . . Oshawa F Cole Cassels (4:15) and F Tobias Lindberg (17:16) gave the Generals a 2-0 lead. . . . F Gage Quinney scored for Kelowna at 18:11. . . . Quinney leads the tournament with four goals, one more than Lindberg. F Nick Merkley and F Leon Draisaitl of the Rockets also have three. . . . Merkley and Oshawa F Michael Dal Colle lead in points, each with five. . . . Oshawa G Ken Appleby stopped 20 shots, seven fewer than Kelowna’s Jackson Whistle. . . . The Rockets were 0-for-3 on the PP; Oshawa’s PP unit never got on the ice. . . . Kelowna had a glorious opportunity to tie the game, and maybe win it, when the Generals were given two minor penalties 1:01 apart late in the third period. Only three penalties were called in the entire game. F Dakota Mermis went off for kneeing at 15:36 of the third, and Cassels was called for delay to game at 16:37. The Rockets were all around Appleby and had numerous scoring chances, but they weren’t able to get the equalizer. . . . Draisaitl was 16-for-29 in the faceoff circle; Cassels was 15-for-30.
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Here is the Memorial Cup schedule (all games on Sportsnet; all times Eastern):
Friday, May 22: Kelowna 3 vs. Quebec 4 (9,497)
Saturday, May 23: Rimouski 3 vs. Oshawa 4 (8,409)
Sunday, May 24: Quebec 4 vs. Oshawa 5 (OT) (10,970)
Monday, May 25: Rimouski 3 vs. Kelowna 7 (6,981)
Tuesday, May 26: Oshawa 2 vs. Kelowna 1 (7,002)
Wednesday: Quebec vs. Rimouski, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday: Tiebreaker, if necessary, 7:30 p.m.
Friday: Semifinal, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: Championship game, 7 p.m.
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The latest alleged victim of former WHL coach Graham James went to the police in September 2013, one month after telling his family of his experiences. Since then, he has been in close contact with Todd Holt, who was sexually abused by James while both were with the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Dean Pritchard of the Calgary Sun has more right here.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers have acquired G Evan Johnson, 19, from the Portland Winterhawks for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2017 bantam draft. . . . The Winterhawks got Johnson from the Calgary Hitmen in January. He got into only four games with Portland, going 1-0-2, 3.97, .880. . . . Johnson, from Winnipeg, finished the season 6-3-4, 3.13, .890. . . . The top two goaltenders on the Tigers’ depth chart now are Johnson and Nick Schneider, who turns 18 on July 21. . . . Schneider played in 27 games this season, going 15-7-1, 2.82, .898. . . . Portland’s starter is Adin Hill, 19, who was 31-11-1, 2.81, .921 this season. . . . Michael Bullion, an 18-year-old from Anchorage, likely is No. 2 on the depth chart. He got into four games this season, going 2-2-0, 3.22, .900, but spent most of the season with the NAHL’s Wenatchee Wild.
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Veteran F Ben Duperreault won’t be back with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Duperreault, who turns 18 on July 18, had one goal and four assists in 34 games this season, after putting up 18 points, six of them goals, in 65 games in 2013-14. Duperreault, who is from Wilcox, Sask., was dropped by the Warriors prior to the bantam draft.
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Steve Konowalchuk got fined $700 for ripping refs. Rockets got $500, I guess $200 is the price you pay for doing it in the press...

— Andy Eide (@AndyEide) May 26, 2015

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Raiders looking for GM . . . Hurricanes, Thunderbirds swap veterans . . . Unhappiness in The Hat

KHL news . . . some old . . . some new . . .
The Associated Press reported April 9 that Sochi hadn’t paid its players since January, but promised that they would be paid in full by the end of April. That didn't happened so the players have filed suit in Russian court to get their money. League rules require teams to resolve all debts to players by May 31 if they wish to continue in the league in the following season.
This AP report also noted there were Russian media reports that put at least five teams at risk of withdrawing from the KHL for financial reasons. The AP named Slovan Bratislava, Atlant Mytischi and Admiral Vladivostok as three of the five.
While Slovan Bratislava hasn’t officially left the KHL, it has applied to rejoin Slovakia's Extraliga.
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From the April 30 edition of the online Russian website Sport-Express (it has been all World Championship since then):
1) Valery Kamensky, president of Atlant Mytischi, said that from May 1 all members of the team would be dismissed. According to him, the future of the club is unknown. "Today is the last day for all staff of Atlant. From 1 May, they will be fired,” Kamensky said."With regard to the future of the club, for the moment I have nothing to say. There is no news. We are planning that the youth team will continue to serve in the region and the Youth Academy also continues." On April 28, Atlant GM Alexi Zhamnov confirmed that Atlant has transferred the rights to 10 players to SKA St. Petersburg as compensation for money SKA gave to Atlant earlier in the season so that Atlant could finish the season.
2) Alexander Pavlinov, vice-president of Amur Khabarovsk, admitted that the club had sent a request for deferral of the KHL deadline to provide financial guarantees for the coming season. It was reported earlier that difficulties arose with the co-operation necessary for confirmation in the documents. "We have appealed to the leadership of the league for an extension of the deadlines for submission of documents,” Pavlinov said. "A technical hitch, so we still need time. Asked to extend until the end of May and we are waiting for a response.”
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Slava Malamud, who is a Washington, D.C., area correspondent for the Russian media outlet Sport-Express, tweeted last month that SKA St. Petersburg players were each paid a US$800,000 bonus for reaching the KHL final. SKA won the league championship so one can only imagine what kind of bonus the players got for that. How this falls under the KHL salary cap is unknown.
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The 2015-16 KHL regular season is scheduled to open on Aug. 24. The league had announced during this season that it plans to align the schedule more closely to the needs of the Russian national team. As such, Russian Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak has said that the KHL won’t adjust its schedule to fit in with the proposed NHL/NHLPA World Cup in 2016. If this holds, there won’t be any KHL players available to play in the World Cup.
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It wasn’t a surprise when the Prince Albert Raiders announced Friday that general manager Bruno Campese won’t be returning.
It had been rumoured for a while now that Campese wasn’t likely to be back, that he was wanting to return to West Kelowna, B.C., for family reasons.
The Raiders and Campese, 51, said that the decision to part company was mutual, and that the Raiders

BRUNO CAMPESE

wouldn’t be exercising their option on his contract.
“There’s no doubt that I would’ve loved to come back,” Campese told Brett Smith of the Prince Albert Daily Herald.“I love my job and I love the people I work with but, at the end of the day, it’s been a family decision to move back home. I’m good with it, my family’s good with it and I think when I look at it perspectively from the Raiders’ point of view, and I had mentioned this to our executive board, that the right time to do this is now.”
If there had been any doubt that this would happen, it likely was erased on April 21 when the Raiders announced that head coach Marc Habscheid had been signed to a four-year contract. At that time, nothing was said about Campese’s future.
As well, nothing definitive was said earlier this week when the Raiders announced they had re-signed associate coach Dave Manson to a four-year deal and assistant coach Kelly Guard to a one-year contract.
Raiders president Dale McFee plans on having a new GM in place in short order. The way McFee sounds, Habscheid, who was GM/head coach with the Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals, isn’t a candidate.
“Marc is a qualified candidate, but I think we’ve been through that experience once already,” McFee told Smith. “We had a coach/GM and it didn’t work.
“We feel the ultimate model for Prince Albert is one where we have a coach and a general manager that are separate and that we actually can focus in and make sure that obviously our business product, being a community-owned team, is aligned with our on-ice product and that’s not something we feel we want to give up on.”
Of course, if it isn’t Habscheid, the next GM will be brought in knowing full well that he won’t have any of his hires on the coaching staff. And how often does that work out?
Campese, who will work with the Raiders until a replacement is named, spent eight seasons with the Raiders. He was hired as the head coach prior to 2007-08 and was also the GM before that season ended. In 2011, he stepped aside as head coach and has been strictly the GM since that time.
The Raiders had their struggles on the ice, making the playoffs in three of Campese’s eight seasons in Prince Albert. However, they did make the playoffs in the two seasons prior to this one, and it’s fair to say that things looked pretty good a year ago.
In fact, I think it’s fair to say that he and the Raiders deserved a better fate than not making the playoffs this season.
After going 35-32-5 in 2013-14 and suffering a second-straight first-round exit, the Raiders and their fans looked forward to this season, knowing they would have two of the WHL’s premier players — D Josh Morrissey and F Leon Draisaitl — on their roster. However, Draisaitl, the third-overall pick in the NHL’s 2014 draft, opened the season with the Edmonton Oilers, who later refused to return him to the Raiders. The Oilers told the Raiders that if Draisaitl was to return to the WHL he would only play with the Kelowna Rockets. (Bruce Hamilton, the Rockets’ president and GM, is tight with a number of people in the Oilers’ organization, which made the optics even worse.)
Faced with that news, Campese was forced to try and cut his losses, so Morrissey and Draisaitl both ended up with the Rockets.
Kelowna won the WHL championship on Wednesday night; two days later, Campese announced that he was done.
Now that he’s available, perhaps the Oilers need an assistant GM.
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The Lethbridge Hurricanes have traded F Jamal Watson, their captain, to the Seattle Thunderbirds for F Cory Millette and a 2016 fifth-round bantam draft pick.
Both players are preparing for their 20-year-old seasons.
Watson, from Calgary, is coming off a career season. He had 56 points, including 26 goals, as he set career highs in all three major offensive categories. He was named team captain prior to what was his fourth season in Lethbridge. In those four seasons, he had 148 points, 69 of them goals, in 270 games. Only six players in franchise history played more games.
Millette, from Storthoaks, Sask., split last season between the Thunderbirds, Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades. In 71 games, he had 47 points, including 24 goals. He also has played with the Red Deer Rebels. In 238 career games, he has 121 points, 60 of them goals.
Millette is the lone 20-year-old on the Hurricanes’ roster.
The Thunderbirds’ roster also includes two 20-year-old defencemen — Jared Hauf and Jerret Smith.
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Things are turning nasty in Medicine Hat where the Tigers don’t yet have a lease to play in the Regional Event Centre, a $75-million facility that is to open in time for next season. . . . Collin Gallant of the Medicine Hat News has more right here.
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If you have ever wondered what it costs to operate a facility like the Medicine Hat Arena, Alex McCuaig of the Medicine Hat News has a chart right here that shows how that facility lost $1,866,827, not including administration costs, over the past six years.
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The Thrill Is Gone, bluesman B.B. King having died on Thursday evening. He was one of a kind and there will never be another. . . . Right here, Rolling Stone takes a look at his 10 greatest songs. Enjoy!
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Tim Weiner has The New York Times’ obituary on B.B. King right here. Just in case you don’t know what B.B. means . . .
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THE COACHING GAME:

While the Prince Albert Raiders may be reluctant to have one person as the general manager and head coach, that isn’t the case with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s. On Friday, they announced that head coach Jeff Brown, 49, a former NHL defenceman, also will be the GM. He is coming off his first season as head coach, one in which he guided the 67’s into the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. They were 38-25-5 in the regular season. . . . Brown takes over from Pat Higgins, who resigned after the season and now is Ottawa’s head scout.
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McDavid and his dad once the media scrum ended. pic.twitter.com/OoD9Aupu7j

— Steve Dangle Glynn (@Steve_Dangle) May 16, 2015

In the OHL, the Oshawa Generals beat the visiting Erie Otters 6-2 to win the championship final, 4-1, before 6,125 fans. . . . Oshawa F Cole Cassels had four assists as the Generals won their first OHL championship since 1997. . . . Erie F Connor McDavid was selected as the playoff MVP. It was only the second time that a player from a non-championship team won the award, the other being D Marc Staal with the Sudbury Wolves in 2007. . . . McDavid was held pointless in what likely was the final game of his junior career. He led the OHL playoffs in goals (21), assists (28) and points (49), all in 20 games. He finished 18 points ahead of Cassels and Oshawa F Michael Dal Colle. . . .

In the QMJHL, the visiting Quebec Remparts beat the Rimouski Oceanic 3-2 in OT to take a 3-2 lead in the championship final. . . . F Massimo Carozza’s fourth goal of the playoffs won the game 10 seconds into the first OT period. . . . Attendance was 4,732. . . . Game 6 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Quebec City. . . . With the Remparts the host team for the Memorial Cup, both teams will play in the tournament.
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I get that Babcock is a good coach... But who really cares where he coaches, I don't pay to watch him behind the bench!#makeadecisionslready

— Drew Schoneck (@TCCoachShoe) May 16, 2015

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Wheat Kings into final . . . Rockets one win away . . . Rochester needs a coach

 

FRIDAY’S GAMES:

In Brandon, the Wheat Kings advanced to the WHL final with an 8-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen. . . . Brandon won the series 4-1 to reach the championship series for the first time since the spring of 2005. . . . Brandon has won each of its three playoff series this spring in five games, taking out the Edmonton Oil Kings and Regina Pats

before Calgary. . . . The series for the Ed Chynoweth Cup will open in Brandon with games on Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9. . . . The Wheat Kings outscored the Hitmen 29-13 in the five games, twice scoring eight goals and once getting nine. . . . For the second game in a row, the Wheat Kings broke it open with five goals in the second period. In Game 4, Brandon scored five times in 10:25. Last night, it was five times in 6:48. . . . The Hitmen took a 1-0 lead into the second period after F Pavel Karnaukhov scored his sixth goal, on the PP, at 17:22. . . . Brandon D Eric Roy tied it with his third goal at 8:35 of the second and D Ryan Pilon, with his first goal, put the Wheaties out front at 9:41. . . . Brandon F Nolan Patrick got his seventh goal 10 seconds later and the home team was off and running. . . . Brandon F Jayce Hawryluk scored twice, giving him 10, and added two assists, while F John Quenneville also scored twice, giving him 10. Patrick added two assists to his goal, and F Rihards Bukarts drew three assists. . . . Calgary F Adam Tambellini scored his 13th goal. . . . Brandon G Jordan Papirny turned aside 31 shots. . . . The Hitmen opened with Mack Shields in goal, after Brendan Burke had started the previous three games. . . . Shields surrendered three goals on 18 shots before Burke came on to give up four on 15. . . . Brandon F Tim McGauley scored his sixth goal, a shorthanded effort, into an empty net at 15:24 of the third. . . . Brandon was 2-for-3 on the PP; Calgary was 1-for-3. . . . The referees were Brett Iverson and Sean Raphael. . . . Attendance was 5,337. . . . Laurence Heinen wrote this game story for the Calgary Herald.

In Kelowna, F Tyson Baillie scored at 14:55 of OT to give the Rockets a 2-1 victory over the Portland Winterhawks. . . . The Rockets lead the Western Conference final, 3-2. They’ll play Game 6 in Portland’s Moda Center on Sunday. . . . Each team now is 3-1 in OT in these playoffs. . . . Despite giving up the winner, Portland G Adin Hill almost stole the show in OT. Kelowna had a 20-4 edge in shots in extra time. . . . Hill finished with 47

saves, five more than Kelowna’s Jackson Whistle. . . . Baillie’s eighth goal, and his second OT goal this spring, came off some good work by F Dillon Dube, a 16-year-old from Cochrane, Alta. . . . Baillie also scored the OT goal, 58 seconds into extra time, in Game 2 against the Victoria Royals. . . . Riley Stadel, a defenceman who has been turned into a forward due to Kelowna’s injury situation, scored the game’s first goal at 17:35 of the first period. . . . Portland F Nic Petan ran his point streak to 16 games with the game-tying goal at 16:27 of the third period. He’s got 10 goals. . . . That 16-game streak tied the franchise record set a year ago by F Brendan Leipsic. . . . Petan also tied the WHL record for most career playoff games. This was his 87th game — it’s the fifth season in a row in which the Winterhawks have played into May. He now shares the record with F Shay Stephenson (Red Deer, 2000-04). . . . In four seasons, Stephenson played in 22, 23, 23 and 19 playoff games. Petan has played in 7, 22, 21, 21 and 16 games. . . . Kelowna was 0-for-2 on the PP; Portland was 0-for-1. . . . The referees were Adam Byblow and Steve Papp. . . . The Rockets had F Justin Kirkland back after a two-game absence with an apparent illness. The Rockets haven’t said if it was an upper- or lower-body illness. . . . Kelowna lost F Tyrell Goulbourne in the second period after he checked Portland F Keegan Iverson. Goulbourne left the ice immediately and may have suffered a skate cut to his left leg. . . . One fan who was seated near Kelowna’s bench tweeted that Goulbourne “was screaming in pain as he got on the bench.” . . . Attendance was 6,261. . . . Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier has a game story right here.
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In the OHL, the host Oshawa Generals bounced the North Bay Battalion 4-1 to take a 3-2 lead in that semifinal series. Oshawa F Cole Cassels had a goal and an assist. They’ll play Game 6 in North Bay on Sunday. . . . The Erie Otters lead the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 3-2 in the other series. They’ll meet in Game 6 tonight in Erie.
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THE COACHING GAME:

The Buffalo Sabres have fired Chadd Cassidy, who was the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans. He had been head coach since February 2013, taking over from Ron Rolston, when the latter was promoted to the Sabres. . . . The Americans went 29-41-6 this season and didn’t make the playoffs. . . . The announcement was made by Sabres general manager Tim Murray. According to Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: “The Sabres organization did not make Murray available to explain why he fired Cassidy, whose contract expires at the end of the season. They have not made Murray available since the Amerks season ended on April 17.” . . . Oklobzija also wrote: “Assistant coaches Chris Taylor, John Wroblewski and Bob Janosz weren't mentioned in the news release so it is not known if they will be retained.”
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Incredible night in Brandon yet again! The #BWK have advanced to the #WHL Finals for the first time in 10 years! pic.twitter.com/ApGnvgoVaA

— Brandon Wheat Kings (@bdnwheatkings) May 2, 2015

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.