27% of Canadians wouldn't mind an early exit from the world juniors if it means they never have to see the Nike commercials ever again— Stats Canada (@stats_canada) January 3, 2017
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WHL trades since Dec. 27:
Trades: 8.
Players: 14.
Bantam draft picks: 7.
Conditional bantam draft picks: 1.
(WHL trade deadline is Jan. 10).
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The reunion of long-time friends Rykr Cole and Dawson Davidson lasted about a week.
It ended Monday when the Regina Pats dealt Cole to the Spokane Chiefs.
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| RYKR COLE |
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| RILEY WOODS |
Cole and Davidson both are from Moosomin, Sask. They were reunited on Dec. 25 when Davidson found out that the Kamloops Blazers had traded him to the Pats.
“He’s my best friend, pretty much,” Davidson told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post after the trade. “We’re both from Moosomin. We played midget together in Moose Jaw and roomed together for a year. I saw him a lot over the break. When I got traded, I instantly called him.
“It’s going to be fun to reunite. He’s a great guy and an unbelievable leader. I’m looking forward to playing with him again.”
Cole told Harder: “He let me know he got traded to Regina and I was pretty excited. He came over and
we talked about it. I’ve been showing him around Regina a bit. It’s nice to have a guy coming in that you know, especially with Dawson being one of my really good buddies.”
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| WYATT SLOBOSHAN |
While Cole and Davidson were enjoying the reunion, F Wyatt Sloboshan was choosing not to return to the Spokane Chiefs after the Christmas break.
On Tuesday, the Chiefs dealt Sloboshan, 19, who had been acquired from the Saskatoon Blades, and a third-round selection in the 2017 bantam draft to the Pats for Cole, a 19-year-old forward, and F Riley Woods, 18.
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Sloboshan, from Vanscoy, Sask., has played 30 games this season, 29 of them with Saskatoon. He had four goals and 12 assists with the Blades — he was the team’s captain — and was pointless in one game with Spokane. In 146 career games, he has 91 points, including 33 goals. He was a third-round pick by the Swift Current Broncos in the 2012 bantam draft.
Cole, from Moosomin, Sask., was a third-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. The 6-foot-0, 185-pounder had six goals and seven assists in 34 games this season. He put up 27 goals and 30 assists in 166 career games.
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Woods, a list player from Regina, had six goals and seven assists in 28 games with the Pats this season. In 59 career games, he has 15 goals and 12 assists.
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The Prince Albert Raiders have acquired F Curtis Miske, 19, from the Spokane Chiefs for a fourth-round pick in the 2018 WHL bantam draft. . . . The Chiefs, having acquired F Rykr Cole and F Riley Woods earlier in the day from Regina, had to make a move to get their roster down to 25 players. . . . Miske, from Beaumont, Alta., had five goals and nine assists in 28 games this season. The 6-foot-3, 195-pounder played in 154 regular-season games with the Chiefs, scoring 22 goals and adding 36 assists. The Chiefs had selected him in the second round of the 2012 bantam draft. . . . This was the 13th trade made by the Raiders this season.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers, having acquired G Michael Bullion, 19, from the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday, have dropped G Duncan McGovern, 16, from their roster. He will join the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings. . . . The Tigers picked up Bullion as veteran support behind starter Nick Schneider, who leads the WHL with 25 victories. . . . With the Tigers, McGovern, who is from Winnipeg, was 2-4-0, 4.06, .858. McGovern was a fifth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft.
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F Taylor Sanheim, a former WHL player, now is with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees. They acquired Sanheim, 20, from the MJHL’s Portage Terriers on Monday, with F Ty Barnstable, 18, going the other way. . . . Sanheim had 12 goals and 39 assists in 132 career regular-season games with the Calgary Hitmen. This season, he had two goals and five assists in 18 games with the Hitmen when he was released.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors will be without D Dmitri Zaitsev when they meet the Raiders in Prince Albert tonight (Tuesday). He has been suspended for one game “for game misconduct” during a 2-1 OT loss to the visiting Wheat Kings on Saturday night.
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Apparently everyone's New Year's resolution was to pay more for gas this year. Should be an easy one to keep.— 22Minutes (@22_Minutes) January 3, 2017
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MONDAY’S GAME:
At Calgary, F James Malm scored in the fourth round of a shootout to give the Vancouver Giants a 5-4
victory over the Hitmen. . . . The Giants erased a 4-2 third-period deficit to force OT. . . . D Dylan Plouffe (4) got the visitors to within a goal at 4:44, with D Matt Barberis tying it with his seventh goal, at 18:49. . . . The Giants grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second period on goals from F Ty Ronning (14), at 5:17, and F Tyler Benson (11), at 6:06. . . . Calgary appeared to take control by scoring the game’s next four goals. . . . F Jakob Stukel (12) got the Hitmen started at 9:09 of the second period. . . . F Matteo Gennaro followed that with two goals, his 13th and 14th, at 16:48, on a PP, and 50 seconds into the third period. . . . F Beck Malenstyn’s 16th goal gave Calgary a 4-2 lead at 2:46 of the third. . . . Benson also had one assist. . . . Gennaro and Stukel each had two assists, while Malenstyn added one. . . . Vancouver got 34 stops from G David Tendeck. . . . Calgary G Kyle Dumba made 36 saves. . . . Calgary was 1-4 on the PP; Vancouver was 0-4. . . . The Giants (15-20-3) had lost their previous two games. . . . The Hitmen (14-17-5) have points in three straight (1-0-2). . . . F Evan Patrician, a 15-year-old from Calgary, made his WHL debut with the Giants, who selected him in the seventh round of the 2016 bantam draft. He plays for the midget AAA Calgary Flames. . . . Announced attendance: 7,026.
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| JAMES MALM |
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TUESDAY’S GAMES (all times local):
Saskatoon at Brandon, 7 p.m.
Tri-City at Kamloops, 7 p.m.
Regina at Medicine Hat, 7 p.m.
Moose Jaw at Prince Albert, 7 p.m.
Lethbridge at Swift Current, 7 p.m.
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In Swift Current, F Dryden Hunt scored two goals and set up another as the Medicine Hat Tigers dropped the Broncos, 5-1. . . . Tigers F Cole Sanford scored his WHL-leading 47th goal at 11:13 of the second period for a 2-1 lead. . . . Sanford had the WHL lead until Portland F Oliver Bjorkstrand tied him later in the evening. Bjorkstrand later scored again, giving him 48. . . . Hunt, who has 30 goals, scored at 19:52 of the second, on a PP, and again at 1:30 of the third. . . . Sanford also had an assist, getting him up to 88points in 63 games. . . . Tigers F Trevor Cox, the WHL scoring leader, drew three assists. He’s got 97 points in 60 games. . . . Tigers F Steve Owre and D Kyle Becker each had a goal and an assist. . . . Owre has 16 goals; Becker has 11. . . . F Jake DeBrusk got No. 37 for the Broncos. . . . The Tigers were 2-for-5 on the PP; the Broncos were 0-for-2. . . . Medicine Hat G Nick Schneider stopped 30 shots, nine fewer than Swift Current’s Landon Bow. . . . The Broncos had D Dillon Heatherington back in the lineup. He last played on Jan. 23. . . . The Tigers (39-21-3) have won two in a row. . . . The Broncos (30-27-5) have lost two straight. . . .
In Moose Jaw, F Jesse Shynkaruk scored at 1:31 of OT gave the Warriors a 6-5 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . The Pats led 2-0 on a pair of goals by F Adam Brooks, the second one shorthanded. . . . The Warriors then scored four in a row, with F Tanner Eberle getting two of them in 24 seconds and F Jack Rodewald scoring his 30th. . . . The Pats tied it in the first half of the third period as F Jesse Gabrielle scored his 20th and Brooks completed his first hat trick with his 25th. . . . F Patrick D’Amico gave Regina a 5-4 lead with his 18th goal at 15:28 on a PP. . . . Warriors F Brett Howden got his 15th at 16:56 to force OT. . . . Shynkaruk won it with his seventh goal of the season. . . . Eberle left the Warriors’ bench for the dressing room early in the third period and didn’t return. After the game, Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald tweeted: “Tanner Eberle is still being evaluated, but it looked like a shoulder injury and he has had a previous shoulder surgery.” . . . Rodewald also had two assists, while linemate Brayden Point scored his 29th goal and had two assists. . . . Moose Jaw D Austin Adam also had two helpers. . . . Moose Jaw was 2-for-5 on the PP; Regina was 1-for-3. . . . The Warriors (26-31-5) have won two straight. . . . Regina (33-20-9) is 0-1-2 in its last three. . . . 
In Brandon, F Peter Quenneville scored twice to help the Wheat Kings to a 6-4 victory over the Kootenay Ice. . . . Quenneville has 20 goals, and is the seventh player on the Brandon roster to reach that mark. . . . The Wheat Kings built a 5-2 lead before the Ice got two goals in the latter half of the third period to get to within one. . . . Brandon F Morgan Klimchuk iced it with an empty-netter at 19:28 of the third. He’s got 27 goals. Klimchuk also had two assists. . . . Brandon F Tim McGauley had two assists as he ran his point streak to 19 games, tied for the longest such streak in the WHL this season. F Dryden Hunt put together a 19-game streak split between the Regina Pats and Medicine Hat Tigers earlier in the season. Hunt put up 30 points, 10 of them goals, in his streak. McGauley has 39 points, including 27 assists. . . . According to Bruce Luebke, the radio voice of the Wheaties, McGauley has the team’s longest point streak since F Cory Cyrenne went 23 games in 1997-98. . . . F Tim Bozon scored twice for the Ice, giving him 31 this season. He has scored at least 30 goals in each of his four WHL seasons. . . . Ice F Jaedon Descheneau scored his 30th goal, while F Sam Reinhart had two assists. . . . Brandon G Jordan Papirny, making his 13th consecutive start, stopped 26 shots. . . . The Wheat Kings (46-10-7) are 3-0-1 in their last four. . . . The Ice (33-28-3) had points in their previous seven (5-0-2). . . . 
In Kamloops, the Blazers erased a 3-2 third-period deficit and beat the Vancouver Giants, 6-3. . . . F Carter Popoff gave the Giants a 3-2 lead with his 24th goal at 2:23 of the third period. . . . Kamloops D Michael Fora tied it with his fifth goal at 8:16. . . . F Cole Ully of Kamloops broke the tie with his 30th goal at 13:07 and freshman F Quinn Benjafield got his second of the game, and fifth of the season, at 16:20. . . . F Jackson Houck scored his 20th goal for Vancouver in the first period and F Ty Ronning notched his first of the season, also in the first. . . . Ully finished with a goal and two assist, giving him 81 points in 60 games. He also was plus-4. . . . F Logan McVeigh and F Joel Hamilton each had two assists for Kamloops. . . . The Blazers scratched freshman F Deven Sideroff, who left early in the third period of Friday’s 4-2 victory over visiting Victoria with an apparent injury to his right wrist. In his absence, F Jesse Zaharichuk started on the right side with Needham and Ully. Cody Nickolet, who tracks WHL lines and defence pairings, has the Ully-Needham-Sideroff line together for 54 of the Blazers’ 62 games going into last night. . . . Before the night was done, Kamloops head coach Don Hay had cycled a number of skaters through the right wing on that line. Later, he even split up Needham and Ully, putting Ully out with Luke Harrison and McVeigh. It paid off in Harrison’s 12th goal, at 17:37 of the second. . . . Vancouver had F Matt Bellerive (illness) back for the first time since Jan. 25. . . . The Blazers scored four goals on seven shots in the third period. . . . F Tyler Benson had two assists for Vancouver. . . . There were three minor penalties called, two to the Blazers. . . . Neither team scored on the PP. . . . The Blazers (24-33-6) have won two in a row. . . . The Giants (26-33-3) have lost two straight. . . . 
In Spokane, F Curtis Miske scored three goals to help the Chiefs to an 8-1 victory over the Tri-City Americans. . . . The Chiefs took control with five second-period goals. . . . Miske, a freshman from Beaumont, Alta., who turned 18 on Jan. 17, now has five goals in 49 games. . . . Chiefs F Adam Helewka scored twice, giving him 35, and added an assist, while F Kailer Yamamoto and F Keanu Yamamoto each had three assists. Yes, they are brothers. . . . Spokane G Garret Hughson stopped 22 shots. He lost his shutout bid when F Taylor Vickerman scored his sixth goal on a PP at 19:45 of the third period. . . . Tri-City F Beau McCue missed on a second-period penalty shot. . . . Spokane D Riley Whittingham took a charging major and game misconduct at 19:02 of the third period. . . . Tri-City G Beck Warm, a 15-year-old making his first start, stopped 31 shots. With regular goaltenders Eric Comrie and Evan Sarthou injured, Warm is the fifth starting goaltender the Americans have used this season. . . . Spokane leads the season series 7-3-0 with two games remaining. . . . The Chiefs (30-27-4) have won three in a row. . . . The Americans (27-33-3) have lost four in a row. . . . 
In Kelowna, F Kenton Helgesen scored at 15:57 of the third period to give the Calgary Hitmen a 2-1 victory over the Rockets. . . . Helgesen’s goal was his 20th of the season. . . . Rockets F Leon Draisaitl scored the game’s first goal, his 14th, at 8:40 of the first period. That was his 200th WHL point. . . . Draisaitl was later ejected, taking a major for goaltender interference at 14:31 of the second period. . . . Calgary F Jake Virtanen tied the game 1-1 with his 19th goal, on a PP at 5:55 of the second. . . . Virtanen also had an assist. . . . Hitmen G Brendan Burke stopped 30 shots. He’s 9-1-1 since being acquired from Portland at the trade dealine. . . . Rockets G Jackson Whistle started for the first time since Feb. 6 when he beat visiting Kamloops, 5-3. He underwent an appendectomy after that start. . . . Whistle turned aside 22 shots in this one. . . . D Josh Morrissey returned to Kelowna’s lineup after a one-game absence, but left in the second period with an apparent left leg injury. According to Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier, Morrissey “got tangled up with Calgary forechecker Carsen Twarynski, went down awkwardly and had to be helped off the ice unable to put any weight on his left leg.” . . . Calgary was 1-for-3 on the PP; Kelowna was 0-for-6. . . . The Rockets remain without injured F Rourke Chartier. . . . The Hitmen (39-19-5) are 5-1-0 on a six-game swing that started with five U.S. Division stops. . . . The Rockets (48-11-4) had won their previous two games. They also had won eight straight on home ice. . . . Fisher’s game story is 
In Kent, Wash., F Oliver Bjorkstrand ran his goal-scoring streak to a franchise record-tying 11 games as the Portland Winterhawks dumped the Seattle Thunderbirds, 5-2. . . . Bjorsktrand scored twice, giving him 48 goals in 49 games, as he took over the WHL’s goal-scoring lead. . . . He now shares the franchise record of 11 straight games with F Tony Currie, who did it in 1976-77, the Winterhawks’ first season in Portland. . . . Bjorkstrand broke a 1-1 tie at 13:40 of first period and later added an empty-netter at 18:01 of the third. . . . The online scoresheet credits Bjorkstrand with Portland’s third goal, a PP score at 2:29 of the second period, but that one is expected to be changed to F Paul Bittner, who also scored another goal. He’s got 29. . . . Bjorkstrand also had an assist. He has 90 points, good for second spot in the scoring race. . . . F Chase De Leo scored his 31st goal and added an assist for Portland, while F Nic Petan had two assists. . . . F Mathew Barzal got his 12th goal and had an assist for Seattle. . . . Portland G Adin Hill was credited with 49 stops, 26 more than Seattle’s Taran Kozun. . . . Portland was 1-for-1 on the PP; Seattle was 0-for-3. . . . The Winterhawks (37-20-5) have points in eight straight (6-0-2). . . . Seattle (31-23-8) has lost three in a row (0-2-1). . . . 
In Everett, the Prince George Cougars scored the last five goals and beat the Silvertips, 5-1. . . . F Jake Mykitiuk, who began his WHL career with the Cougars, got Everett on the board with his third goal at 10:16 of the first. . . . Cougars F Chase Witala tied it with his 31st at 13:02 of the first, on a PP. . . . F Aaron Boyd broke the tie with his sixth, at 8:21 of the second. . . . Witala finished with two goals, while F Jansen Harkins had three assists for a third straight game. . . . Cougars D Josh Connolly had two assists, and F Zach Pochiro scored his 16th goal and added an assist. . . . Cougars G Ty Edmonds stopped 27 shots, two more than Everett’s Austin Lotz. . . . Prince George was 2-for-4 on the PP; Everett was 0-for-6. . . . The Silvertips were without D Ben Betker, who served a one-game suspension for a headshot major and game misconduct he incurred on Friday night. . . . Everett also was missing two other defence men — Kevin Davis and Tristen Pfeifer, both with undisclosed injuries. . . . The injuries and the suspension meant that Everett dressed just four defencemen, so F Dawson Leedahl helped out on the back end. . . . The Cougars scratched F David Soltes for a second straight game. . . . The Cougars (26-33-4) have won three in a row. . . . The Silvertips now are 37-19-7.
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