Seattle goaltender retires . . . Giants goaltender hurt . . . Busy day for WHL Dept. of Discipline

F Cody Sylvester (Calgary, 2008-13) has signed for the rest of the season with the Iserlohn Roosters (Germany, DEL). This season, with the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL), he had seven goals and 10 assists in 25 games. He was an alternate captain with the Stingrays. . . .
D Lukáš Bohunický (Kootenay, 2005-07) has been released by the Edinburgh Capitals (Scotland, UK Elite) at his request. According to a club press release, Bohunický requested his release in order to return to Slovakia to attend to personal matters. He had a goal and 13 assists in 36 games.
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When the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks revealed Sunday that they had lost G Logan Flodell to Seattle, it was evident that something was going on with the Thunderbirds’ goaltending. What exactly that was became apparent Monday when the Thunderbirds announced that G Danny Mumaugh, 18, had chosen to retire. . . . Mumaugh, from Centennial, Colo., was in his third season in Seattle. He got into 18 games as a freshman and 35 games last season. This season, he had made only eight appearances as he backed up Taran Kozun, 20, who has been in 40 games. In 61 regular-season games, Mumaugh was 18-21-8, 3.76, .887, with one shutout. . . . “Danny came to us recently and told us he did not have the drive to keep playing,” Seattle general manager Russ Farwell said in a news release. “To have a player quit this soon after the (trade) deadline could have left us in a real bind. We are fortunate that Logan is able to join us. We appreciate the Nipawin Hawks working with us to allow Logan to join the team for the remainder of the season.” . . . Flodell, 17, was with the Thunderbirds through Nov. 1, playing in one game — a 3-1 loss to the Prince George Cougars on Oct. 17. In Nipawin, Flodell, who is from Regina, was 8-4-0, 2.44, .901 in 13 games. . . . Flodell was a third-round selection by Seattle in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . The Thunderbirds next play on Wednesday when they are in Kamloops. Kozun, who was acquired from the Kamloops just more than a year ago, is 21-13-6, 2.36, .914 this season. . . . Thom Beuning, the radio voice of the Thunderbirds, has a good piece right here explaining the Mumaugh situation.
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The Vancouver Giants are expecting to be without G Payton Lee, 18, for up to 10 days, according to Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province. Lee was injured three goals into an 8-0 loss to the Hitmen in Calgary on Sunday, when he took a shot to the underside of his blocker. . . . That leaves the Giants with freshman Cody Porter, 17, as their starter for now. . . . Scott Bonner, the Giants’ general manager, also told Ewen that D Clayton Kirichenko should be back Friday when they play in Everett. Kirichenko hasn’t played since Nov. 26 thanks to an undisclosed injury. . . . The Giants go into Everett having lost seven of eight games.
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Head coach Tim Hunter of the Moose Jaw Warriors and three of his players went for the ride of a lifetime on Monday. "The G-forces that you go through when you are coming out of the loops is something that you can't really explain,” Hunter told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald after spending some time in the air with the Snowbirds. “I know that my stomach didn't handle it so well when we came out of it for the second time.” . . . The Times-Herald story is right here.
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F Oliver Bjorkstrand has 21 points in nine games since he returned from the 2015 WJC, where he played for his native Denmark. Bjorkstrand has 61 points in 37 games and is up to fifth place in the WHL scoring race.
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Is it cheating, or is it gamesmanship? In the wake of Deflategate, Arash Madani of Sportsnet, who has worked for CFL teams, explores the subject in an excellent piece that is right here.
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F Carter Arnson of the Lethbridge Hurricanes and F Colby McAuley of the Prince George Cougars both were suspended for five games on Monday after they became in a game-ending bout on Saturday in Lethbridge. McAuley already has missed one game. . . . The Cougars and Hurricanes each were fined $1,000 because of the incident. . . .
D Kyle Burroughs of the Medicine Hat Tigers was suspended for four games for a headshot major and game misconduct on Friday against visiting Prince George. He already has missed one game. That hit was on Cougars F Jari Erricson, who missed most of last season with a concussion. Erricson didn’t play Saturday in Lethbridge or Sunday in Cranbrook. . . . Medicine Hat D Ty Stanton has been suspended for one game for a headshot major and game misconduct that he incurred in Edmonton on Sunday. . . . Burroughs and Stanton won’t play tonight when the Tigers entertain the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . The Tigers also will be without veteran D Tommy Vannelli, 19, who suffered a broken finger in Edmonton on Sunday. . . . In Edmonton, the Tigers were able to dress only 16 skaters, two under the maximum. Still, they beat the Oil Kings 5-2.
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Days like today remind me just how beyond thankful I am for hockey bus drivers. Thanks to all of you who get us from A to B safely.
— Dan O'Connor (@DanOConnor_PG) January 27, 2015

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See you later, alligator!

This is the last post that will appear here for an indefinite period.
I have taken an indefinite leave from the Kamloops Daily News as my wife is scheduled for a kidney transplant.
Thank you for stopping by and hopefully we’ll meet here again in the not-too-distant future.
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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D David Hajek (Spokane, 1998-99) signed a contract through Dec. 1 with Dresden (Germany, DEL2). He had five goals and 15 assists in 48 games for Dresden last season.
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The MacBeth Report has joined the Twitterverse. With this blog going black for a while, you will be able to follow The MacBeth Report on Twitter at @MacBethReport.
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The Victoria Royals have signed F Dante Hannoun, the 11th overall selection in the 2013 WHL bantam draft. The 5-foot-6, 145-pound Hannoun, from Delta, B.C., will spend this season with the major midget Greater Vancouver Canadians. Last season, he captained the bantam AAA North Shore Winter Clukb Hawks, putting up 151 points, including 63 goals, in 63 games.
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The Moose Jaw Warriors have acquired D Zach Hodder, 20, from the Medicine Hat Tigers for a conditional eight-round 2014 bantam draft pick. . . . Hodder, from Delta, B.C. will be joining his fifth WHL team as he also has played for the Vancouver Giants, Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders. . . . In 125 regular-season games, he has 38 points. . . . Hodder was selected by the Giants with the 20th overall pick of the 2008 bantam draft. . . . The Tigers’ roster now includes four 20-year-olds — D Dylan Bredo, F Jacob Doty, F Boston Leiter and F Curtis Valk. . . . Hodder’s arrival gives Moose Jaw three 20-year-olds, as he joins F Sam Fioretti and F Todd Fiddler.
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The Medicine Hat Tigers got down to two goaltenders on Friday when they released G Keelan Williams, 17. . . . Williams, from Calgary, played last season with the midget AAA Calgary Buffaloes. . . . The move leaves the Tigers with sophomore Marek Langhamer, 19, who is from Czech Republic, and freshman Zac Robidoux, 17, from Morden, Man. . . . Langhamer returned Thursday from the Phoenix Coyotes’ rookie camp in Glendale, Ariz.
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The host Everett Silvertips scored four second-period goals and beat the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-4 on Friday night. That allowed the Silvertips to run their preseason record to 6-0. . . . Interestingly, the Silvertips, who struggled to score last season, lead the WHL with 31 goals, 27 of those in their last four games. . . . The Silvertips conclude their exhibition schedule tonight when they meet the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash.
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“Hockey fans at the season-opener of the Tri-City Americans will have a chance to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security improve its facial recognition capabilities,” writes Annette Cary of the Tri-City Herald. “Video will be taped by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the Sept. 21 game in a portion of the Toyota Center in Kennewick.” . . . Cary’s complete story is right here.
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The Seattle Thunderbirds are down to three goaltenders after releasing Logan Flodell, 16, from their training camp roster. Flodell is from Regina and played last season with the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians. . . . The Thunderbirds are left with Danny Mumaugh, 17, Devon Fordyce, 19, and Justin Myles, 18, as their goaltenders to this point.
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“Minor hockey officials, please take note,” writes Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun. “The lawyers came for the National Football League, that $10 billion marketing behemoth that makes the National Hockey League look like a peewee division. And soon they’ll be coming for you, too. At least they will if you don’t move much more aggressively to clean up attitudes regarding head injuries in hockey.”
That complete column is right here.
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Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail writes today of the need to get fun back into the game of hockey. As usual, MacGregor hits the nail squarely on the head. That piece is right here.
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From Michael Scissons (@mrscizz): “I wish the best to @SportyHurly and @Johnny_ops on their future endeavours. It was my pleasure to have worked with you. #dontbestrangers”
Scissons is the director of sales for the Saskatoon Blades. . . . Davis Hurlburt (@SportyHurly) was an account executive with the Blades. . . . John Brodsky (@Johnny_ops) was the Blades’ director of business operations. He is the son of former Blades owner Jack Brodsky.

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Blazers take care of Thunderbirds

Defenceman Connor Clouston (25) of the Kamloops Blazers battles for a loose
puck with Seattle Thunderbirds defender Jesse Forsberg on Friday night.
(Murray Mitchell / Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Goaltending controversy? What goaltending controversy?
With Taran Kozun, Kamloops’ mostly backup goaltender, making his second straight start, the first time he’s done that this season, the Blazers dumped the Seattle Thunderbirds 6-1 at Interior Savings Centre on Friday night.
“It’s always nice to have . . . two goalies,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said. “We know what Cole (Cheveldave) can do. He is the No. 1 goalie . . . probably.”
Cheveldave, the team’s sophomore starter, was hooked from WHL games Dec. 27 (a 7-3 loss to the Rockets in Kelowna) and Dec. 29 (a 9-5 victory over the visiting Vancouver Giants as his save percentage slipped to .899. He has been beaten 22 times over his last four appearances.
Kozun, meanwhile, has allowed five goals on 62 shots over 173:42 in his last four appearances.
“I’m very happy,” Kozun, an 18-year-old freshman from Nipawin, Sask., said after last night’s 22-save performance. “The team is playing well in front of me. I’m just trying to give them a chance to won.”
This actually was the fourth straight game in which Kozun has appeared.
Asked when he last played in four straight games, Kozun replied: “Never.”
Then, with a laugh, he added: “I got three one week.”
That was last season when he got into 16 games with the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks. Last night, Kozun made his 15th appearance of this season.
“I thought I played well in Vancouver,” Kozun said, in reference to Wednesday’s 4-2 victory, “and I had a good game here. I’m  happy with it.”
The Blazers (27-10-4) are happy, too. But Cheveldave is expected to start Wednesday against the Tri-City Americans.
“It’s great that Taran is playing well,” Charron said, “but we need our No. 1 to get back on track.
“We know (Kozun) is a good goalie. But unless he plays it’s difficult to get confidence. Hopefully, these games help his confidence.”
More games like this one definitely will help the team’s confidence.
The Blazers, who have who have won three in a row, have relied heavily on centre Colin Smith, the WHL’s leading scorer, and his linemates this season. In this one, however, the Smith line was blanked — left-winger Tim Bozon picked up one assist on a power play — while a line with Brendan Ranford between Cole Ully and newly acquired Kale Kessy took over.
Ranford finished with four assists, while Ully had a goal and two assists, and Kessy, who was acquired from Vancouver after Wednesday’s game, scored twice.
“That’s OK. I don’t mind,” Charron said of Smith’s line being blanked but the team still scoring six times. “That’s secondary scoring and that’s what we’re looking for.”
And even at that the best player on the ice was Kamloops centre Matt Needham, who continues to excel in a penalty-killing and shutdown role, now alongside Dylan Willick and Joe Kornelsen.
“It’s nice that Matt Needham, who I thought was snakebit for a while, scores a goal,” Charron said.
Needham didn’t just score a goal; he scored THE goal of the game. He went one-on-one with defenceman Shea Theodore, who is projected as a potential first-round NHL draft pick, giving him the old whoop-de-do and then beating goaltender Danny Mumaugh through the legs for his sixth goal this season.
“Shea’s a buddy of mine,” Needham said. “We’ll have a couple of laughs about that one.”
The Blazers also got goals from Kornelsen and defenceman Josh Connolly, who got his first WHL goal in his 25th game this season.
Forward Justin Hickman scored for Seattle, beating Kozun at 14:38 of the first period when the Thunderbirds actually had a lot of the play.
“We just didn’t have the puck,” Needham said. “We weren’t getting it to spots we wanted it. They had a lot more control than we did.”
Charron added: “We didn’t have possession. We had it and we gave it up. There were options there but we weren’t making those passes.”
Once the Blazers ironed out those problems, they won going away.
Mumaugh, a 16-year-old from Centennial, Colo., stopped 30 shots in his first WHL start. He has been playing for head coach David Wilkie, a former Blazers defenceman, with the Omaha AAA U16 team in the North American Prospects League.
The Thunderbirds (16-20-3), who have lost nine in a row, are at home to the Spokane Chiefs tonight. Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk, obviously not happy, kept his players in their dressing room for quite a while after last night’s game.
JUST NOTES: Attendance was 5,114. . . . The Blazers remain atop the B.C. Division, two points ahead of the Kelowna Rockets, who beat the Cougars 4-2 in Prince George. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Needham: Hits, blocked shots and a nifty goal; 2. Ranford: Playmaker deluxe; 3. Kessy: As advertised — big, strong and with some touch. . . . These teams won’t meet again this regular season. The Blazers won the season series, 3-1. . . . F Nick Chyzowski, 15, played in his first game with the Blazers. He got three shifts, including two in the third period. . . . The Blazers returned F Mitch Lipon, 16, to the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians yesterday. . . . D Kevin Davis, 15, of Kamloops made his WHL debut with Everett as the Silvertips beat the visiting Spokane Chiefs, 3-2, last night. Davis was the 11th overall selection in the 2012 bantam draft.

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The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed Danny Mumaugh, a 1996-born goaltender from Centennial, Colo. He was 26-3-3, 1.12, .939 with the Colorado Thunderbirds in the Tier 1 Elite Minor Midget League. He recorded 12 shutouts. . . . Mumaugh was in Seattle’s 2011 rookie camp as a free agent and was added to the team’s protected list at that time.
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Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune offers up his take on the NHL playoffs to this point and he does it right here.
“The league should be ashamed,” he writes. “But the NHL, like MMA and our old, punch-drunk friend boxing, seems to be beyond shame.”
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FRIDAY’S GAMES:
In Edmonton, the Oil Kings won their 20th straight game as they beat the Moose Jaw Warriors, 6-1. . . . It was Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final. Game 2 will be played in Edmonton on Sunday. . . . The Warriors went in having won eight straight playoff games. . . . F Stephane Legault had two goals, giving him three in these playoffs, and an assist for Edmonton, while F Henrik Samuelsson had three assists. . . . F Klarc Wilson opened the scoring for Edmonton;  he also drew two assists. He hadn’t played since March 25 — he got into Edmonton’s first two playoff games with Samuelsson suspended — and was a healthy scratch through the second round victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . Wilson was in the lineup because F Dylan Wruck (shoulder) was not. . . . Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit stopped 29 shots, losing his shutut bid at 14:30 of the second when F Jordan Wyton scored. . . . Moose Jaw G Luke Siemens stopped 19 of 24 shots through two periods. Spencer Tremblay came on to stop five of six shots in the third period. . . . The Warriors were 0-6 on the PP; the Oil Kings were 1-2. . . . The Oil Kings went into this playoff season with an 0-8 all-time record. They now are 9-8. . . . Edmonton F Kristians Pelss left in the second period with an apparent leg injury and didn’t return, while D Keegan Lowe didn’t play again after blocking a shot late in the third period. . . . The Warriors had Wyton and D Morgan Rielly back from injuries, and scratched D Shayne Gwinner, F Carter Hansen and F Torrin White. . . . Rielly, who will be an early first-round selection in the NHL’s 2012 draft, hadn’t played since Nov. 6 when he suffered a knee injury that later required surgery. He played about 15 minutes. . . .

In Kennewick, Wash., F Marcel Noebels scored at 7:52 of OT to give the Portland Winterhawks a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans. . . . Portland leads the best-of-seven Western Conference final 1-0 with Game 2 in Kennewick tonight. . . . Noebels scored his third goal of these playoffs on the Winterhawks’ only shot of the free period. . . . Tri-City had seven shots in OT. . . . Noebels scored the winning goal 61 seconds into the game on Wednesday when the Winterhawks beat the visiting Kamloops Blazers 2-0 in Game 7 of a conference semifinal series. . . . Portland had just finished killing off a Tri-City PP opportunity when Noebels scored. Portland G Mac Carruth was penalized for playing the puck outside the trapezoid. Yes, it’s the worst rule in hockey. . . . Tri-City D Mitch Topping forced OT with a goal at 15:09 of the third. . . . The Winterhawks took a 3-1 lead on F Cam Reid’s goal at 15:48 of the second. . . . Tri-City tied the game on two PP goals by F Patrick Holland, at 18:39 of the second and 9:07 of the third. . . . D Joe Morrow’s PP goal at 10:56 of the third put Portland back out front. . . . The Americans came close to winning it early in OT when Morrow took away a gaping net from Tri-City F Connor Rankin. As Tri-City radio voice Craig West put it: “Connor Rankin had about a four-foot putt right there and Joe Morrow saved the day.” . . . Later, West sent me a note to let me know that it wasn't Morrow; it was Cam Reid. As West noted, he doesn't have the benefit of replays in his spot in the rafters. . . . Portland F Sven Baertschi had a goal and two assists, while linemate Ty Rattie had one assist. They now are tied for the WHL playoff scoring lead, each with 24 points. . . . Portland D Troy Rutkowski had two assists and was plus-4. . . . Tri-City F Brendan Shinnimin scored his side’s first goal, running his point streak to 35 games. . . . That goal gave him a franchise-record 60 playoff points, one more than former Americans F Daymond Langkow. . . . Shinnimin also ended up minus-3. . . . Earlier in the day, Shinnimin was named the Western Conference’s nominee for the player-of-the-year award. He’s up against F Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . Tri-City F Adam Hughesman had two assists, giving him 400 WHL points, including regular season and playoffs. He has 50 career playoff points. . . . The Americans were 3-5 on the PP; Portland was 1-4.

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