Spitfires have spot in Memorial Cup final ... Hitmen move two veteran scouts ... Rockets' top pick commits to UND

F Michal Hlinka (Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, 2010-12) has signed a one-year extension with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, KHL). This season, he had seven goals and four assists in 43 games. Hlinka also spent time with Dukla Trenčín (Slovakia, Extraliga) this season, scoring three goals and adding an assist in 13 games.

———

The host Windsor Spitfires claimed the first berth in the Memorial Cup final with a 4-2 victory over the OHL-champion Erie Otters on Wednesday night. The Otters (2-1) will play in Friday’s semifinal, where they will meet the QMJHL-champion Saint John Sea Dogs (1-2). The winner of that game will meet the Spitfires (3-0) in Sunday’s final. . . . The WHL-champion Seattle Thunderbirds went 0-3 and were eliminated on Tuesday when they lost 7-0 to Saint John. . . . 

Last night, F Jeremiah Addison, who finished with three goals, got Windsor started with a pair of first-period goals, at 5:50 and 15:28. F Gabriel Vilardi earned the primary assist on both goals en route to a four-assist game. . . . F Mikhail Sergachev upped it to 3-0 with his first goal, on a PP, just 43 seconds into the second period. . . . F Kyle Maksimovich got Erie on the scoreboard when he scored off a rebound at 8:10 of the third period. . . . Addison completed his hat trick at 13:31. . . . F Taylor Raddysh’s third goal of the tournament got Erie to within two goals at 17:34, on a PP. . . . 

The Spitfires got a big game from G Michael DiPietro, with 33 saves. At the other end, Troy Timpano turned aside 15 shots. . . . Erie was 1-3 on the PP; Windsor was 1-4. . . . Erie F Alex DeBrincat, who scored 65 goals in the regular season, was helped from the ice late in the second period after taking a hit from Addison. However, DeBrincat was back for the third period. . . . Announced attendance: 6,136.

Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun has a game story right here.

——

The Calgary Hitmen moved Mike Moore from general manager and vice-president of business operations to vice-president and alternate governor last week. The announcement was made by Ken King, the president and CEO of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation. . . . Taking Note was told Wednesday night that the Hitmen also jettisoned Dan Bonar and Roy Stasiuk, although those moves weren’t included in the announcement. . . . Bonar, 60, had been with the Hitmen since 2003, starting as a scout. He was named head scout on July 11, 2011, and took over as director of player personnel prior to the 2013-14 season. Bonar, from Deloraine, Man., played three seasons (1974-77) with the Brandon Wheat Kings before going on to a pro career that included 169 NHL games with the Los Angeles Kings. . . . Stasiuk, from Edmonton, was named Calgary’s Prairie scouting director on July 31, 2015. Before joining Calgary, he spent six seasons scouting for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to that, Stasiuk, 54, spent 20 seasons in the WHL, working with the Prince Albert Raiders, Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton Oil Kings, Kootenay Ice and Lethbridge Hurricanes.

——

F Ethan Bowen, whose WHL rights belong to the Kelowna Rockets, has committed to North Dakota, for 2020-21, while saying he will play for the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs in 2018-19. Bowen, who turned 15 on May 14, is from Chilliwack. He played this season at the Yale Hockey Academy in Abbotsford, B.C., putting up 33 goals and 29 assists in 29 games with the bantam prep team. . . . Had there not been doubts about which route he would take, Bowen would have been an early first-round selection in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft. The Rockets took him with their first pick, which happened to be in the second round. 

——

The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes have signed Craig Cunningham, 26, to a two-year contract as a pro scout. He also will work in player development. Cunningham, from Trail, B.C., played in the WHL with the Vancouver Giants and Portland Winterhawks (2006-11). He was the captain of the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, when his playing career ended this season when he suffered a cardiac emergency prior to a game on Nov. 19. Doctors later had to amputate part of his left leg.

——

If you enjoy stopping off here and would care to make a donation to the cause, please feel free to do so by clicking on the DONATE button and going from there.

If you have some information you would like to share or just a general comment, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.

If interested, you also are able to follow me on Twitter at @gdrinnan.

———

Darryl Sydor is back in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues announced Wednesday that Sydor has been signed to a three-year contract as an assistant coach. Sydor, 45, will work alongside Blues head coach Mike Yeo. . . . Sydor, a co-owner of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, was an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild for five seasons during Yeo’s time there as head coach. . . . This season, Sydor was an assistant coach with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. . . . Sydor, from Edmonton, played four seasons (1988-92) in Kamloops.

——

Arnie Caplan is the new general manager and head coach of the MJHL’s Waywayseecappo Wolverines. Caplan, 49, most recently was the head coach of the Portage College Voyageurs of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. As a goaltender, he made brief stops in the MJHL and the WHL, before spending four years with the Acadia Axemen. . . . With the Wolverines, Caplan replaces Barry Butler, who had been the GM/head coach for all but two seasons since 1999-2000, when the franchise joined the MJHL.

——

Kirk MacDonald has been named director of hockey operations and head coach of the ECHL’s Reading Royals, who have a working agreement with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. MacDonald signed a three-year contract. MacDonald took over as interim head coach on April 3, replacing Larry Courville, who was fired with a week left in the regular season. He had revealed in February that he wouldn’t be returning for another season. MacDonald, who is from Victoria, had been an assistant coach since July 2014. 

———

Public service announcement: If you're "that guy" who thinks it's necessary to yell out random things during national anthems - please STOP!

— Loosepucks (@loosepucks) May 24, 2017

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.

Thursday . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
G Joel Martin (Lethbridge, Tri-City, Vancouver, Calgary, 2000-03) signed a one-year contract with Herlev (Denmark, AL-Bank Liga). He had a 3.54 GAA and a .880 save percentage in 18 games for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) and a 3.53 GAA and a .890 save percentage in 21 games with the Odessa Jackalopes (Central Hockey League) last season.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Former Kamloops Blazers D Darryl Sydor, who now owns a piece of the team, has been added to the NHL-Minnesota Wild’s coaching staff. Last month, the Wild hired Mike Yeo as its head coach to replace Todd Richards. Yeo had been the head coach of the Wild’s AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros, and Sydor, who retired after the 2009-10 season, was on his coaching staff. . . . Former Prince Albert Raiders head coach Rick Wilson remains on the Wild coaching staff. He was on the Dallas Stars’ staff when Sydor played there. During his 18-year pro career, Sydor also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who had Yeo on their staff at the time. . . . Former Wild assistant coach Dave Barr is expected to be named head coach of the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . .
The Abbotsford Heat, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames, has named assistant coach Troy Ward is its head coach. He takes over from Jim Playfair, who left to join the coaching staff of the Phoenix Coyotes. . . .
James Boyd is the new GM/head coach of the OHL’s Mississauga St. Michael's Majors. Boyd, 35, spent the last four seasons with the Majors, as the assistdant GM and co-coach, working alongside Dave Cameron. Cameron now is on the coaching staff of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. . . .
Tim Kehler has resigned as GM/head coach of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm SilverBacks. His coaching experience includes a stint as head coach of the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters and with the Swift Current Broncos as an assistant coach. Kehler had signed a three-year contract with the Silverbacks on July 1, 2010. . . . For more on the Kehler resignation, check out Shawn Mullin’s blog over there on the right. . . .
The NAHL’s Fairbanks Ice Dogs have signed Trevor Stewart as their head coach. Stewart was an assistant coach with the St. Louis Bandits last season. He replaces Josh Hauge, who now is an assistant coach under Drew Schoneck with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

(This column appears in the Dec. 21 edition of the Kamloops Daily News)

The Kamloops Blazers’ season, to quote one-time linemates Simon and Garfunkel, appears as though it may be slip sliding away.
As the WHL team’s players headed home Sunday for tobogganing, Facebooking and other Christmas season fun, they had lost four straight games and tumbled into last place in the 10-team Western Conference.
This is the same conference in which things have been as tight as sardines in a tin, with nine teams separated by three points at times. Now, however, the Blazers find themselves five points out of a playoff spot which, in this world of three-point games and loser points, is a large mountain to climb.
Craig Bonner, the Blazers’ general manager, didn’t sound overly concerned Monday afternoon. He was with the team for its last three losses and felt the results didn’t mirror the effort.
But should Bonner be content with trying to get what to this point has been a less-than-mediocre team into the playoffs, even if it means being the seventh or eighth seed? That, of course, would quite likely lead to another first-round playoff exit for a franchise that hasn’t seen the second round since the spring of 1999.
Or, with the trade deadline arriving on Jan 10, should he begin selling off older assets for young prospects and draft picks in the hope of having a championship-calibre team three years down the road?
At this point, it seems likely that he will do neither.
Bonner said he isn’t prepared to be a buyer or a seller. He said he likes his roster and expects better results in the new year. In fact, he said, he expects to be “quiet” at the trade deadline.
Bonner likes the youth on his roster and is prepared to await the arrival of more young players, all of which is part of the five-year plan he drew up when he moved into the GM’s office prior to the 2008-09 season.
But when you look around the stands at Interior Savings Centre you have to wonder if it matters what he does, if anything.
The Blazers have been a big part of this community since they arrived, as the Kamloops Jr. Oilers, over the summer of 1981. But, as time goes on, they are playing a smaller and smaller role, to the point where they now are averaging 4,014 fans per game, down 262 from the same point last season and down 773 — that works out to 27,828 over the course of a season — since Vancouver-based businessman Tom Gaglardi, along with NHLers Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor, all of them ex-Blazers, purchased the team over the summer of 2007.
Of course, it was only a year ago when it appeared that Guy Charron would be the answer to the question: Who will be the coach to lead the Blazers out of the wilderness?
He became the fourth head coach in the Gaglardi group’s history, following Dean Clark (fired), Greg Hawgood (fired) and Barry Smith (fired).
Charron, a former NHL player who is a true veteran of the coaching game, brought a cheery disposition and a softer touch into the Blazers’ dressing room. So impressed was the ownership group that, before last season ended, it rewarded Charron, 61, with a two-year contract that runs through 2011-12.
But, of late, Charron’s feather duster has been replaced by a sledge hammer as he has shown signs of frustration.
From stripping the letters off five alternate captains following a 10-1 loss to the Chiefs in Spokane on Nov. 24 to publicly criticizing goaltender Jeff Bosch and left-winger Brendan Ranford, who leads the WHL in goals and points, on Radio NL after a 3-2 loss to the Cougars in Prince George on Friday night, Charron has shown he no longer is prepared to be patient.
But if you have watched this team from the start of the season, you knew it was only a matter of time before the team found itself in this predicament.
When you combine this team’s lack of discipline (it leads the WHL in penalty minutes) with its inefficient penalty kill (it is easily the poorest in the league and has allowed by far the most power-play goals) with spotty goaltending, well, it was only a matter of time before the bottom fell out.
If improvement in those areas isn’t evident in the eight games left before the trade deadline, Bonner may be forced to alter his plan.
Consider, too, that the Blazers are 7-16-1 in games against Western Conference opponents and 8-2-1 against teams from the east. Of their 37 remaining games, 29 are against western teams.
In the meantime, Blazers fans are left to wonder just what has happened to this once-proud franchise and why it is unable to fix the things that are holding it back.
As one member of the organization was heard to say the other day: “You’d think there was a curse over us, or something.”

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)