Generals need OT to stay perfect . . . Rockets, Oceanic on tap today . . . No Draisaitl was Oilers call

D Zack FitzGerald (Seattle, 2001-05) signed a one-year contract with the Sheffield Steelers (England, UK Elite). This season, as a player-assistant coach with the Braehead Clan Glasgow (Scotland, UK Elite), he had two goals and 12 assists in 50 games.
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THE MEMORIAL CUP:

The Oshawa Generals clinched a Memorial Cup playoff berth on Sunday, beating the host Quebec Remparts 5-4 in OT before 10,970 fans. . . . The OHL-champion Generals are 2-0; the Remparts 1-1. . . . The Generals, who outshot the Remparts 50-25, forced OT with a goal late in the third period, then won it on D Stephen Desrocher’s goal at 18:07 of OT. His wrist shot glanced in off the crossbar. . . . The goal came off a faceoff win by F Cole Cassels, who had been on the bench for a bit trying to recover after blocking a shot. . . . All three games in this tournament have been decided by one goal. . . . Tonight, the WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets (0-1) meet the QMJHL-champion Rimouski Oceanic (0-1). . . . Quebec F Dmytro Timashov scored twice, his second goal, at 8:48 of the third period, giving the Remparts their first lead of the game, 4-3. . . . The Generals forced OT when F Tobias Lindberg scored on the PP at 17:51. Before that goal, Oshawa’s PP was 0-for-8 in the tournament. . . . Cassels finished minus-1 but he drew an assist on each of Oshawa’s last two goals. . . . Quebec G Zach Fucale stopped 45 shots, 24 more than Oshawa’s Ken Appleby. . . . The Remparts were 1-for-3 on the PP; the Generals were 1-for-4. . . .
Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier sets the stage for tonight’s game: “Without doubt, the Generals (2-0) will be rooting for the Oceanic (0-1) to defeat the Rockets (0-1) today. If Rimouski wins, Oshawa will
 advance to Sunday’s championship game, regardless if the Rockets beat the Generals on Tuesday. . . . Sunday’s game was the third consecutive one-goal contest to open the 2015 Memorial Cup. The last time a championship opened with three straight one-goal outcomes was 2008.”
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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: Rimouski vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Oshawa vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
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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Kinsey Millhone has nothing on Sunaya Sapurji, one of the junior hockey writers for Yahoo! Sports Canada.
When F Leon Draisaitl didn’t play for Germany in the 2015 World Junior Championship, Sapurji wanted to know whether that was his decision or one made by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, the team whose roster Draisaitl was on at the time.
(The Oilers later assigned Draisaitl to the WHL, but told the Prince Albert Raiders, with whom he had played in 2013-14, that they wanted him with the Kelowna Rockets. Draisaitl was dealt to the Rockets and was the WHL’s playoff MVP.)
Sapurji didn’t have any success finding an answer to her question during the tournament but she didn’t give up. On Sunday, she tweeted that she had gotten the answer from Draisaitl and that it was a decision made by the Oilers.
“That wasn’t really my decision, to be honest,” Draisaitl told reporters at the Memorial Cup. “It was the Oilers’ decision. I don’t want to comment too much on it. It’s their decision and I’m happy with whatever would have happened.”

Without Draisaitl in its lineup, Germany ended up being relegated.
“It’s never fun to see your country go down, especially your age-group,” Draisaitl said. “It’s kind of funny, all my best friends are on that team. I’ve played with all those guys for a number of years. It’s not easy to see something like that, so, obviously it’s disappointing. I would have loved to help them out a little bit at least. But at the same time, I played in the NHL, and that’s a kid’s dream. There’s nothing bad I have to say about that.”

@sunayas @SteveBurtch good for us germans to know. Some questioned his willingness to play for his country..

— Lukas B (@LkB94) May 24, 2015

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Jay Isbee, the governor of Washington, has signed a bill that makes players on the state’s four WHL teams amateur athletes. That exempts those teams from any minimum wage-related laws. However, Scott Sepich, writing for Yahoo! Sports Canada, reports right here that the story may not yet be over.
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F Andrew Johnson, who played out his junior eligibility this season with the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors, has committed to the U of Saskatchewan and the Huskies for next season. Johnson, who is from Saskatoon, played with the Moose Jaw Warriors, Seattle Thunderbirds and Swift Current Broncos (2010-15). He was a second-round selection by the Warriors in the WHL’s 2009 bantam draft.
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Tyler Richards, a goaltender with the NLL’s Vancouver Stealth, is retiring at the age of 28. Why? Because he has had three concussions in the last five years, all from being hit in the head by shots. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province has that story right here.
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A little rainy. But looks like there WILL be baseball today in KC. These are our seats. C'mon guys! Throw me a ball! pic.twitter.com/nyXXkogE0t

— Dan O'Connor (@DanOConnor_PG) May 24, 2015

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Rockets drop opener to Remparts . . . Lowry on Sharks' radar . . . Hiller on move

F Chet Pickard (Tri-City, 2005-09) signed  one-year-plus-option contract with RHW Iserlohn Roosters (Germany, DEL). This season, with Odense (Denmark, Metal Ligaen), he was 2.65 and .909 in 36 games. . . .
F Martin Cibák (Medicine Hat, 1998-2000) signed a one-year contract with Zlín (Czech Republic, Extraliga). This season, with Olomouc (Czech Republic, Extraliga), he had 11 goals and nine assists in 48 games. . . .
F Tyler Mosienko (Kelowna, 2000-05) signed a one-year extension with the Sheffield Steelers (England, UK Elite). This season, he had 26 goals and 37 assists in 60 games.
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As you no doubt are aware, the games began at the Memorial Cup in Quebec City last night. . . . The host Quebec Remparts dumped the WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets, 4-3, before 9,497 fans. . . . In each of the last six tournaments, the host team had lost its opener. . . . The Remparts outchanced the Rockets and, at one point, held a 2-0 lead that could just as easily have been 5-0, but not for some solid play by Kelowna G Jackson Whistle. . . . A key part in this game occurred as the buzzer sounded to end the second period. The Remparts held a 2-1 lead at the time, with Kelowna F Nick Merkley having scored a shorthanded goal at 17:56 of the second period to get the Rockets to within a goal. . . . There was some milling around, some pushing and shoving, at the buzzer and the referees chose to slap misconducts on Kelowna F Leon Draisaitl and Quebec F Marc-Olivier Roy, both of whom are NHL draft picks of the Edmonton Oilers. That took Draisaitl, the WHL’s playoff MVP and Kelowna’s most-dangerous player, off the ice for the first half of the third period. . . . The Rockets didn’t do much offensively with Draisaitl off and, in fact, gave up a shorthanded goal to Quebec F Ryan Graves at 2:08 for a 3-1 Remparts lead. . . . Draisaitl came back and later scored the game’s last goal, on a PP, at 19:24. . . . The Rockets took 44 of the game’s 70 penalty minutes. If they are to win this tournament, they are going to have to stop giving the referees the option to make some of those calls. . . . The Rockets were 2-for-6 on the PP, but gave up that shorthanded goal. . . . Quebec was 0-for-5 on the PP. . . . Quebec G Zach Fucale stopped 26 shots, one fewer than Whistle. . . . Kelowna was 30-for-58 on faceoffs, and that was with Draisaitl struggling — he was 13-for-29. . . . Rockets D Madison Bowey had a game-high six shots, but he can play a lot better than he did. He fought the puck for a good part of this one. . . . The Rockets don’t play again until Monday, so will have some time to think about the loss.
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Here is the Memorial Cup schedule (all games on Sportsnet; all times Eastern):
Friday: Kelowna 3 vs. Quebec 4 (9,497)
Saturday: Rimouski vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday: Quebec vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Monday: Rimouski vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Oshawa vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Quebec vs. Rimouski, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday: Tiebreaker, if necessary, 7:30 p.m.
Friday: Semifinal, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 31: Championship game, 7 p.m.
——
An interesting note from Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier, who is in Quebec City:
“The Colisée Pepsi is a wonderful, albeit aging, rink, one filled with
history. Located steps away is the city’s newest construction site, the home of Videotron Centre, an 18,482-seat arena that fans in this hockey-mad market hope will soon be home to an NHL team. And steps away from the Videotron Centre is Pavillon de la Jeunesse, a small but outstanding rink of which some WHL teams would be envious. The rink seats 5,000, has a low roof and an ice surface that, with the touch of a button, can be expanded from NHL to Olympic size in only eight minutes. If that sounds crazy, here’s something really crazy: The rink doesn’t have a main tenant, and, according to staff, is mostly used for cultural events.”
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Those of us on the outside really have no idea how serious a contender Dave Lowry is for the head-coaching position with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. But if you believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, the Victoria Royals head coach very well may be in the hunt. . . . It could be that someone like Randy Carlyle or Peter DeBoer will replace Todd McLellan. But, hey, it could be Lowry, who played 143 games with the Sharks back in the day. . . . David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News has more right here. . . . “I tried reaching Lowry through the Royals’ media relations director,” Pollak writes, “only to be told Lowry and Royals general manager Cam Hope — who indicated he thought the moment his coach would get a shot at an NHL job was getting closer — weren’t interested in talking any more about the subject. That, of course, only adds to Lowry’s viability as a serious candidate.”
——
The Spokane Chiefs have signed F Koby Morrisseau, who was the ninth overall selection in the WHL’s 2015 bantam draft. Morrisseau, 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, is from Grandview, Man. He had 61 points, including 39 goals, with the Parkland Rangers, who play in the West Division of the Winnipeg bantam AAA league. . . . The Chiefs had two first-round selections in the 2015 draft. Earlier, they signed D Ty Smith, who was the draft’s first overall selection.
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THE COACHING GAME:

The QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs have signed Danny Flynn to a three-year contract as head coach. Flynn, 57, spent this season as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. . . . Flynn, a veteran of the coaching wars, spent six seasons (2007-13) as head coach of the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats, guiding them to the 2010 championship. Flynn replaces Ross Yates, the head coach for the past two seasons.
——
Ansar Khan, who covers the Detroit Red Wings for MLive.com, reported Friday afternoon that former WHL coach Jim Hiller will be joining the Toronto Maple Leafs coaching staff. . . . Hiller, 46, coached in the WHL with the Chilliwack Bruins (remember them?) and Tri-City Americans. This season, he was an assistant coach under Mike Babcock with the Red Wings. . . . In Detroit, Hiller was responsible for the PP, which was the second most-prolific in the NHL.
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Happy 63rd b'day to former 2-way winger Rich Preston who notched 31 goals in 79-80, his 1st NHL season following WHA. pic.twitter.com/a51aJ6LEme

— O-Pee-Chee Stars (@opeecheestars) May 22, 2015

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Needham's late goal gives Blazers a sweep

By DOYLE POTENTEAU
The Okanagan Saturday
So close. Oh, so close. And yet, so far, far away.
Matt Needham scored the winning goal for Kamloops, a power-play marker with 33 seconds remaining in the game, as Kamloops rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a three-goal third period to defeat the Kelowna Rockets 3-2 in WHL action on Saturday night.
It was a last-minute result that infuriated Kelowna no end, as the Rockets could have swept their season-opening, home-and-home series with their B.C. Division rivals.
Instead, they have no victories and just one point following Friday’s 6-5 overtime loss in Kamloops.
“I thought we played better (Friday night),” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team outshot Kamloops 13-5 in Saturday’s first period, but was outshot 14-4 in the third. “I think the 11 penalties that we had to kill (on Friday) affected our energy a little bit as this game went on. But we didn’t attack the game in the third period, and that was difference.
“They came at us and we didn’t have the push that we needed to have. So that’s something we have to work on.”
Dylan Willick, at 5:23 of the third, and Brendan Ranford, at 9:38, also scored for Kamloops (2-0-0). Backup goalie Taran Kozun stopped 27 shots for the Blazers, who were without starting ’keeper Cole Cheveldave because of an undisclosed injury (possibly a knee) suffered Friday night.
Zach Franko and Filip Vasko replied for Kelowna (0-1-1), which led 1-0 and 2-0 at the period breaks. Jordon Cooke made 27 saves for the Rockets.
Forward Colton Heffley was in the penalty box, serving a roughing minor, when Needham found himself alone for a second atop Kelowna’s crease and scored, whacking home a beautiful feed from Colin Smith from a corner.
“You know what? You have to tip your hat to their goalie. He played real well,” said Smith, as slippery a forward as there is in the league. “For us, as a group, we collectively had to stay with it, and I think that’s what we did. If anything, we simplified our game, got more pucks to the net and we were able to capitalize.”
Before the weekend, and considering the considerable and justified hype surrounding Kamloops, the Rockets were in for a tough two games. Still, Kelowna pushed Kamloops hard, and it isn’t much of a stretch to suggest the Rockets could have walked away with three or four points instead of just one.
“Absolutely,” said Smith, who was by far and away Saturday’s best player. “In this league now, there’s no easy nights. Every team is going to push you and every team is capable of getting points. Both games could have went either way, but the main thing is that we came out and found a way (to win). I think that’s huge, especially early in the season. We’re going to take what we can and move on.”
Added Blazers head coach Guy Charron: “It’s always good to be tested like that early in the season. A lot of people say ‘Oh, you’re going to have a good season,’ or ‘You’re one of the teams (to beat).’ But you know what? In this division and conference, there isn’t an easy team. You have to perform to be successful.
“One thing that our team has done since the beginning of the season is that we know we can rally. On Friday, we played pond hockey, and you’re not going to beat teams too often when you do that. (Saturday), we tightened up defensively, I thought we were able to stay in the game. This team, for some reason, even though they might be down by one or two goals, they believe they can come back.”
The Rockets didn’t like either result, but they did walk away from the weekend with some confidence.
“I think we really showed teams around the league that we’re in it this season,” said Franko. “Seriously. From line 1 to line 4. From D pairing 1 to D pairing 4, and Cooke is outstanding. We’re really building, but we still have a long way to go. Discipline is huge in this league, and we can’t allow teams to have as many power plays as Kamloops did in two games. Ultimately, that’s what cost us.”
Having surrendered 13 power-plays to Kamloops in two games, Huska was asked how quickly this problem will be addressed. His response: “The couple of penalties we did have, they were bad penalties. There’s quite a bit of difference from the night before in regards to the number of penalties, but the quality of the penalties we took wasn’t very good.
“It will be (easy to fix). With the number of bodies around, it is easy to fix.”
Added Franko: “This has to be fixed immediately. We’re going into Portland next weekend, and they’re as good, if not better, on the power play. They have Ty Rattie and all those defencemen who can shoot, they’re all good. We have to figure this out really quick . . . it’s a tough pill to swallow, but the sun rises tomorrow and we’re all a tight-knit group. We’re all forgiving and I think we’ll pull through.”
Late in the second period, Blazers defenceman Tyler Hansen was injured in a collision involving four players. As Hansen closed in for the puck along the left halfwall in Kamloops’ zone, he appeared to take a blow to the head from either a teammate or a Rockets skater who tried avoiding Hansen and two other players.
Following the collision, Hansen fell to the ice and stayed there, prompting a stoppage in play. Medical assistance quickly followed, and a stretcher and spineboard were called for. Fifteen minutes later, Hansen, strapped to the stretcher, left the arena for Kelowna General Hospital.
“We watched (the collision) on the replay,” Charron said, “and, unfortunately, Tyler’s head is kind of pointed towards the wall. It’s more of a collision; it wasn’t a hit. And, consequently, we just hope that after they examine him, that it’s not as bad as it looked initially.”
Hansen was released from hospital before midnight and returned to Kamloops with goaltending coach Dan De Pape. The extent of any injury hasn’t yet been made known.
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna’s scratches were D Jesse Lees, D Riley Stadel, D Mitchell Chapman (ankle), RW J.T. Barnett (knee) and RW Austin Ferguson. Kamloops’ scratches were G Cole Cheveldave (undisclosed injury), D Tyler Bell (knee), RW Chase Souto, LW Brayden Gelsinger and D Josh Connolly. . . . Saturday’s attendance was 5,523, ending Kelowna’s consecutive sellout streak of 283 games.

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Jade Galbraith (Saskatoon, 2000-01) signed a one-year contract extension with the Braehead Clan Glasgow (Scotland, UK Elite). Galbraith led the league in scoring and assists, was a first team all-star selection, and was the Elite League Player of the Year as he posted 38 goals and 63 assists in 58 games for the Clan last season. . .  .
F Tyker Czuba, who played in one playoff game for Red Deer in 2003, signed a one-year contract with Miskolci Jegesmedve (Hungary, MOL Liga). He had 27 goals and 11 assists in 25 games for Montpellier (France, Division 1) last season. Czuba finished in a tie for most goals in Division 1 last season.
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The latest edition of DubNation is available right here.
It’s more than 70 pages of major junior-related stuff, including some terrific photos, a feature on Portland Winterhawks star Sven Baertschi, a look at the artwork done by Taylor Vause of the Swift Current Broncos, a flashback to when Don Cherry played in the Memorial Cup.
It’s all created by Doyle Potenteau and it’s all free.
So . . . check it out!
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The NHL draft had hardly ended Saturday when the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch, “notified four amateur scouts that they will not be back with the club — Brian Bates, Andrew Shaw, Artem Telepin and John Williams, who was assistant director of amateur scouting.” . . . Portzline reports that “Bates, Telepin and Williams had been with the Blue Jackets since before they took the ice for their inaugural season in 2000-01. Williams, who scouted Western Canada and especially the Western Hockey League, had a heavy hand in the Blue Jackets' last two No. 1 draft picks, Ryan Johansen (2010) and Ryan Murray (2012).”
It was only a year ago (June 7, 2011) when the Blue Jackets dumped Don Boyd, who was the assistant general manager, and Bob Strumm, their director of pro scouting.
“We believe it was time to make changes in key areas of our organization as we strive to build a championship-caliber team,” Scott Howson, the team’s VP of hockey operations and GM, said at the time.
Boyd had started with Columbus as director of amateur scouting in 1999. Strumm also had been there since 1999.
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It would seem that large goaltenders remain in vogue with NHL teams. The Goalie Guild (@The Goalie Guild) tweeted a draft breakdown by height. . . . Two at 6-foot-5. . . . Five at 6-foot-4. . . . Three at 6-foot-3. . . . Five at 6-foot-2. . . . Seven at 6-foot-1. . . . One each at 6-foot-0 and 5-foot-11. . . .
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Allan Maki of The Globe and Mail reports right here that Hockey Calgary’s desire to remove body checking for peewee players (ages 11 and 12) has been shot down after the city’s 24 associations voted, via secret ballot, to defeat two motions that would have gotten rid of checking prior to next season.
Never mind that a five-year-old study, comparing injuries in this age group between Alberta and Quebec, where hitting isn’t allowed, “showed there was a 33 per cent increase in injuries in Alberta and a higher risk of concussion,” Maki writes.
It will be interesting to see if Hockey Calgary experiences a decrease in registration as those youngsters who don’t want to be banged around gravitate to soccer or baseball or something less physical.


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Sunday stuff . . .

Rich Preston, the GM and head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, put on quite a show in Kelowna on Saturday night.
And I would suggest to you that every coach in the WHL was thinking the same thing: “Good on you, Rich. Go for it.”
Preston was ejected from a 5-3 loss to the Rockets after his side had a goal disallowed at 16:20 of the third period, apparently because a linesman chose to call a spearing penalty against F Graham Hood of the Hurricanes.
“The Hurricanes thought they had scored a power-play goal with 2:59 left,” wrote Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier, “when Brody Sutter knocked in a loose puck in the crease. However, the goal was waived off, with the reason being a double spearing minor to Graham Hood that apparently took place earlier in the play. Following a lengthy review, the goal was disallowed.
“Then Kelowna scored, Geordie Wudrick with his 38th of the season on the ensuing power play, and, shortly after, Preston began littering the ice with water bottles and his clipboard.”
By the time Preston departed the bench area, there were six or seven water bottles, a clipboard and a Gatorade jug and its lid littering the ice surface. (What! No sticks?) However, an observer reports that Preston only tossed five water bottles; two others apparently were thrown by players.
As Gord McGarva, who rides shotgun with Rockets’ radio voice Regan Bartel, mentioned, the cost might be about $100 a bottle with more tacked on for the extras.
“I’ve never seen (anything like it) in all my years,” Preston told Potenteau. “The linesman made a call, but the two referees didn’t see it. And then we changed and (Hood) was sitting on the bench for a good minute because we had another line out there — our other line was out there for a minute and then scores.
“So we think we score, and then all of a sudden it was a phantom penalty call by the linesman. We might as well have three referees now because the linesman is calling penalties. Two referees isn’t enough.”
While Saturday’s incident may not have had anything directly to do with the number of officials on the ice, you can bet that frustration with the WHL officiating was an undercurrent in what happened.
There isn’t a GM or a head coach in the league who will speak on the record about the officiating in the WHL, but every one of them yearns for a return to the one-man refereeing system. They all talk off the record about how the coaching in the WHL has never been better, but how the officiating is the weak link. They all talk about how there simply aren’t enough good referees available to work the two-man system. They all will tell you — again, off the record — that the best-officiated games involve one referee.
On Saturday in Kelowna, the referees were Devin Klein and Ryan Bonnett, while Ward Pateman and Alex Teichroeb were on the lines.
Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska came awfully close to offering unconditional support to Preston when he told Potenteau: “I’ve never been a part of (throwing water bottles), to be honest. But I would probably be a little upset as well. So I can’t say I would have done anything different than Rich.”
Preston, by the way, is on the WHL’s officiating committee. Wouldn’t you like to be the fly on the wall the next time that committee meets?
In the meantime, Preston will write a cheque early this week.
Ch-ch-ching!
The Preston implosion — actually, it wasn’t an implosion; he should get full marks for being cool and collected while he was tossing things — is right here.
The video is rather disappointing, however, as the camera isn't on the Lethbridge bench the whole time so misses a lot of the action.
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Why aren’t there enough good officials? Check out this editorial from the Winnipeg Sun.
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Meanwhile, on the Chilliwack Bruins front:
1. Len Barrie, a former WHL player and NHL owner who now owns the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies, has denied reports that he is involved with RG Properties in an attempt to purchase the Chilliwack Bruins. “That’s false,“ Barrie told the Victoria Times Colonist. “I am not looking to buy the Bruins.” (RG Properties manages the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria; the arena is owned by the city.)
2. I have been told that Oren Koules, who partnered with Barrie on the ownership of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning before it all fell apart, “has been sniffing around trying to get a WHL franchise.” . . . So perhaps it’s Koules, and not Barrie, who is involved here. . . . Koules also is a former WHL player, who now is a producer of movies, including the Saw franchise.
3. There is one train of thought out there that has the WHL wanting badly to put expansion teams into Victoria and Nanaimo. The Victoria team would be owned by RG Properties, with the Nanaimo team going to Hockey Night in Canada analyst Kelly Hrudey and some of his partners in the ownership group of the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers.
4. Don’t be expecting to hear anything out of RG Properties. Dave Dakers, the president of its sports and entertainment division, told the Times Colonist: "All comments regarding the WHL and Victoria have been made previously. To discuss rumours on a one-by-one basis is irresponsible. If and when there is any news to report, we will hold a press conference."
5. Annie Fowler, who covers the Tri-City Americans for the Tri-City Herald, was on the beat when Darryl Porter, now the Bruins’ governor, was involved in the Americans’ ownership group. She, uhh, isn’t a fan. Check out her blog right here.
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JUST NOTES: The Everett Silvertips have been fined $250 “for failure to have player appear for star of game award at Tri-City” on Friday night. Hmmm! Wonder what it’s worth when the three stars aren’t announced after a game, as happened in Kamloops that same night? . . . The Vancouver Giants lost F Brendan Gallagher, their leading scorer, on the first shift of Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the visiting Portland Winterhawks. Although he was feeling better Sunday, he may have a concussion. . . . Gallagher didn’t play in the Giants’ 5-1 loss to the visiting Tri-City Americans on Sunday. The Giants were without D Darren Bestland (back) and D Tyler Hart (shoulder) on the weekend. On Sunday, they lost F Spencer Bennett (hand) and F Teal Burns (shoulder) in the first period. . . . Gallagher, Bennett and Burns are to be re-evaluated today. . . .
D Brandon Manning scored three times Sunday to lead the host Chilliwack Bruins to a 6-2 victory over Portland. With 20 goals, Manning is two shy of the franchise record for goals in a season by a defenceman, set by Nick Holden in 2007-08. . . . F Ryan Howse of Chilliwack got his 48th goal, a career high, and moved into a tie with Spokane C Tyler Johnson for the WHL lead. . .. . More importantly, the Bruins have won five in a row and now are seventh in the Western Conference, three points ahead of the idle Prince George Cougars and Kamloops Blazers. . . .
A release from the Brandon Wheat Kings indicates that they won’t be increasing season-ticket prices if fans renew before June 10. This is the third straight year in which Brandon has chosen not to increase prices. . . . An adult season-ticket purchased by June 10 will cost $325; it’s $350 after the deadline. Youth tickets (18 and under) go for $175. . . . According to the Wheat Kings, “A recent study of season-ticket prices throughout the WHL shows that western Manitoba hockey fans pay more than $100 less for their season-tickets than fans of any other club.”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail is the best essayist/sports columnist in Canada today.
His column in Saturday’s paper carries this headline: How to break Neanderthals’ grip on hockey?
It starts with this sentence:
“If hockey is truly ‘a man’s game,’ then why are the games brought to us by Cialis and Viagra?”
As he writes later in the piece: “It is a great game, but it surely needs some work.”
This is your must-read piece for today and it is right here.
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Interestingly, MacGregor wrote and filed his column before the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders staged that embarrassing exhibition on Friday evening.The NHL had quite a week, didn’t it?
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While enjoying some time off this week, I heard someone -- it may have been Bob McCown on The Fan 590 out of Toronto -- mention that there were, at that particular time, 43 NHL players out with concussions.
I don’t know where that number came from, but I went on TSN’s website late Friday night and started counting. I found 23 players listed as being out with a concussion, concussion symptoms or a head injury. There are a bunch of players on the list with undisclosed injuries, so perhaps there is another list out there somewhere that showed 43 concussed NHLers.
Regardless, it got me to wondering: How many WHL players have suffered concussions this season?
So I spent some time perusing the WHL injury/transaction update that is posted on the league’s website early each week.
Interestingly, six of the WHL’s 22 teams have reported a number of head injuries but not even one concussion. On the other hand, 10 teams have reported concussions but no head injuries.
Including the injury report of Feb. 8, WHL teams have listed a total of 78 players as having suffered head injuries or concussions. Of those, 43 have suffered concussions and 35 are listed as having had head injuries.
(Another five players are shown to have incurred neck injuries.)
Of course, there is nothing here to indicate how these injuries happened. For example, there are goaltenders on the list who were concussed when struck on the mask by a shot or a stick.
But there also are two players on the list who suffered season-ending concussions and one other who hasn’t played since Dec. 10.
As of the Feb. 8 list, there were 13 players out with concussions or head injuries.
No matter how you look at it, there are far too many head injuries, certainly at this level of hockey and in the NHL.
The message, whatever it is, isn’t getting through.
Consider, too, that Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier is reporting: “Last season, the WHL handed out 110 games in suspensions; this season, it’s already at 135.”
That doesn’t include an impending suspension to Kelowna Rockets F Colton Jobke. He was hit with an interference major on Friday night for a hit that ended the season of Chilliwack Bruins F Tim Traber, who suffered a broken leg.
Here’s what Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska, speaking after the game, told Potenteau: “I didn’t think it was a good hit. Traber didn’t have the puck, and, from what I saw originally — and I haven’t looked at since — I thought it wasn’t a very good hit. Even though he’s our player, it’s one of the hits where I wouldn’t want to see one of our guys get hit that way.”
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A look at WHL teams and the number of concussion and head injuries each has reported through Feb. 8 (first number is concussions; second number is head injuries):
Brandon 0-0
Calgary 0-6
Chilliwack 5-0
Edmonton 2-4
Everett 8-0
Kamloops 5-0
Kelowna 0-5
Kootenay 1-2
Lethbridge 0-4
Medicine Hat 3-0
Moose Jaw 2-1
Portland 0-0
Prince Albert 0-3
Prince George 1-0
Red Deer 3-0
Regina 3-0
Saskatoon 5-0
Seattle 2-0
Spokane 0-4
Swift Current 2-1
Tri-City 3-0
Vancouver 3-0
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SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM SATURDAY’S GAMES:
In Whitehorse, F Brendan Gallagher scored twice to help the Vancouver Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The game was played in a soldout Takhini Arena, which has 1,535 seats. . . . This was the first WHL regular-season game to be played in the Yukon, although the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice played two exhibition games in Yellowknife, North West Territories, in 2005. . . . The arena didn’t include glass that meets WHL standards so both teams agreed to have the officials ignore what would have been delay-of-game penalties in WHL arenas. . . . The victory was No. 516 in the WHL for Vancouver head coach Don Hay, who is fourth on the all-time list. Pat Ginnell is No. 3, at 518. . . . The Giants have won 14 of their last 18 games. . . . Gallagher broke a 2-2 tie when he tipped a shot by F Spencer Bennett past G Jeff Bosch. . . . Gallagher has 38 goals. . . . Bennett set up both of Gallagher’s goals. . . . Vancouver G Mark Segal stopped 26 shots, two fewer than Bosch. . . . Vancouver remains atop the B.C. Division, meaning it is the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed. It now is four points ahead of Kelowna. . . . The Blazers slipped into ninth, one point behind Chilliwack. . . .
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In Chilliwack, the Bruins, without three veteran defencemen, beat the Kelowna Rockets, 4-1. . . . F Ryan Howse scored twice, giving him 39 goals, and added an assist. . . . F Max Adolph gave Kelowna a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the season in the first period. . . . F Brandon Magee tied it for the Bruins at 3:25 of the second and F Kevin Sundher, with his 18th, gave them the lead at 17:20. . . . Howse added two third-period goals. . . . The Bruins were without veteran defencemen Brandon Manning, who is serving a seven-game suspension, and the injured Jeff Einhorn and Zach Habscheid. . . . F Curt Gogol dropped back to the blue line and Turner Popoff, 16, was brought in from the junior B Richmond Sockeyes and made his WHL debut. . . . The Bruins also were without F Tim Traber, who will miss the rest of this season with a broken right leg suffered in Friday’s 5-4 shootout victory in Kelowna. Rockets F Colton Jobke was hit with an interference major on the play in which Traber was injured. Jobke has been suspended, although the length of that suspension isn’t yet known. . . . Chilliwack G Lucas Gore stopped 26 shots. . . . The Rockets were 0-for-2 on the PP; the Bruins were 0-for-1. . . . Attendance was 2,909. . . . The victory lifted the Bruins into eighth in the Western Conference, one point ahead of Kamloops. Chilliwack holds four games in hand on Kamloops. . . . The Bruins are at home to Tri-City tonight. . . . The Rockets travel to Everett to face the Silvertips tonight. . . .
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In Kent, Wash., F Ryan Johansen had his first WHL three-goal game, leading the Portland Winterhawks to an 8-2 victory over the host Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . The Winterhawks, who lead the Western Conference, are one victory away from clinching a playoff spot. . . . Portland scored its first five goals on the PP as it went 6-for-7 with the man advantage. . . . Johansen has 30 goals. . . . Portland D Joe Morrow had a goal and three assists. . . . Seattle had a 17-5 edge in first-period shots but went into the second period trailing 1-0. . . . The Winterhawks outshot Seattle 20-7 in the second and emerged with a 5-1 lead. . . . Portland G Keith Hamilton stopped 35 shots. . . . Seattle G Calvin Pickard was beaten seven times on 35 shots before Michael Salmon came on. He was beaten once on two shots. . . . Attendance was 4,771. . . . The Winterhawks lead the Western Conference and hold a five-point lead over Spokane in the U.S. Division. . . . Seattle, with one victory in 10 games, is 10th in the conference and now is five points out of a playoff spot. . . . Spokane visits the Thunderbirds tonight. . . .
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In Brandon, F Matt MacKay scored three times to lead the Wheat Kings to a 6-4 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . MacKay’s third goal, his 21st of the season, came into an empty net with 11.6 seconds left in the third period. . . . F T.J. Foster scored three times for Edmonton, while F Dylan Wruck earned four assists and set the franchise’s modern day record for points (64) in a season. . . . Brandon has won six straight home games. . . . Foster has 23 goals. . . . D Ryan Pulock and F Brenden Walker each had two assists for Brandon. . . . Pulock, a 16-year-old from Grandview, Man., has 27 points in 49 games and certainly is in the conversation when the discussion is about the Eastern Conference’s top rookie. . . . Attendance was 4,120. . . . Brandon is back in action Tuesday when the Saskatoon Blades and F Brayden Schenn come calling. The Wheat Kings dealt Schenn to Saskatoon on Jan. 10. . . . The Wheat Kings, seventh in the Eastern Conference, closed to within three points of the sixth-place Oil Kings. Edmonton has one game in hand. . . . The Oil Kings move on to Swift Current tonight. . . .
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In Moose Jaw, F Marek Viedensky and F Jake Trask each scored twice for Saskatoon as the Blades beat the Warriors, 5-3. . . . The Blades have won 11 in a row. . . . Viedensky has 27 goals. . . . Trask, whose second goal was into an empty net, now has 21 goals. . . . F Cody Beach had a goal and two assists for the Warriors. . . . Moose Jaw G Thomas Heemskerk stopped 43 shots. . . . Saskatoon G Steven Stanford stopped 26 shots and now is 32-3-0. I’m thinking he has the Cy Young Award locked up. . . . After Beach gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead, the Blades scored three times, twice on the PP, to take a 3-1 lead into the second. . . . The Warriors tied it before Viedensky broke the 3-3 deadlock at 18:22 of the third. . . . Referees Derek Zalaski and Cole Hamm handed out nine roughing minors and six for unsportsmanlike conduct. There were only two scraps, though. . . . Attendance was 2,730. . . . The Blades lead the WHL in victories (44), points (90) and winning percentage (.804). In fact, only one other team (Red Deer, .716) is over .700. . . .The Warriors are fifth and appear likely to finish there. . . .
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In Regina, the Pats got two shootout goals and beat the Medicine Hat Tigers, 3-2. . . . The Pats led 2-0 in the second period, on goals by D Brandon Davidson and F Lane Scheidl, only to have the Tigers come back and tie it. D Jace Coyle scored at 13:40 of the second and F Kellan Tochkin tied it at 6:52 of the third. . . . Medicine Hat F Linden Vey had two assists and now has 92 points. He is tied for the scoring lead with Spokane F Tyler Johnson. . . . F Shayne Neigum and Scheidl scored for Regina in the SO, while only F Wacey Hamilton was able to beat G Matt Hewitt for the Tigers. . . . Hewitt stopped 32 shots through OT and three more in the SO. . . . Medicine Hat G Tyler Bunz made 34 saves. Regina D Myles Bell was unable to beat him on a second period penalty shot. . . . Attendance was 3,996. . . . The Pats are tied for 10th with Lethbridge, just two points behind Prince Albert and Swift Current, who are tied for eighth. . . . Medicine Hat is fourth, one point behind Kootenay. . . .
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In Swift Current, F Max Reinhart scored two goals 34 seconds apart as the Kootenay Ice beat the Broncos, 6-4. . . . The Ice, which has clinched a playoff spot, led 3-0 after one period and 4-1 late in the second, only to have the Broncos tie it 4-4 on F Andy Blanke’s fifth goal of the season at 6:59 of the third. . . . F Joe Antilla got the winner at 14:42 and D James Martin nailed the empty-netter at 19:44. . . . F Cody Eakin, traded to the Ice by the Broncos on Jan. 9 for five players and three draft picks, had one assist in his return to Swift Current. . . . F Drew Czerwonka had three assists for the Ice. . . . Reinhart, who scored the game’s first two goals, has 29 this season. . . . Attendance was 2,525. . . . The Ice is third in the Eastern Conference, six points behind Red Deer and one up on Medicine Hat. . . . The Broncos, with one victory in 10 games, are tied with Prince Albert for the conference’s last playoff spot. . . . The Broncos are at home again tonight, this time to Edmonton. . . .
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In Calgary, G Brandon Glover stopped 32 shots to lead the Calgary Hitmen to a 4-1 victory over the Prince George Cougars. . . . The Hitmen scored three times in the first period, with F Justin Kirsch getting his 22nd at 4:12. . . . F Kris Foucault, with his 17th, and F Misha Fisenko, with his seventh, also scored in that first period. . . . F Brett Connolly got his 33rd on the PP at 7:44 of the second. . . . Foucault later added his 18th into an empty net. He also had an assist. . . . Calgary F Brendan Santini had two helpers. . . . Cougars G Ty Rimmer stopped 18 shots. . . . Attendance was 9,385. . . . The Hitmen are 12th in the Eastern Conference and, barring a miracle, won’t make the playoffs. . . . The Cougars are sixth in the Western Conference, four points behind Kelowna and three ahead of Everett. . . . The Cougars have a game in Red Deer tonight. . . .
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In Lethbridge, G Darcy Kuemper stopped 27 shots as the Red Deer Rebels beat the Hurricanes, 3-0. . . . Kuemper, a 20-year-old from Saskatoon, leads all of the CHL with 11 shutouts. He has 17 in his career. . . . He had three in each of his previous two seasons. . . . F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his 20th goal, while F Byron Froese had a goal, his 34th, and an assist, and F Andrej Kudrna got his 25th goal. . . . With Red Deer short on the back end, Froese dropped back and played a lot on defence. . . . Lethbridge G Brandon Anderson stopped 39 shots. . . . Red Deer F Brett Ferguson had an assist to run his point streak to 13 games, the longest active streak in the league today. He has 21 points over that stretch. . . . Attendance was 3,790. . . . Lethbridge is tied with Regina for 10th in the Eastern Conference, two points out of a playoff spot. . . . Red Deer leads the Central Division and is seven points behind conference-leading Saskatoon. . . . Red Deer is at home to Prince George tonight. . . .
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In Spokane, F Levko Koper drew four assists as the Chiefs dumped the Tri-City Americans, 7-2. . . . The Chiefs were 4-for-7 on the PP, while the Americans were 0-for-6. . . . F Tyler Johnson had two goals and an assist for the Chiefs. He leads the WHL with 43 goals and his 92 points have on the top rung alongside Medicine Hat F Linden Vey. . . . Spokane D Brenden Kichton had a goal and two assists. . . . Spokane G Mac Engel stopped 22 shots. . . . Tri-City G Drew Owsley left early in the second period with an apparent knee injury. . . . Attendance was 10,475. . . . The Chiefs are second in the U.S. Division, five points behind Portland with two games in hand. . . . The Americans are three points in back of Spokane. Tri-City holds three games in hand on Spokane and five on Portland. . . . The Americans play in Chilliwack tonight, while the Chiefs are in Kent, Wash., to face Seattle.
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SATURDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Three minors:
Medicine Hat F Kale Kessy
Kelowna F Evan Bloodoff
Tri-City D Sam Grist

If there were any WHL teams out there hoping to acquire D Zak Stebner, 20, on waivers, well, they waited too long.
Following the return of F Neal Prokop to their lineup on Nov. 24, the Tri-City Americans had two weeks to get down to the maximum of three 20-year-old players.
The choice general manager Bob Tory was faced with was to move one of Stebner, Prokop, D Tyler Schmidt or F Kruise Reddick.
Which one?

ZAK STEBNER

 In the end, it came down to Prokop, who is coming back from a badly broken leg suffered in the first round of last season’s playoffs, or Stebner, who was acquired Oct. 14 from the Calgary Hitmen for a third-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. (At the time, a source has told me, the Kelowna Rockets had offered Calgary a fourth-round pick for Stebner.)
Late Tuesday afternoon, Kelowna got Stebner and a seventh-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft in exchange for two draft picks — a fourth-rounder in 2011 and an eight-rounder in 2012.
The Rockets, in effect, replaced the 2011 seventh-round they gave the Prince Albert Raiders last summer for D Brendon Wall, another 20-year-old.
Stebner’s arrival in Kelowna left the Rockets with four 20-year-olds, so they have released Wall. Stebner joins F Evan Bloodoff and F Geordie Wudrick as Kelowna’s 1990-born players.
Stebner is joining his sixth WHL team. He started with the Red Deer Rebels, who selected him with the 32nd pick of the 2005 bantam draft, before moving on to the Prince Albert Raiders, Kamloops Blazers, Calgary, Tri-City and now Kelowna.
“This makes Kelowna a lot better,” one GM told me last night.
Stebner, 6-foot-3 and 206 pounds, had seven assists in 15 games with the Americans. In 233 regular season games, he has 87 points and 298 penalty minutes.
“I was surprised,” Stebner told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier. “Obviously, we had four 20s, but it was still a shock. To get to a place, move in, then have to go to another place, it’s tough. But it’s good that I’m going to nice, sunny Kelowna.”
Stebner plans on driving to Kelowna from Kennewick, Wash., and hopes to play tonight against the visiting Swift Current Broncos.
“Kelowna is a first-class organization,” said Stebner, who played at Prospera Place a few times with Kamloops. “They have good fan support and it’ll be fun playing there. It’s a loud place to play in, a fun place to play in. I would imagine playing for the home teamwill be better.”
Tory said this was one of the toughest decisions he has had to make, and that he definitely was swayed by the grit Prokop has shown in coming back from a devastating injury.
“He showed that he can come back from it. It’s quite a story,” Tory said. “I felt loyalty to the guys who had been here.”

PAUL SOHOR

Before acquiring Stebner, Tory swung a one-for-one swap with the Everett Silvertips, giving up F Zach McPhee, 17, for D Paul Sohor, 19.
Sohor spent two seasons with the Silvertips but had seen his playing time dwindle and had asked for a trade. He was no longer with the Silvertips, who are on an East Division swing. He had six points in 109 games with Everett.
Sohor is from East St. Paul, Man., which is near Winnipeg, so Tory expects him to be a good fit on a roster that includes eight other Winnipeggers. Sohor was a fifth-round selection by Everett in the 2006 bantam draft.
McPhee, who is from Vernon, B.C., was a sixth-round pick in the 2008 bantam draft. He had one goal in eight games with Tri-City before being assigned to the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers.
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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Adrian Foster (Saskatoon, Brandon, 1999-2002) signed a one-month tryout contract with Örebro (Sweden Allsvenskan). He had two goals and two assists in 10 games with Dinamo Riga (Latvia, KHL) and one assist in nine games with the Frankfurt Lions (Germany DEL) last season. Foster was in training camp with the Florida Panthers (NHL) earlier this season.
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USA Hockey announced the preliminary roster for its national junior team on Tuesday and it included two WHL players — F Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers and F Mitchell (Dirty Harry) Callahan of the Kelowna Rockets. All told, 29 players were invited to the camp that opens Dec. 16 in Troy, N.Y.
Callahan found out he would be on the list when he received a phone call from GM Jim Johansson on Sunday.
“I was pretty ecstatic,” Callahan told the Kelowna Daily Courier’s Doyle Potenteau. “The world junior is somethign special. Every kid dreams of playing in the world junior for their country. Even just to get a shot at making the team is pretty special to me.”
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The Edmonton Oil Kings have recalled F Curtis Lazar, 15, for two games. Lazar, who was the second overall pick in the 2010 bantam draft, is expected to play tonight against the Hitmen in Calgary and on Saturday against the visiting Kelowna Rockets. Lazar, who is from Vernon, B.C., has 33 points in 24 games with the Penticton-based Okanagan Hockey Academy’s prep team. . . . F Kyle Calder (Regina, Kamloops, 1995-99) has signed with the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors. Calder, 31, helped the Condors get to the second round of the playoffs last season. He had six points in five regular-season games and added 10 in 10 playoff games. . . . The WHL's Christmas trade moratorium runs Dec. 15-27.
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Some highlights from Tuesday’s WHL games:
In Chilliwack, F Cody Eakin scored three times to lead the Swift Current Broncos to a 5-4 victory over the Bruins. . . . The game had a 10:30 a.m. start time as the Bruins ran a promotion involving school children. Attendance was 4,450. . . . Eakin has 15 goals. . . . The Broncos led this one 3-0 midway through the first period and the Bruins never got back on equal ground. . . . F Ryan Howse got his 20th goal of the season for Chilliwack. . . . Eakin also had an assist. . . . Swift Current D Reece Scarlett had two assists. . . . The Broncos meet the Rockets in Kelowna tonight. . . . Eakin has three regular-season hat tricks, one in each of the last three seasons. . . .
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In Regina, the Everett Silvertips opened up a 3-0 lead with three second-period goals and went on to beat the Pats, 3-2. . . . F Kellan Tochkin’s 15th goal ended up as the winner. He scored at 16:36 of the second on the PP. . . . Everett D Ryan Murray, playing in front of family and hometown friends, drew an assist on Tochkin’s goal. . . . F Jordan Weal got his 13th goal for the Pats. . . . Among the Pats’ scratches was F Thomas Frazee (knee). The Pats say he will be out indefinitely. . . . Attendance was 3,891. . . . Regina is at 8-17-5 with four of those victories over the Swift Current Broncos. . . .
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In Lethbridge, F Cam Braes scored four times to help the Hurricanes to a 7-4 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Braes, who scored 25 goals last season, has 11 this season. He had one three-goal game last season. . . . Lethbridge F Brody Sutter had three assists. . . . Lethbridge got two goals from F Jacob Berglund and two assists from each of D Cason Machacek, F Mitch Maxwell and F Austin Fyten. . . . D Collin Bowman scored twice for Moose Jaw, while F Quinton Howden got No. 18. . . . Lethbridge took a 4-0 lead at 10:48 of the second period with a third straight PP goal. . . . Attendance was 2,374. . . .
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At Vancouver, G Mark Segal stopped 31 shots as the Giants dumped the Kamloops Blazers, 3-0. . . . Segal has two shutouts this season and six in his career. . . . F Matt Bellerive, who turned 16 on Tuesday, scored the game’s first goal at 17:19 of the first period. It was his third goal of the season. . . . The Giants have recorded two shutouts this season; this was the first time the Blazers have been blanked. . . . Attendance was 5,481. . . . The Giants, who have had far more than their share of injuries already this season, lost D David Musil early in the second period after he stopped a Chase Schaber shot with his right foot. Musil was to undergo X-rays last night. “”We'll see where he's at (today) but he's pretty sore,” Vancouver head coach Don Hay told Elliott Pap of hte Vancouver Sun.
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At Prince George, G Steven Stanford stopped 29 shots as the Saskatoon Blades blanked the Cougars 3-0. . . . That was Stanford’s first shutout this season and the third of his career. . . . F Brent Benson had a goal and an assist, including the game’s first goal, at 5:47 of the second period. . . . This was the first time Prince George has been shut out this season, while the Blades have put up two blank jobs. . . . Saskatoon went 4-1-0 on its B.C. Division swing, losing only to the Rockets in Kelowna. . . . Attendance was 1,663, a figure the Prince George Citizen reports is a franchise-record low. . . . The start of the game was delayed slightly by a shattered pane of glass. The CN Centre also had a pane shattered during the morning skate.
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TUESDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
Taking Note on Twitter

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 gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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