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D Andrej Meszároš (Vancouver, 2004-05) has signed a one-year extension with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, KHL). The team captain, he had four goals and nine assists in 35 games this season. . . .
F C.J. Stretch (Kamloops, 2005-10) has signed a one-year extension with Löwen Frankfurt (Germany, DEL2). This season, he finished third in the league scoring race, putting up 60 points, including 34 assists, in 52 games. . . .
G Patrik Bartošák (Red Deer, 2011-14) has signed a one-year extension with Vítkovice Ostrava (Czech Republic, Extraliga). This season, in 41 games, he was 2.22 and 926, with five shutouts. . . .
F Marek Kalus (Spokane, Brandon, 2010-13) has signed a try-out contract with Vítkovice Ostrava (Czech Republic, Extraliga). This season, with Havířov (Czech Republic, 1. Liga), he had 12 goals and 13 assists in 41 games. . . .
D Tomáš Kundrátek (Medicine Hat, 2008-10) has signed a one-year contract with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (Russia, KHL). This season, with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, KHL), he had eight goals and five assists in 39 games.
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@Butter_29 @SCBroncos @aleksiheponiemi @T_Steener @TheWHL They need a 'trainer of the year' award.— Regan Bartel (@Reganrant) May 3, 2017
The WHL handed out its postseason awards on Wednesday in Calgary and it turned into the Regina Pats show.
The Seattle Thunderbirds are hoping that doesn’t happen in the championship final, for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, that opens Friday in Regina.
During the afternoon proceedings, a number of Pats were honoured:
F Sam Steel was given the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as player of the year;
John Paddock received the Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy as the coach of the year, the second time his three seasons in the WHL that he has won this award;
Paddock also picked up the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy as the executive of the year;
The Pats’ front office was award the WHL Business Award;
The Pats were presented the Scott Munro Memorial Trophy as regular-season champions; and,
Steel picked up the Bob Clarke Trophy as the regular-season scoring champion.
The last time the same man was coach- and executive-of-the-year in the same season? Brent Sutter of the Red Deer Rebels got both awards for the 2000-01 season.
The last time the same man was coach- and executive-of-the-year in the same season? Brent Sutter of the Red Deer Rebels got both awards for the 2000-01 season.
There is a whole lot more on these award winners and others on the WHL’s website — whl.ca.
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Our friends on the HMCS Regina are ready for the WHL Championship Series! Thanks boys! #WHLPlayoffs #REGvsSEA pic.twitter.com/8n5xYfpGdT— #JoinTheRegiment (@WHLPats) May 2, 2017
The Seattle Thunderbirds flew into Regina on Wednesday afternoon to begin final preparations for the Friday night opening of the WHL’s championship series for the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Last season, the Thunderbirds met the Brandon Wheat Kings in the final, with the Manitoba squad winning the series, 4-1. That series opened in Brandon and was played with a 2-3-2 format. In order to get to Brandon, the Thunderbirds rode their bus to Abbotsford, B.C., then flew to the Wheat City. When the teams flew back, they rode the same charter from Brandon to Abbotsford, then took separate busses to Kent, Wash.
Yesterday, the Thunderbirds flew out of Boeing Field, which I’m told involved a 15-minute bus ride to get there, which beats the two-hour ride to Abbotsford. So the Thunderbirds, you might say, already are ahead of the game.
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The WHL’s bantam draft is scheduled to begin this morning at 7:30 PT in Calgary. There won’t be any running coverage of the draft at this site. They start streaming at whl.ca at 7:30 PT.
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Dale Molnar of CBC News writes:
“Tournament packages have sold for as much $885. The cheapest single-game tickets now on sale are $75, compared to around $20 for the cheapest regular season ticket for a Windsor Spitfires game.”
John Savage, the chairperson of the Windsor organization committee and a co-owner of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, the host team, told Molnar that ticket prices cover costs like flights and hotels for the competing teams.
"Just looking at the work and effort that has to go into this, it's really a break even proposition," Savage told Molnar.
According to financial statements filed in a Calgary court earlier this year, each of the WHL’s 22 teams received $148,913 — a total of $3,276,088 — from the 2013 Memorial Cup that was held in Saskatoon. On top of that, each team got $118,477 — a total of $2,606,494 — from the 2016 Memorial Cup that was held in Red Deer.
Molnar’s story is right here.
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The Southern Professional Hockey League lost a franchise on Wednesday as the Columbus Cottonmouths announced that they will suspend operations, at least for 2017-18. . . . The Cottonmouths had been around for 21 seasons. . . . Jerome Bechard, who played in the WHL with the Moose Jaw Warriors (1986-90), is the Cottonmouths’ general manager and head coach. “The franchise is still there,” Bechard, who has been in Columbus since Day 1 in 1996, told Chuck Williams of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “The league and ourselves are still working to get an ownership group in here. Obviously, not to play ’17-18, but, hopefully, to come back in ’18-19.” . . . Williams’ story is right here.
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The BCHL’s Surrey Eagles have signed Brandon West to a multi-year contract as their head coach. West has coached in the BCHL for more than six seasons, most recently with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. He was in his third season with Salmon Arm when he was fired in November. . . . With the Eagles, West, 32, takes over from Blaine Neufeld, the head coach for the past three seasons. Neufeld now is the Eagles’ general manager. . . . It is interesting, too, that Eagles owner Chuck Westgard has taken a hands-on approach again. From a news release: “Three years ago, after having the Eagles win the Fred Page Cup, the Western Canada Cup and eventually lose in overtime in the semi-final of the RBC Cup In Charlottetown, Westgard hired an outside management group to run the team. He has now decided the time is right to get actively involved again.” . . . This season, the Eagles finished 18-36-4-0 and didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
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Ed Patterson will be back for a seventh season as head coach the junior B Kamloops Storm of the Kootenay Junior International Hockey League. The Storm made that announcement on Wednesday. . . . The Storm also added Matt Kolle to its staff as the assistant general manager. . . . Patterson, 44, played in the WHL (1988-92) with the Seattle Thunderbirds, Swift Current Broncos and Kamloops Blazers. There had been some doubt as to whether he would return to the Storm after a change of venue — the team moved from McArthur Island to Memorial Arena — wasn’t greeted with gusto by the citizenry. “It . . . comes down to money,” Storm owner/GM Barry Dewar told Kamloops This Week in March. “If I can’t find a source of revenue to pay Ed . . . then it becomes hard to keep those kinds of talents.” . . . Apparently, Dewar and Patterson found a way to keep making it work. . . . Kolle had tried earlier this year to land a KIJHL franchise for Quesnel, B.C., however other team owners voted down that move in January.
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Former WHL/NHL F Jeff Shantz has been added to the coaching staff at the Edge School in Calgary. Shantz, 43, will be a co-coach, alongside Evan Bak, with the Bantam varsity team that plays in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League. . . . Shantz, from Duchess, Alta., played for the Regina Pats (1990-93), before going on to a pro career that included 642 games in the NHL. He retired following the 2010-11 season, after spending eight years in Europe.
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MONDAY-THURSDAY’S GAMES (all times local):
No Games Scheduled.
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FRIDAY’S GAME (all times local):
Seattle at Regina, 7 p.m. (Game 1)
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In Prince Albert, F Curtis Sanford scored his 50th goal of the season to help the Medicine Hat Tigerfs to a 6-2 victory over the Raiders. . . . Sanford, 19, has career highs in goals (50), assists (43) and points (93). Last season, he had 73 points, including 33 goals, in 72 games. . . . He is the second WHLer with 50 goals this season, behind only Portland Winterhawks F Oliver Bjorkstrand, who has 58. . . . The Tigers scored the game’s first three goals and five of the first six as they cruised to victory. . . . Sanford also had an assist. . . . F Steve Owre and F Dryden Hunt each had a goal and an assist for the Tigers. Owre has 19 goals; Hunt has 32. . . . The Raiders saluted Duane Bartley, their veteran trainer and equipment manager, prior to the game. He worked his 1,000th WHL game on Sunday in Medicine Hat. Bartley is in his 14th WHL season. . . . Medicine Hat (43-23-4) is 2-0-1 in its last three games. . . . Prince Albert slid to 29-37-4. . . . 
In Calgary, F Connor Rankin scored at 3:59 of OT to give the Hitmen a 3-2 victory over the Red Deer Rebels. . . . Rankin, who also had an assist, has 32 goals. . . . Red Deer D Colton Bobyk opened the scoring with his fifth goal at 14:19 of the second period. . . . Calgary F Adam Tambellini tied it with his 47th at 8:06 of third. . . . D Travis Sanheim gave the Hitmen a 2-1 lead with No. 14 at 11:24. . . . Red Deer F Riley Sheen forced OT with his 22nd goal at 17:02. . . . Sanheim and Tambellini each had an assist. . . . Red Deer was 0-for-6 on the PP; Calgary was 0-for-3. . . . The Hitmen (43-22-5) have won three straight. . . . The Rebels (37-22-11) lead the WHL in loser points. . . . 
In Lethbridge, the Kootenay Ice erased a 1-0 deficit with five straight goals and went on to beat the Hurricanes, 6-3. . . . F Jamal Watson gave the home side a 1-0 lead with his 25th goal at 4:06 of the first period. . . . Ice F Zak Zborosky, who had two goals and two assists, tied it at 8:38 of the first and F Jaedon Descheneau gave the Ice the lead with his 33rd goal at 7:37 of the second, via a PP. . . . Zborosky, who had gone 15 games without a goal, now has 18 goals. . . . Descheneau later scored his 34th goal and he also had an assist. . . . D Tyler King had two assists for the Ice. . . . D Brady Reagan scored his second goal and added an assist for Lethbridge. . . . Kootenay G Wyatt Hoflin stopped 18 shots in his 65th appearance this season. That ties the franchise record set by Mackenzie Skapski in 2012-13. . . . The Ice (37-29-4) has won four straight. . . . The Hurricanes (20-42-8) have lost six straight. . . . Taylor Rocca of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman has a game story 
In Prince George, the Cougars built up a 3-0 lead and then withstood a furious Kamloops rally to beat the Blazers, 4-2. . . . F Zach Pochiro, with his 19th, and F Colby McAuley, with his fourth, gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead before the game was four minutes old. . . . F Brad Morrison scored his 23rd at 15:15 of the second for a 3-0 lead. . . . Kamloops F Logan McVeigh got his guys on the board with his ninth goal at 1:11 of the third period. . . . D Ryan Rehill scored his seventh at 8:36 to get Kamloops to within one. . . . Cougars F Chase Witala iced it with his 38th, into an empty net, at 19:42. . . . Witala and Pochiro also had an assist apiece. . . . Kamloops G Connor Ingram stopped 40 shots, 12 more than Prince George’s Ty Edmonds. . . . The Cougars were 0-for-2 on the PP; the Blazers’ PP unit didn’t get off the bench. . . . Prince George (30-35-5) has won two in a row. . . . The Blazers (27-36-7) have lost two straight. . . .
In Kelowna, F Lane Pederson’s goal at 3:08 of OT gave the Seattle Thunderbirds a 3-2 victory over the Rockets. . . . Pederson has eight goals. . . . D Evan Wardley gave Seattle a 1-0 lead with his sixth goal at 18:06 of the first period. . . . Kelowna F Rourke Chartier scored his 48th goal at 1:27 of the second. . . . Seattle regained the lead at 14:32 of the second, on a PP, as F Cory Millette scored his 22nd goal. . . . The Rockets forced the extra period when F Dillon Dube scored his 17th goal, via the PP, at 7:20 of the third. . . . Seattle (36-25-9) has won its last two games. . . . Kelowna (51-13-6) has lost two in a row (1-0-1). . . .
In Spokane, D Adam Henry had three goals and an assist to lead the Portland Winterhawks to a 7-4 victory over the Chiefs. . . . Henry has 11 goals after his first career hat trick. . . . Portland F Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and three assists. He lead the WHL in goals (58) and points (112), all in 56 games. . . . F Nic Petan scored his 14th goal and added two assists for Portland, while F Chase De Leo and F Keegan Iverson each had a goal and an assist. De Leo has 38 goals; Iverson has 14. . . . Portland F Evan Weinger had two assists. . . . F Calder Brooks scored his 23rd goal and added an assist for Spokane, which got two assists from F Liam Stewart. . . . Portland took a 3-2 lead into the second period, after F Riley Whittingham’s 18th goal got Spokane to within one, and then scored the next three goals, two of them late in the second period. . . . F Adam Helewka scored his 41st goal for the Chiefs. . . . Portland G Adin Hill stopped 43 shots, 14 more than Spokane’s Garret Hughson. . . . Portland was 2-for-5 on the PP; Spokane was 2-for-4. . . . Portland (42-21-6) is 7-1-2 in its last 10. . . . Spokane (34-31-4) has lost two in a row. 
games (25-21-6, 2.89, .912). On Wednesday, the Raiders acquired G Cole Cheveldave and a 2015 fourth-round bantam draft pick from the Kamloops Blazers for F Jake Kryski, 15, and a 2014 seventh-round draft pick. . . . In his second season as the Blazers starter, Cheveldave, in 56 games, was 36-16-2, 2.38, .908. . . . Before acquiring Cheveldave, it seemed the Raiders would open with Andy Desautels of White City, Sask., as their starter. Desautels, 19, got into only 13 games last season, going 2-7-1, 4.01, .873. . . . The deal leaves the Blazers with Taran Kozun, 19, as the veteran goaltender on their roster. He got into 20 games 
last season, going 11-4-3, 2.36, .914. . . . Kryski was the 13th overall selection in the 2013 bantam draft. He had 118 points, including 59 goals, with the Burnaby Winter Club’s bantam AAA team last season.
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