Signings, signings and more signings . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Kenton Smith (Calgary, 1995-2000) signed a two-week tryout contract with the Braehead Clan Glasgow (Scotland, UK Elite). He had three goals and 16 assists in 59 games with the Cardiff Devils (Wales, UK Elite) last season. According to the club, the tryout is to cover a “slight knock” picked up by D Ray Macias (Kamloops, 2002-07). . . .


D Ty Wishart (Prince George, Moose Jaw, 2004-08) signed a one-year contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings (Germany, DEL). He had seven goals and 17 assists in 62 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) last season.
———
All three members of what was at times the best forward line in the WHL last season now have signed NHL contracts. RW JC Lipon of the Kamloops Blazers signed a three-year, two-way entry-level deal with the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday after being a third-round selection in the 2013 draft. . . . Lipon, from Regina, played on a line with C Colin Smith, a seventh-round pick by the Colorado Avalanche in 2012, who has signed, and LW Tim Bozon, a third-round selection by the Montreal Canadiens in 2012, who also has signed. . . . Lipon and Smith both are 20, so are eligible to play in the AHL if they don’t make an NHL roster. Lipon could end up with the St. John’s Ice Caps, while Smith would play for the Cleveland-based Lake Erie Monsters. . . . Bozon, 19, will attend Montreal’s camp, but if he doesn’t make the Canadiens he has to be returned to Kamloops. . . . Last season, Smith had 106 points, including 41 goals, in 72 games, while Bozon put up 91 points, 36 of them goals, in 69 games. Lipon, who missed some time while with Canada’s national junior team, finished with 89 points, including 36 goals, in 61 games.
———
The Lethbridge Hurricanes have opened training camp without D Ryan Pilon, who turns 17 on Oct. 10, and G Corbin Boes, 20. . . . Pilon has been diagnosed with mononucleosis and the Hurricanes suggest he may miss the start of the regular season. Pilon played for Canada’s U-18 team as it won the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka earlier this month. He had 28 points in 57 games for the Hurricanes as a 16-year-old last season. . . . Boes, who was acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings in May, has had surgery on his right hand and is expected to be out for up to three weeks.
———
The Seattle Thunderbirds have signed F Kaden Elder and F Nolan Volcan to WHL contracts. . . . Elder, from Saskatoon, was selected with the 22nd pick of the 2013 bantam draft. He had 64 points in 33 games with the bantam AA Notre Dame Hounds last season. . . . Volcan, from Edmonton, was taken with the draft’s 27th selection. He had 76 points, including 40 goals, in 32 games with the bantam AAA Edmonton Maple Leaf Athletic Club team last season. His father, Marty, is a former WHLer (Portland, Seattle Breakers, Victoria Cougars, 1984-86).
———
The Tri-City Americans had a busy day as they signed three players to WHL deals. . . . F Jordan Topping, from Salt Spring Island, B.C., is a 16-year-old who had 17 points in 40 games with the North Island Silvertips of the B.C. Major Midget League last season. He was an eighth-round selection in the 2012 bantam draft and is the seventh draft pick to sign with the Americans. He is not related to D Mitch Topping, who is Tri-City’s captain. . . . The Americans also signed D Dylan Coghlan of Nanaimo, B.C., to a contract. Coghlan was a third-round selection in the 2013 bantam draft. He had 40 points in 34 games with the bantam AAA Nanaimo Clippers. . . . Later in the day, the Americans announced the signing of F Michael Sauer, 16, from Bemidji, Minn. He played last season for Bemidji High School, putting up 30 points in 25 games. He has been on Tri-City’s list since March.
———
The Kamloops Blazers have signed F Nathan Looysen, 17, to a WHL deal. From Saanichton, B.C., Looysen was placed on the Blazers’ protected list in November 2012. He had 23 points in 27 games with the junior B Peninsula Panthers of the Vancouver Island Junior League last season.
———
The Portland Winterhawks have signed F Ethan Price, 16, who played last season with the Omaha Lancers AAA U-16 team in the North American Prospects League. He had 38 points in 22 games. . . . From Lincoln, Neb., Price was a sixth-round pick in the 2012 WHL bantam draft. . . . From the Winterhawks’ news release: “Price is the latest highly rated American-born player to join the Winterhawks in recent seasons, including current ’Hawks Paul Bittner (Minnesota), Brendan Burke (Arizona), Chase De Leo (California), Josh Hanson (Alaska), Keegan Iverson (Minnesota), Alex Schoenborn (North Dakota), Keoni Texeira (California) and Dominic Turgeon (Colorado). Apart from Hanson, each of those players has at least three years of WHL eligibility remaining.”
———
The NFL and more than 4,500 players have settled a concussion-related lawsuit, with the players to get $765 million if a judge, as expected, approves the settlement. . . . Ken Belson of The New York Times offers an explanation for what happened right here.
———
Jeff Blair of The Globe and Mail writes: “A lawyer specializing in class-action lawsuits believes the already-long odds of former NHL players attempting legal action against the league over the matter of concussions have become a little longer with the announcement of an imminent settlement between the NFL and more than 4,500 former players.” . . . That piece is right here.
———
Daniel Engber of Slate.com writes:
“The imprecision of diagnosis means that even with all this money changing hands, we’ll still have no idea how prevalent these disabilities really are.
The settlement does almost nothing to elucidate this question, nor any other in the science of concussions. How serious is the problem of head injuries in football? No one has ever done a well-controlled, long-term study of cognitive impairment to find out. No one has ever selected a random group of athletes in advance, then followed them over time to figure out how their rates of brain pathology relate to everybody else’s. These are just the most basic questions that are yet to be answered, but there’s lots more we still don’t know.”
Engber’s complete piece is right here.
———
Rob Nutter, a 55-year-old millwright from Castelgar, B.C., has undergone a heart-and-kidney transplant. Derrick Penner of the Vancouver Sun has today's feel-good story right here. 

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Lipon, Jets cut a deal

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
With less than a week remaining before JC Lipon opens his first official NHL training camp, he admitted to being "a little nervous."
The freshly signed contract in his back pocket certainly will help.
Lipon signed a two-way deal with the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, nearly two months to the day after the Jets selected him in the third round of the NHL draft. The deal, a three-year entry-level contract, has an average annual value of $700,000, according to a Jets news release.
Lipon, 20, is still eligible to return for a fifth season with the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, although his signing makes it a little less likely. It all depends on how he performs at the Jets' prospects camp, which opens Thursday and will include the Vancouver Canucks 2013 Young Stars Classic Tournament from Sept. 6-9.
Lipon attended a Jets' development camp this summer, but never has been to a preseason camp such as next week's.
"I'm a little nervous," admitted Lipon, a right-winger. "But I gained a lot of confidence from last season and from going through the world junior camp."
You bet he did.
Lipon, a late bloomer, enjoyed a 65-point season in 2011-12, after picking up a total of 34 points the previous two seasons. But he really came into his own in 2012-13, scoring 36 goals and assisting on 53 others in only 61 games.
Although he wasn't on anyone's radar heading into the season, he made Team Canada for the world junior championship in Ufa, Russia, as Canada finished fourth. It was a wild season that ended with the Jets calling his name in the third round — this, after he was passed over in the two previous drafts.
Now, he is signed, and facing the prospect of playing professionally next season. Making the Jets is a long-shot, but it's not unreasonable to think he could end up with their AHL affiliate, the St. John's IceCaps.
He has a lot on his mind — but having the contract signed already takes some of the stress away.
"Now I'm not worried about it, not that you should be worried about it," Lipon said. "But sometimes it does creep into your mind, so I'm glad it's done with."
The Jets will play three games at the Young Stars Classic — they will meet the San Jose Sharks' prospects on Sept. 6, the Edmonton Oilers' prospects on Sept. 7, and the Vancouver Canucks' prospects on Sept. 9.
The Jets open their main camp on Sept. 11.
———
No one really knows whether Lipon and Colin Smith will be back with the Blazers.
Smith, a 2012 draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche, also has signed an NHL contract, so could play in its system. Smith, 20, is off to Denver next week for rookie camp, which opens Sept. 8.
But both Smith and Lipon are eligible for another season with the Blazers.
“We’re moving forward without them,” Blazers head coach Dave Hunchak told The Daily News on Wednesday. “If we get them back, great.
“Our plan is to move forward without them. Those are big holes we need to plug somehow. Veteran guys need to step in.”
———
The Blazers have made Cole Kehler their backup goaltender.
Kamloops announced after Wednesday night's Blue-White intrasquad game that it had reassigned six players, including goaltenders Liam McLeod and Cameron Pateman. That leaves Taran Kozun, the starter, and Kehler to lead the team into the preseason.
Kehler, who is to turn 16 on Dec. 17, was selected by the Blazers in the sixth round, 123rd overall, in the 2012 bantam draft. He spent 2012-13 with the Altona Aces of the Manitoba High School League, going 2-14 with a 4.27 GAA and .864 save percentage.
McLeod, a Kamloops native, spent 2012-13 with the BCHL's Prince George Spruce Kings, while Pateman played with the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians last season.
———
The Blazers also reassigned two 15-year-old players — defenceman Dawson Davidson of Moosomin, Sask., and Jermaine Loewen of Arborg, Man. Both players were third-round selections in May's bantam draft.
Cameron Trott, a 16-year-old defenceman from Burnaby, and Laramie Kostelansky, a 16-year-old forward from Fort McLeod, Alta., also were reassigned on Wednesday.
The moves leave the Blazers with 30 players on their roster, including Smith and Lipon.
Of the 28 players on the preseason roster, 17 are forwards, nine are defencemen and two are goaltenders. The Blazers likely will trim the roster to around 23 before the regular season starts on Sept. 20.
———
The Blazers also announced Thursday that forward Nathan Looysen, 17, has signed a standard WHL contract.
Looysen, from Saanichton, spent last season with the junior B Peninsula Panthers of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League. He had 23 points, including 10 goals, in 27 games. The Blazers listed the 6-foot-1, 187-pounder in November.
———
The Blazers will open the preseason tonight against the Rockets in Kelowna.
Kamloops will be at home to the Vancouver Giants on Sunday, 6 p.m., at Interior Savings Centre. The Rockets and Giants will play in Ladner on Saturday night.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca

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Blazers get down to two goaltenders

If you haven't seen it, this is the new scoreclock at Interior
Savings Centre in Kamloops.
(Murray Mitchell / The Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
For the most part, the evaluation process is over, and so is training camp.
The Kamloops Blazers will get down to the routine of practising today as they get ready to play their first WHL exhibition games.
The Blazers will visit the Kelowna Rockets on Friday and return home to face the Vancouver Giants on Sunday, 6 p.m. (On Saturday, the Rockets will play the Giants in Ladner.)
On Wednesday night, the Blazers put the wraps on another training camp as Team Blue scored an 8-4 victory over Team White in the annual intrasquad game.
For veteran forwards JC Lipon and Colin Smith, both 20 years of age, it may have been their last time in a Blazers uniform.
Lipon leaves next week for Winnipeg and the camp of the NHL’s Jets, who selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft. Smith departs Friday and will end up in Denver at the Colorado Avalanche’s camp.
Lipon has yet to sign a pro contract; Smith is under contract to Colorado, which selected him in the seventh round in 2012.
“We’re moving forward without them,” Blazers head coach Dave Hunchak said. “If we get them back, great.
“Our plan is to move forward without them. Those are big holes we need to plug somehow. Veteran guys need to step in.”
Hunchak has talked with Dean Chynoweth, the general manager and head coach of the Lake Erie Monsters, the Cleveland-based AHL affiliate of the Avalanche.
Based on those conversations, Hunchak said: “I don’t expect to get Colin Smith back.”
As for Lipon, he could end up with the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps.
“He’ll do everything he can do stay there, as he should,” Hunchak said of Lipon. “For us to be sitting here and hoping that one of those guys comes back isn’t right. From an organizational standpoint, we want to move players up.”
Without Lipon and Smith, the Blazers are left with two 20-year-olds on their roster — defenceman Sam Grist and centre Joe Kornelsen. WHL teams are allowed to dress three such players per game.
Last night, the Blue guys erased a 1-0 deficit with three straight second-period goals, courtesy of Jake Kryski and Swiss imports Tim Bozon and Edson Harlacher. Cole Ully, with two, Deven Sideroff, Joe Kornelsen and Matt Needham also scored for Blue.
Team White got two goals from Chase Souto and singles from the Lipon brothers, Mitch and JC.
Hunchak quite liked what he saw, noting that the coaches have done some work on systems, some of which was evident on the ice.
“It was good as far as structure,” Hunchak said of the game, adding that some players had picked up the defensive-zone coverage and the forecheck in the neutral zone.
As for the much-watched scrap for the position backing up starting goaltender Taran Kozun, the winner is Cole Kehler, a youngster from Altona, Man., who played high school hockey last season. Kehler, who won’t turn 16 until Dec. 17, was beaten three times last night after coming on in relief of Kozun for Team Blue.
The Blazers released two 17-year-old goaltenders — Liam McLeod of Kamloops and Cameron Pateman of Regina — following the game. McLeod played Kozun to a 1-1 draw in the game’s first half; Pateman was beaten six times.
The Blazers also released forwards Jermaine Loewen and Laramie Kostelansky, along with defenceman Dawson Davidson and Cameron Trott.
Loewen, a 15-year-old from Arborg, Man., was a third-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. He has signed with the Blazers and had a good camp.
Kostelansky, 16, from Fort MacLeod, Alta., was a 10th-round pick in the 2012 draft. Davidson, from Moosomin, Sask., was the 58th overall pick in the 2013 draft, while Trott, 16, from Port Moody, is the younger brother of Portland Winterhawks forward Jason Trott.
 JUST NOTES: The Blazers still have two 1998-born players on their roster — 2013 first-rounders Quinn Benjafield and Kryski. Both are expected to see game action this weekend. . . . Hunchak said he expects the Rockets to “dress a good team” on Friday. “They will be motivated from last season,” he said. . . . The Blazers swept Kelowna from a second-round playoff series last spring. . . . Hunchak also said the Blazers will be wanting to push the Rockets. “We want to make sure to put our best foot forward every game,” he said. . . . Colorado’s three-day rookie camp opens Sept. 8 in Denver, with main camp starting Sept. 12. Smith, who signed a three-year NHL contract earlier this season, is on the roster wearing No. 37. . . . Ryan Huska, who won three Memorial Cups as a player with the Blazers, has signed a three-year extension as head coach of the Rockets. Huska, 38,now is signed through 2016-17. He is going into his seventh season as the Rockets’ head coach and his 12th season with the organization.

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Lipon brothers meet up during Blazers scrimmage

Forward Mitch Lipon of the Kamloops Blazers applies some freezing gel
to his upper front teeth after having them chipped when he was checked
by his brother, JC, during an earlier scrimmage on Sunday.
(HUGO YUEN / Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
JC Lipon was chuckling.
His younger brother, Mitch, was grimacing.
Their mother, Shelley, was, well, she was being a mother.
During a Sunday morning scrimmage at the Kamloops Blazers’ training camp at Interior Savings Centre, JC caught Mitch with a shoulder check in open ice.
“He got me with a shoulder and my teeth went into my visor,” offered Mitch, 17, showing the damage to his two upper front teeth, both of which were chipped, then adding that he was going to have to call home.
“I hit him in middle ice,” said JC, 20, with a laugh, while nodding in the direction of Mitch.
“I suppose (JC) is just trying to toughen up his little brother,” Shelley wrote in a text from Regina. “I have just come to the conclusion that it’s part of hockey.
“But it is tough on a mom!”
While JC has spent four seasons with the Blazers, Mitch, who played last season with the midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians, is hoping for a spot here this season. He put up 51 points, 20 of them goals, in 44 games with Regina last season, and also got a late-season taste of life with the Blazers, getting limited playing time and going pointless in three regular-season and five playoff games.
Having been here last spring has made this camp a bit easier for him.
“It’s a lot easier to come in here knowing all the guys, having been here before and knowing how things work,” Mitch said. “You’re still a rookie but you know what to do and are expected to know what to do.”
Mitch also has gotten more help than a shoulder to the face from his older brother.
“He helps me out a lot,” Mitch said. “He gives me that extra push. He’s in my face quite a bit but it’s all good.
“He said I have the skill, I just have to put in the work ethic to get where I want to be and get a spot on the team. I want to make the team and find a spot where I can contribute.”
JC, meanwhile, is hoping to play this season for the St. John’s IceCaps, the Newfoundland-based AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets. They selected Lipon in the third round of the 2013 NHL draft.
That put a cap on a season during which Lipon really came of age, at one point leading the WHL in scoring and then earning a spot on the Canadian team that played at the world junior championship in Ufa, Russia.
“Obviously a lot of good things happened last winter,” Lipon said. “I made some big strides. But it’s like you’re in the doghouse again . . . you get drafted and start from the bottom again. It’s another challenge in life and I’m looking forward to it.”
Shortly after the draft, Lipon attended a Jets’ prospects camp that, he said, only served to help his confidence.
Asked how he stacked up there, he replied: “Good, really good.”
He admitted to having been intimidated a bit in fitness testing “with the college guys.”
“But,” he added, “then you get on the ice and you know why you’re there. I did really well in all the practices and in the game, too. I’m pretty happy with the way things are.”
Lipon, who has yet to sign an NHL contract, will head for Winnipeg on Sept. 4 and then play for the Jets team at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton, Sept. 5-9.
“Obviously, I want to make the big team,” he said. But, being realistic, “definitely St. John’s is where I want to be.”
And if he ends up back in Kamloops?
“It is what it is,” he said. “There’s good coaching staff here. We’re young but just from being here it’s an awesome coaching staff. They’ve kind of developed that over the last few seasons and it’s a good organization to be in.”
Of course, if Lipon should wind up back here, he could get to play with Mitch, something he said is “pretty exciting.”
“He worked really hard this summer,” Mitch said. “I told him, ‘it’s your position to lose and he’s got to work hard.’ ”
Yes, even if it means taking a shoulder to the mouth from big brother.
So . . . when is payback?
“I don’t know,” Mitch said. “I guess we’ll see.”
JUST NOTES: Of the 57 players left in the Blazers’ camp, 32 were born in 1997 or ’98. The 14 players born in 1998 aren’t eligible for WHL rosters this season. . . . Veteran F Chase Souto, who turns 19 on Oct. 8, is the lone American in camp. . . . Sophomore D Jordan Thomson remains day-to-day with a cut to one foot. Thomson, who was injured while vacationing with his family, skated Sunday. . . . F Tim Bozon, 19, will leave Sept. 4 for Montreal and the Canadiens’ training camp, while F Colin Smith, 20, leaves Friday to join the Colorado Avalanche. Both have signed NHL deals. . . . G Bailey De Palma, the son of Blazers goaltending coach Dan De Palma, stopped 23 of 24 shots during his stint and was the second star last night as the host Prince George Spruce Kings dropped a 5-2 decision to the visiting Merritt Centennials in a BCHL exhibition game.

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Blazers: Rebuilding, reloading or retrenching?

Rebuilding, reloading or retrenching.
Take your pick, because the Kamloops Blazers have placed themselves firmly in the ‘re’ world.
If there was any doubt, it was erased Wednesday when the WHL team traded Cole Cheveldave, its starting goaltender for each of the last two seasons, to the Prince Albert Raiders for a 15-year-old forward, Jake Kryski, who is two or three years away form making an impact in this market.
If you are an aspiring WHL player, in any position, who is searching for an opportunity to play, Kamloops will be the place to be in late August when training camp opens.
The Blazers, who ended a horrible drought when they got into the second round of playoffs two seasons ago and reached the Western Conference final last spring, have some openings on their roster. Yeah, like Lindsay Lohan has some openings on her schedule.
The Blazers have 10 forwards with at least some WHL experience, but five of those are really, really raw. The roster shows five defencemen, but only one of those, 19-year-old Landon Cross, has played regularly at this level.
Of the five goaltenders on the depth chart at the moment, only one, Taran Kozun, has played even one WHL game.
On top of that, the chances are good that two of their prime 20-year-old candidates – centre Colin Smith and right-winger JC Lipon, who finished tied for fourth and 11th, respectively, in the WHL scoring race last season – will open the season in the AHL. Smith, who has signed with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, would seem ticketed for the Lake Erie Monsters, while Lipon, who has yet to cut a deal with the Winnipeg Jets, may start with the St. John’s IceCaps.
In making the run to the Western Conference final a few weeks ago, where they were beaten in five games by the eventual-champion Portland Winterhawks, the Blazers morphed into a team that relied on one goaltender, four defencemen and seven or eight forwards. At season’s end, they were using three 20-year-old forwards and eight players who were 19.
When a team does that, it knows that the time will come to pay the piper. For the Blazers, that time is now.
Over the last two seasons, Cheveldave played in 111 of the team’s 144 regular-season games and was credited with 70 of its 94 victories.
Kozun, a 19-year-old from Nipawin, Sask., got into two games in 2011-12 before being assigned to the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks.
Last season, in 1,092 minutes over 20 games with Kamloops, he went 11-4-3 with a 2.36 GAA and a .914 save percentage.
However, he had a propensity for letting in one bad goal – one that was either of the soft variety or one that came at an inopportune time — and that, more than anything, ate at the coaching staff’s confidence in him. Of course, Kozun really was caught in the backup goaltenders’ conundrum — he needs ice time to improve, but no matter how well he plays he’s stuck behind the veteran starter.
It also hurt Kozun’s chances that his team came out of the gate like a cat on fire.
The Blazers, you’ll recall, were the major junior game’s early-season sensation last autumn. At one point, they rattled off 14 straight victories and climbed to the top of the CHL’s rankings. That only served to fuel the fire as management went all-in on the season.
You will recall that in acquiring veteran defenceman Joel Edmundson from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Dec. 6, the Blazers surrendered a 2015 first-round bantam draft pick and forward Jayden Halbgewachs, who had been their first-round selection, 19th overall, in 2012.
The Blazers, who knew that Edmundson, then 19, was a rent-a-player and would be somewhere in the St. Louis Blues organization in 2013-14, recouped some of that loss with the acquisition of Kryski, who put up 118 points, including 59 goals, in 58 games with the Burnaby Winter Club’s top bantam team last season. Kryski was honoured in 2012 as Hockey Now’s B.C. minor hockey player of the year, and attended the Raiders’ spring camp in late May.
WHL rules prohibit Kryski, at the age of 15, from playing for the Blazers in 2013-14. He will be expected to make the roster in September 2014 and start being a serious contributor one year later.
Between now and then, though, you can expect the Blazers to be wheeling and dealing.
As has been well documented, the Blazers reached the WHL final in 1999, then weren’t able to get out of the first round of playoffs until 2012.
Let’s hope this latest (a) rebuilding, (b) reloading, (c) retrenching, (d) all of the above doesn’t take as long.

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

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Blazers add Swiss defenceman

EDSON HARLACHER

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers, with the ‘Vacancy’ sign up on their back end, selected Swiss defenceman Edson Harlacher with the 51st selection of the CHL import draft on Wednesday.
Harlacher turned 17 on Jan. 22 and goes by Edi. He played last season with the U20 Kloten Flyers of the Swiss Elite Junior A League.
In fact, he has played in the Kloten program since 2009-10 when he was on the U15 team.
Last season, Harlacher had six points and 22 penalty minutes in 34 games with the Flyers, and six points, four of them goals, in six games with Kloten’s U17 team. He also played eight games with the U17 national team, recording one assist.
As a 17-year-old on the U18 national team, he was pointless in five games at the world championship. In six other games with that team, he had one goal.
The CHL import draft page shows Harlacher as being 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds, while the Elite Hockey Prospects website has him at 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds.
The Blazers used only one of their two import draft picks because they anticipate having left-winger Tim Bozon back for a third season. Bozon also is from Switzerland although he played for France in the 2013 IIHF world championship. He was selected by Montreal in the third round of the NHL’s 2012 draft and has signed with the Canadiens. But, as a 19-year-old, Bozon has to play in Montreal or Kamloops.
Major junior teams are allowed to have two European players on their rosters.
Blazers head coach Dave Hunchak said the team’s European contacts have said that Harlacher “is definitely a prospect.”
“He’s a bigger body,” Hunchak added. “Apparently, he skates pretty well.
“Whether he can play in our top four right away . . . that’s the hope. There will be lots of opportunities for a lot of guys . . . we’ll have to wait and see.”
The Kamloops depth chart contains six defenders who have played at this level, headed up by veterans Sam Grist, 20, and Landon Cross, 19. Also included are Jordan Thomson, 17, Ryan Rehill, who turns 18 on Nov. 7, Connor Clouston, 17, and Josh Connolly, 18.
Clouston played only four WHL games last season as he spent most of the season with a midget AAA team in Medicine Hat.
Hunchak said that Connolly, who played a lot of his freshman season as a forward, will be back on defence when training camp opens on Aug. 22.
No matter what happens, though, the Blazers will be young on the back end.
“We were older last season,” Hunchak stated. “At some point, you have to start playing these young guys.”
Grist, who was acquired early last season from the Tri-City Americans, is in the 20-year-old mix, along with forwards JC Lipon and Colin Smith, and goaltender Cole Cheveldave.
Lipon, who will turn 20 on Wednesday, was selected by the Winnipeg Jets in Sunday’s NHL draft, while Smith was taken by the Colorado Avalanche in last year’s draft. Neither has signed an NHL contract.
“A lot of it is going to depend on what Winnipeg and Colorado want to do with their guys,” Hunchak said of his club’s 20-year-old plans. “We’re left at the mercy of what the NHL teams want to do.”
Each WHL team is allowed to carry a maximum of three 20-year-old players.
———       
The Blazers’ 2013 preseason roster that is available on the WHL website doesn’t include F Aspen Sterzer or G Taran Kozun.
Sterzer, who is to turn 19 on Sept. 9, played in only 31 games last season. He didn’t play again after suffering a concussion on Dec. 29.
Kozun, who will be 19 on Aug. 29, got into 20 games (11-4-3, 2.36, .914) while backing up Cheveldave.
Hunchak said the omissions of both players is “a mistake . . . that’s all that is” and that both are expected at training camp.
Of course, that same website continues to show Guy Charron as the Blazers’ head coach.
———
The Blazers have yet to sign an assistant coach, but Hunchak admitted that “we’re close. We’re real close on things.”
How close?
Close enough that there may be an announcement this week.


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Blazers right back in Western Conference final

Kamloops Blazers goaltender Cole Cheveldave made some key first-period saves,
including this one on Portland forward Nic Petan.
(Keith Anderson / Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It was late in the second period when the Interior Savings Centre crowd began chanting “Chevy! Chevy!! Chevy!!!”
And the sound system blared: “Like a rock.”
The fans were saluting Kamloops Blazers goaltender Cole Cheveldave, who was exactly that as he and his mates overwhelmed the Portland Winterhawks to the tune of 5-1 on Tuesday night.
What that means is that the Winterhawks take a 2-1 edge in the WHL’s best-of-seven Western Conference final into tonight’s game at ISC. And the series now is certain to return to Portland for Game 5 on Friday.
The Blazers won this one because Cheveldave was terrific in the first period, and the Winterhawks didn’t have an answer for the Kamloops line of, left to right, Tim Bozon, Colin Smith and JC Lipon.
On Nov. 16, the trio combined for 14 points in a 6-4 victory over the visiting Winterhawks, the only time this season that Kamloops beat Portland, prior to last night. For various reasons, including Lipon’s stint with the national junior team, the line was broken up and rarely reunited . . . until last night.
“It was a matter of, we weren’t generating what we thought we needed to generate,” Guy Charron, the Blazers’ head coach, explained. “You sometimes go back to what gave you success and early on they were the top line in the WHL. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t be able to put it together.”
“They’re a good line,” said Travis Green, Portland’s interim general manager and head coach, “one of the best lines in the league. But we made mistakes tonight that we don’t usually make.”
Bozon, playing his third game since coming back from a fracture in his right hand, had two goals and two assists; Smith potted a goal and had two assists; and Lipon had an assist and a whole lot of sandpaper.
“We just wanted to come out and play hard,” Smith said. “We need to focus on playing hard and things will open up. If we’re focused on the end result, some things can go sideways.”
The Blazers also won this one by beating Portland goaltender Mac (The Truth) Carruth four times on 11 shots in the second period, turning a 1-1 tie into a 5-1 lead in the process. They also triumphed by winning pretty much every one-on-one battle for two periods, no matter where it took place, and that was something they had failed to do in 4-1 and 4-0 setbacks in Portland.
“The effort was there,” Charron said. “We had more jump. We skated well. We took the body.”
Defenceman Joel Edmundson got it started just 1:07 into the second, fourth-line winger Aaron Macklin kept it going with a nifty wrap-around against the flow at 8:02, and Bozon scored twice, at 14:56 and 17:04, to hand control to the Blazers.
“Smith, Bozon, Lipon got things going and that’s what we needed,” said Charron, whose team went into the game not having beaten Carruth in 117 minutes 50 seconds. “We needed some offensive production, something positive to build on.”
All of that came after a first period in which Portland had a number of glorious scoring chances and the Blazers were fortunate to escape at 1-1.
That, of course, was thanks to Cheveldave, the 19-year-old sophomore from Calgary who missed a practice last week as he attended the funeral of a grandfather.
“He was in perfect control of every situation,” Charron said of his goaltender, who made 35 stops. “He was really strong. He was never out of position . . . a very strong game by him.”
Portland defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon agreed.
“Their goalie played well,” he said. “We got some chances and Cheveldave stood on his head over there. He kept them in it right away.”
Right away was when Portland was handed a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes just 4:53 into the game.
“The 5-on-3 didn’t make us too comfortable,” Charron admitted. “But I thought we did a pretty good job under the circumstances. Their first goal, it was so early in the game we knew we had plenty of time.”
The Winterhawks were only able to score once on that PP, when the puck appeared to bounce past Cheveldave off an ankle belonging to winger Ty Rattie. The Blazers got that one back at 16:37 when Smith redirected a Bozon shot through Carruth’s legs.
In between, it was the Cheveldave show.
There was a come-across stop on Oliver Bjorkstrand early on, and three outstanding saves in one flurry during a late Portland power play as he beat Nic Petan on a back-door play, then robbed Petan with a glove, and got a shoulder on a Rattie back-door shot. And let’s not forget stoning Wotherspoon with a glove when he went in alone after a big-league pass from defenceman Seth Jones. All of that came in a 50-second span.
Late in the period, Cheveldave beat Chase De Leo from in tight.
It’s no wonder the crowd was chanting.
“I felt great,” Cheveldave said, “and I was seeing everything. That’s all I can ask for. Our defencemen were clearing bodies out in front of me and I was able to see the puck really well.”
While the Blazers were savouring the sweet taste of victory, the Winterhawks already were working on erasing the loss from their minds.
“We can’t dwell on this night,” Wotherspoon said. “We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to come out strong in the first period and show them that we’re ready to play, and clean up our mistakes.”
“It doesn’t happen very often,” Green said, “but tonight we just weren’t sharp in a lot of areas. The good thing is we get right back at it (tonight).”
JUST NOTES: Attendance was 4,642. . . . Each team was 1-for-5 on the PP. . . . Carruth stopped 24 shots. . . . Green said he never once thought about yanking Carruth. “Not at all,” the coach offered. “I don’t think he (gave up a bad one). I liked Mac’s game tonight . . . it didn’t cross my mind at all.” . . . The Winterhawks lost F Joe Mahon to a game misconduct eight minutes into the first period. Green said he understood the penalty was for “a gesture of some kind, but I’m not 100 per cent sure.” . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Cheveldave: In the zone; 2. Bozon: Looks healthy; 3. D Joel Edmundson, Kamloops: Big in his zone. . . . Earlier in the day, Carruth was named the CHL’s goaltender of the week after stopping 60 of 61 shots in the first two games of this series. . . . Both goaltenders have terrific playoff beards, but Cheveldave gave a bit of an edge to Carruth. “He’s got a pretty good one,” Cheveldave said with a laugh. “He’s got a year on me, though.”

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Kamloops vs. Portland: Some odds and ends

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
and
PAUL BUKER
The Oregonian

All the boys were on the bus when it pulled away from Interior Savings Centre and headed for Everett on Wednesday.
The Kamloops Blazers were to spend last night in Everett and arrive in Portland today in time for a practice. They are to open the WHL’s best-of-seven Western Conference final against the Winterhawks at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday.
Goaltender Cole Cheveldave, who missed practice on Tuesday as he left the team to attend a funeral, was back on the ice yesterday before the team headed south. He has started each of the Blazers’ first 10 playoff games and will be in goal on Friday.
Left-winger Tim Bozon, who has missed seven games since suffering a fracture in his right hand on March 26, also was on the bus. Head coach Guy Charron said yesterday that Bozon may play in Game 1. The recovery time for this type of injury is in the area of four weeks, though, so Bozon may not play until later in the series.
———
Portland G Mac Carruth, who has started all 10 of his club’s playoff games, earned a speeding ticket on Tuesday.
When asked if teammates would consider contributing to help Carruth pay the fine, forward Ty Rattie said: “No, no, no, he’s got enough money from that NHL contract.”
Carruth, a seventh-round selection by Chicago in the 2010 NHL draft, has signed with the Blackhawks.
———
Travis Green, the Winterhawks’ interim general manager and head coach, isn’t at all concerned with whatever the Blazers are thinking as the series begins.
“I don’t really know how Kamloops feels,” he said. “If they feel they’re the favourite or not the favourite, doesn’t matter to me. They have a good hockey team. They had a good year.
“People talk about them pushing us to seven games last year in the second round, and they did. It was a good series. But it doesn’t mean anything one way or the other. It has no bearing on the outcome of this year’s series.”
———
The  Blazers were down 3-0 in games and 4-0 on the scoreboard in Game 4 last spring when JC Lipon delivered a stiff check to Rattie. Lipon scored shortly thereafter and the Blazers went on to win the game. Rattie ended up going to hospital and, although he didn’t miss any games, had a neck injury.
But there aren’t any hard feelings.
“It wasn’t even a bad hit, it was just the way I got hit,” Rattie said. “It was awkward. I know JC. I played on Team Canada with him this winter. . . . We’re friends off the ice and nothing bad is going to spill between him and me for sure.”
Rattie, who is from Airdrie, Alta., also said he and Cheveldave, a Calgarian, are long-time rivals.
“I’ve played against him all my life. We’ve played against each other since I was about 11,” Rattie says.
———
Rattie also admitted that he is expecting a long series.
“They’re a very good hockey club,” he stated. “This series is going to go six or seven games, for sure, I think. They’ve got good offence, with good top defencemen. They’re big, they’re physical. It’s going to be pretty evenly matched.
“It’s going to be a fun one.”
———
JUST NOTES: Game 2 will be played in Portland on Saturday, with Games 3 and 4 at ISC on Tuesday and Wednesday. . . . Rattie goes into the series with 41 career playoff goals. That ties him with F Reg Leach (Flin Flon, 1967-70), behind only F Mark Pederson (Medicine Hat, 1983-88), who scored 47 postseason goals. . . . Rattie has 78 playoff points, fifth on the alltime list. Ahead of him are F Dale Derkatch, 101 (Regina, 1982-85); D Greg Hawgood, 100 (Kamloops, 1983-88); F Rob Brown, 86 (Kamloops, 1983-87); and, F Brad Moran, 82 (Calgary, 1995-2000). . . . The Eastern Conference final opens tonight with the Calgary Hitmen in Edmonton to face the defending-champion Oil Kings. That series will be televised by Shaw, with Dan Russell calling the play.

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A look back at the series that was . . .

With the Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winterhawks set to meet in the WHL’s Western Conference final, here’s a look back at the seven-game second-round series between these teams that so captivated hockey fans last spring.
———
Game 1: Kamloops 3 at Portland 5 — The Blazers led 2-0 after a period and 3-1 with 11 minutes to play in the third period. . . . Portland tied it with goals by F Sven Baertschi and F Ty Rattie just 1:07 apart. . . . F Brad Ross got the winner on a power play at 14:47. . . . The play everyone was talking about occurred at 18:36 of the third period when Kamloops G Cole Cheveldave ventured behind his net to play a puck and was hit by Portland F Oliver Gabriel, who was given a minor for goaltender interference. He later was suspended for four games. . . . Rattie had two goals and two assists; Baertschi finished one and three. . . . F Brendan Ranford had two assists for Kamloops.
 ———
Game 2: Kamloops 1 at Portland 4 — Baertschi scored twice and G Mac Carruth stopped 39 shots for the Winterhawks. . . . Cheveldave had finished Game 1, but wasn’t feeling well by the morning of Game 2, so Cam Lanigan started and made 30 saves. . . . The Blazers had Taran Kozun on the bench in support of Lanigan. . . . Baertschi scored at 19:14 of the second period, F Taylor Leier made it 2-0 just 56 seconds into the third and F Cam Reid upped it to 3-0 just 19 seconds later. . . . Among the 22 penalties was a double minor to Kamloops F JC Lipon for butt-ending Rattie.
 ———
Game 3: Portland 5 at Kamloops 2 — The Winterhawks scored three shorthanded goals, two of them by Ross. . . . Portland F Taylor Peters drew three shorthanded assists. . . . Leier broke a 1-1 tie with a shorthanded goal at 5:16 of the second, with Ross scoring 33 seconds later. . . . Kamloops was 1-for-9 on the PP; Portland was 1-for-4.
———
Game 4: Portland 4 at Kamloops 5 — The Winterhawks, with a 3-0 lead in the series, led this game 4-0 at 10:58 of the first period and 4-1 going into the second. . . . Portland maintained that momentum shifted 12 minutes into the first period after an unpenalized Lipon hit that knocked Rattie out of the game and sent him to hospital with what turned out to be a neck injury. Lipon scored immediately after the hit to get Kamloops on the board. . . . Ranford tied the scored at 6:03 of the third period and F Dylan Willick got the winner at 7:37 on the power play. . . . Ranford also had two assists. . . . Portland also was unhappy about a third-period check to the head by Kamloops D Austin Madaisky on Leier. . . . Things definitely were beginning to heat up.
———
Game 5: Kamloops 7 at Portland 2 — F Jordan DePape had two goals and two assists and Madaisky had three assists as the Blazers won going away. . . . The Blazers were without Lipon, who drew a one-game suspension under supplemental discipline for his Game 4 hit on Rattie, who played. . . . The visitors led 2-0 and 4-1 at the period breaks. . . . Kamloops F Tim Bozon beat Carruth on a penalty shot at 6:30 of the third and when F Chase Souto scored at 7:35, the Winterhawks changed goaltenders with Brendan Burke cleaning up. . . . Lanigan stopped 34 shots.
———
Game 6: Portland 6 at Kamloops 7 — Portland F Brendan Leipsic’s power-play goal at 11:24 of the second period gave the Winter hawks a 5-2 lead. . . . It was still 5-2 with 15 minutes left in the third period. . . . And then the comeback began. . . . Kamloops D Marek Hrbas got it started at 5:55, on the PP. . . . DePape scored at 8:49 and F Aspen Sterzer beat Carruth 11 seconds later. . . . When F Colin Smith scored a PP goal at 15:21 the Blazers amazingly had the lead. . . . The joy was short-lived, however, as Reid pulled Portland into a 6-6 tie at 15:47. . . . Kamloops D Bronson Maschmeyer won it with his second goal of the game at 19:39. . . . Lanigan stopped 24 shots, while Carruth turned aside 36. . . . In something of a surreal moment, the Kamloops fans stood and cheered until the Blazers returned to the ice surface from their dressing room and took a curtain call.
———
Game 7: Kamloops 0 at Portland 2 — F Marcel Noebels scored at 1:01 of the first period and Carruth made it stand up with 32 saves. . . . Leipsic added an insurance marker at 9:49 of the third. . . . According to The Oregonian’s Paul Buker, when it was all over Portland radio analyst Andy Kemper said: “This was a war, folks, an absolute war.”
— GREGG DRINNAN


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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Sergei Klimentyev (Medicine Hat, 1993-95) announced his retirement in an interview session with local journalists. He had one goal and three assists in 25 games with Berkut Kyiv (Ukraine, PHL) this season. In the interview, Klimentyev noted that the Berkut players have not been paid their salaries for the last four months. . . .

F Robin Figren (Calgary, Edmonton, 2006-08) signed a two-year contract with Frölunda Gothenburg (Sweden, Elitserien). Figren had nine goals and four assists in 55 games with Linköping (Sweden, Elitserien) this season but stepped up the pace with four goals and three assists in 10 playoff games. Linköping announced earlier this week that they would not offer a contract for next season to Figren. . . .

Adler Mannheim (Germany, DEL) announced they would not offer contracts for next season to five players, including F Yannic Seidenberg (Medicine Hat, 2003-04). He had seven goals and 18 assists in 50 games with Adler this season.
———

To the person who sent a note about the troll: “I have had the exact same thought, and on more than one occasion.”
———
This has nothing to do with hockey, but is an amazing story.
Let’s say that you have been in something of a coma for five years. When you wake up, what are your first words? In the case of Evie Branan, it was: “I want to go to a Bob Seger concert.” . . . Branan, now 79, is going to see that concert next month. . . . Sarah Schuch of the Flint Journal has that story right here.
———



Apologies to F Victor Rask of the Calgary Hitmen. I have been writing that F JC Lipon of the Kamloops Blazes is the only WHL player with at least a point in each of his team’s playoff games this spring. (It is spring, isn’t it?) . . . It turns out that Rask, a 19-year-old from Sweden, has at least a point in each of the Calgary’s 10 games. Rask has put up 13 points, four of them goals, in 10 games. . . .
The Kelowna Rockets announced yesterday that Jeff Thorburn, their veteran athletic therapist, is leaving the organization. He is moving over to UBC-Okanagan, which also in Kelowna. . . .
D Damon Severson of the Kelowna Rockets will finish up his season with the Albany River Rats, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Severson was a second-round selection by the Devils in the NHL’s 2012 draft.
———
THE COACHING GAME:
Former NHLer Bob Corkum has been named the interim head coach of the U of Maine Black Bears. He takes over, at least for now, from Tim Whitehead, who was fired this week. . . . Corkum has been the Black Bears’ associate head coach since 2008. . . .

John Olver, a veteran of the coaching game, has been named the general manager of the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors. . . . For the last three seasons, Olver, 54, has worked as the GM/head coach of the Idaho Jr. Steelheads, a junior A team that plays in the Western States Hockey League. . . . Olver, 54, will have to hire a head coach to replace Matt O’Dette, who won’t be back. . . . Olver spent one season (1988-89) as head coach of the Tri-City Americans. They went 33-34-5 in what was their first season playing out of Kennewick, Wash.
———

When the WHL’s conference finals begin next week, Shaw TV will be showing the series between the Edmonton Oil Kings and Calgary Hitmen. That series begins with games in Edmonton on Thursday and Friday. . . . The other final features the Portland Winterhawks and Kamloops Blazers. The first two games are in Portland on Friday and Saturday, April 20.
———

The WHL’s playoff situation:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
THIRD ROUND
Edmonton (1) vs. Calgary (3)
Series opens Thursday in Edmonton.
———
WESTERN CONFERENCE
THIRD ROUND
Portland (1) vs. Kamloops (3)
Series opens Friday in Portland.
———
FRIDAY’S GAMES:
No games scheduled.
———
CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT (16):
None

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT (5):
None


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Rest won't hurt Kamloops

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
To the victors go the spoils.
In this case, the victors are the Kamloops Blazers and the spoils are eight days off before they resume their WHL playoff schedule.
The Blazers, who completed a four-game sweep of the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night, will begin the Western Conference final against the Winterhawks in Portland on April 19 and 20.
Games 3 and 4 are to be played at Interior Savings Centre on April 23 and 24.
After Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the visiting Rockets, Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said his players would be given “a couple of days to themselves.”
He added that the players would “be back on Saturday,” although he said he didn’t think they would skate.
“We have plenty of time,” Charron said. “We want to make sure they’re rested and ready.”
The time off also will be good for the walking wounded.
Centre Colin Smith suffered a suspected concussion early in the second period of the first game against Kelowna on Saturday and missed the last three games. He skated on Wednesday morning but there never was a chance that he would play in Game 4.
However, Smith, who led the Blazers with 106 points in the regular season, should play in Game 1 in Portland.
Bozon, however, is a different story.
The Swiss sophomore is sporting a cast after suffering a fracture in his right hand during a game-ending melee against the host Victoria Royals on March 26. The recovery time for such injuries normally is in the area of four weeks. If all goes well, that could put Bozon on track for a return late in the series against Portland.
Smith, who also had a team-high 41 goals, finished behind only Portland linemates Brendan Leipsic and Nic Petan (each 120 points) and Ty Rattie (110) in the regular-season scoring race. Bozon was tied for eighth, with 91 points, including 36 goals.
As well, centre Dylan Willick, the Blazers’ captain, went down awkwardly late in Wednesday’s game and left the ice in some discomfort. The rest can only help him.
“It’ll be all good,” Charron said of Willick.
———
The Rockets, playing their sixth game in nine nights, could have rolled over on Wednesday and no one would have raised an eyebrow.
They didn’t, though, as they erased a 3-1 third-period deficit before eventually losing to an overtime goal by Kamloops right-winger Kale Kessy.
“We had it all season,” Ryan Huska, the Rockets’ head coach, said. “We were a resilient team all season. We weren’t surprised that we didn’t roll over. We fought through a fair amount of things. We expect (our players) to push.”
The Rockets started this season 2-7 and found themselves well behind the Blazers, who went on an early-season 14-game winning streak. However, Kelowna recovered and finished 52-16-4, good enough to place them atop the B.C. Division. But, in the opening round, the Rockets ran into a determined bunch of Seattle Thunderbirds, who had finished 50 points behind them. The Rockets lost the first three games to Seattle, then won the last four to take the series, 4-3. Five of the games, including the last two, went into overtime. And the last two were played on back-to-back nights in different cities.
There’s not much doubt that the Rockets, who at times had seven players scratched, were a tired bunch by the time Wednesday’s game ended. But Huska was having none of that.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “Kamloops was the better team in this series.”
———
Referees Chris Crich and Devin Klein handed out 12 minor penalties on Wednesday, each of them resulting in a power play. The Rockets took 11 of those minors – the first six and the last five.
Asked about the penalties, Huska took a moment, measured his words and replied:
“I find it sad . . . when in this type of a game the calls are 11-1. And I find it even sadder that it was a televised game where people see that type of officiating. . . . No discredit to (the Blazers) for what they did on the other side, but if you look back at this series, it was sad.”
———
When F JC Lipon scored at 3:43 of overtime to give the Blazers a 5-4 victory in Game 3 on Tuesday, it was the first time Kamloops had won an OT game on home ice since April 6, 1996. On that occasion, F Jarome Iginla’s power-play goal at 13:23 gave the Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans in Game 2 of a best-of-five conference semifinal that Kamloops woud win, 3-2.
Of course, the Blazers then won a second straight OT game at home on Wednesday. Kessy’s goal, at 2:42 of OT, allowed the Blazers to wrap up a playoff series at home for the first time since April 11, 1996, when they beat the Americans, 5-1. The Blazers had trailed 2-1 in that series, before winning 6-1 in Kennewick, Wash., on April 9. The Blazers then lost the conference final to Spokane in six games.
———
JUST NOTES: Lipon leads the WHL playoffs in assists (16) and points (21). He is the only WHL player with at least a point in each of his team’s games. . . . Rattie and Kessy lead with 11 goals. . . . Rattie has 19 points, leaving him tied with Kamloops F Brendan Ranford, who has 13 points in his last five games. . . . The Blazers scored three power-play goals on Wednesday, including Kessy’s winner, on the power play. That’s a 27.2 per cent success rate, which is excellent in any coach’s opinion. . . . Iginla finished the 1996 playoffs with 16 goals in 16 games. Kessy is the first Kamloops skater since then to reach double digits in goals.

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Michal Lukac (Prince George, 2001-02) signed a one-year contract extension with Kladno (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had one goal and eight assists in 36 games with Kladno and was pointless during a three-game loan assignment to Pisek (Czech Republic, 1. Liga) this season. . . .


F Malte Strömwall (Tri-City, 2011-13) signed a two-year contract with Växjö (Sweden, Elitserien). Strömwall, who turns 19 on Aug. 24, is from Luleå, Sweden. He had 21 goals and 45 assists in 66 games with the Americans this season. He put up 27 points, including 11 goals, in his freshman season of 2011-12. . . .

D Craig Schira (Regina, Vancouver, 2003-09) signed a one-year plus option contract with HPK Hämeenlinna (Finland, SM-Liiga). He had 17 goals and 18 assists in 45 games with Frisk Asker (Norway, GET-Ligaen) this season. Schira was the second-leading point-getter among defencemen in GET-Ligaen.
———
The news that Russian forward Dmitri Uchaykin had died after taking a hit to the head during a game in Kazakhstan a couple of weeks ago brought memories flooding back to Barret Kropf.
Kropf, a veteran hockey coach, was coaching Briercrest College in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference “almost 10 years ago” and was part of a group of ACAC, CIS and junior players who made trip to Kazakhstan to play a few games.
“In our third game against their first league pro teams,” he writes, point out that this was prior to the advent of the KHL, “one of our players, Dan Hesje, was violently sucker-punched with a running, full strides haymaker.”
According to Kropf, Hesje “was out before his head smashed on the ice.”
In fact, Kropf writes, “Running from the bench, I thought he was dead . . . blood everywhere.”
How bad was it?
Kropf says that “only a miracle kept him alive that night in hospital.” He adds that the hit ended Hesje’s hockey career and Hesje still feels its affects.
As for the player who delived the below, Kropf says that he “got two minutes for roughing.”
So the ACAC team left the ice in protest.
“After some hallway negotiations,” Kropf recalls, “we agreed to replay the next night” when the arena was expected to be sold out. But the team agreed to play only if the offending player didn’t suit up.
“However,” Kropf remembers, “the next night he was out for the warmup. So we skated right off the ice.”
And that’s when the fun began.
As Kropf recalls it:
“There was a knock on the door and it was a Mafia-looking dude. Through an interpreter, we heard how he dragged their player and coach into the hallway and tore strips offf them . . . left them sitting in the hallway, cowering and in tears.
“These Mafia (businessmen!) then apologized profusely and begged us to play on.”
As the ACAC team made its way to the ice surface, players and coaches had to walk past the other team’s coach and the player in question.
“They were in the hallway crying as we walked by,” Kropf writes.
As for that night’s game, he notes: “We enjoyed a safe, high-skilled, fun game. Both teams took the high road and played a safe game with lots of skill.”
Having been through this so many years ago, having had those memories reawakened and having watched hockey evolve to where it now is, Kropf concludes:
“Maybe North America needs some Russian-styled businessmen to set the tone for headshot punishment!”
———
Mark Lamb, the GM and head coach of the Swift Current Broncos, says a change is coming in terms of how the WHL uses video review.
The host Broncos lost Game 4 of a first-round series with the Calgary Hitmen when on-ice officials missed a glove pass in overtime that led to the winning goal by the visitors. That left Calgary with a 3-1 lead in the series and heading home for Game 5, which it won.
"They have to deal with that and they're going to deal with it," Lamb told Shawn Mullin, the radio voice of the Broncos on The Eagle 94.1 FM. "It was one of the worst things that's ever happened in hockey . . . not just in our league. When you're in overtime and there's a glove pass and there's an overtime goal, it's devastating to the franchise. They're going to acknowledge it and there's going to be some changes."
Mullin’s interview with Lamb, in which they look back and ahead, is right here.
———

The WHL’s playoff situation:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
SECOND ROUND
Edmonton (1) vs. Medicine Hat (7)
(Edmonton wins, 4-0)
Calgary (3) vs. Red Deer (4)
(Calgary leads, 3-1; Game 5, tonight, in Calgary)
———
WESTERN CONFERENCE
SECOND ROUND
Portland (1) vs. Spokane (4)
(Portland wins, 4-0)
Kelowna (2) vs. Kamloops (3)
(Kamloops wins, 4-0)
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Three series ended in sweeps last night. Yikes! This means that of the 11 series that have been completed this spring, five have ended in four games and three others have gone five.
The Calgary Hitmen are in position to take out the visiting Red Deer Rebels in five games tonight in the only series left standing.
The Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winterhawks will open the Western Conference final with games in the Oregon city on April 19 and 20. Yes, they now will enjoy eight days off before they play again.
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WEDNESDAY’S GAMES:
In Medicine Hat, the Edmonton Oil Kings erased a 2-1 deficit with goals 39 seconds apart in the third period and beat the Tigers, 4-2. . . . F Henrik Samuelsson scored twice for Edmonton and F Dylan Wruck drew three assists. . . . Tigers F Hunter Shinkaruk gave his side its first lead of the series when he scored shorthanded at 5:41 of the first. . . . That also was the first time in these playoffs that Edmonton had trailed. . . . Samuelsson forged a 2-2 tie at 12:40 of the third, and D Griffin Reinhart broke the tie at 13:19. . . . Samuelsson, who also had an assist, later added an empty-netter. . . . Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit stopped 32 shots, while Medicine Hat’s Cam Lanigan blocked 38. . . . The Oil Kings have outscored their opponents 44-9 in nine playoff games. . . .

In Kamloops, F Kale Kessy scored a PP goal in overtime to give the Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . Kessy got his second goal of the game and 11th of these playoffs after Kelowna D Madison Bowey was penalized for delay of game. . . . The Blazers were 3-for-11 on the PP; the Rockets were 0-for-1. . . . Yes, PPs were 11-1. . . . Kamloops F Brendan Ranford had three assists, giving him nine points in the four-game sweep over the Rockets. . . . Kamloops F JC Lipon, who leads the playoff scoring race, had two assists. He remains the only player in the WHL with at least one point in each of his team’s playoff games. Lipon leads the scoring race with 21 points, two more than Portland F Ty Rattie and Ranford. . . . The Rockets trailed 3-1 going into the third after D Marek Hrbas and F Matt Needham scored in the last three minutes of the second. . . . F J.T. Barnett and F Cole Linaker pulled Kelowna even with goals at 5:03 and 9:24 of the the third. . . .Bowey went off 27 seconds into OT and the Blazers fired seven shots at G Jordon Cooke before Kessy scored. . . . Kessy shares the playoff goal-scoring lead with Rattie. . . .

In Spokane, G Mac Carruth stopped 30 shots to help the Portland Winterhawks to a 5-0 victory over the Chiefs. . . . Carruth has two shutouts in these playoffs and five in his career. . . . Portland F Ty Rattie scored once, giving him 11 goals in these playoffs. That was his 41st career playoff goal, tying him for second with Reg Leach (Flin Flon, 1967-70). The record of 47 goals is held by Mark Pederson (Medicine Hat, 1984-88). . . . F Taylor Peters scored a shorthanded goal and added an assist. . . . Portland outscored Spokane 18-3 in the four games. . . . Among the Chiefs scratches were F Todd Fiddler and F Jackson Playfair. Fiddler had a team-high 42 goals during the regular season. . . . Portland is into the conference final for a third straight season.
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CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT (16):
D Madison Bowey, Kelowna

CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT (5):
None
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From Paul Buker (@Pnbuker) of The Oregonian: “I asked Travis Green if he was good enough to get traded for 3 players. He shot back, ‘if you ask Medicine Hat, they would probably say no.’ ”
Green, the Portland Winterhawks’ interim GM and head coach, was Spokane’s leading scorer on Jan. 26, 1990, when the Chiefs dealt him to the Tigers for F Mark Woolf, F Frank Esposito and D Chris Lafreniere.


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