Showing posts with label Jason Hills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Hills. Show all posts

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Hurricanes, Cougars tie up series . . . Things are Rocky in Windsor . . . Block story amazing




Steve Ewen of Postmedia continues to keep tabs on the Vancouver Giants while he kicks cancer’s butt for a second time. In his most recent piece, Ewen looks at five things the Giants need to address before another season gets here. That piece is right here.
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Rocky Thompson, the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires, can expect a call from the OHL office early this week. Someone from the league office will be calling to lighten Thompson’s wallet.
Why?
Because Thompson officially got the playoffs underway on Sunday by ripping into the referees following a 5-2 loss to the defending Memorial Cup-champion Knights in London. The head officials were Mike Cairns, a veteran of eight OHL seasons, and Scott Oakman, an 18-year man.
Among the Thompson quotes in the Windsor Star:
“These are two veteran referees who are well respected around the league and it was just ridiculous. You’re not only playing a very tough and good opponent, you’re playing the referees as well.”
“It’s unreal to think of what happened on the ice. It’s obvious they didn’t want us to win this game and we played well enough after the first period to deserve it.”
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen it this bad since I’ve been here.”
I’m thinking Thompson should get out front of this one and just send OHL commissioner David Branch a cheque for a grand to cover this one.
BTW, the series is 1-1 and the teams head to Windsor for games on Tuesday and Thursday.
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Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon Express: “Would homers in the Toronto media please quit comparing Matthews and Marner to Toews and Kane. You’re embarrassing yourselves by thinking Matthews will ever bring the intangibles to the rink that Toews does.”
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Patrick O’Sullivan, a former NHLer, made the statement that Connor “McDavid is the most explosive and dynamic skater in the history of hockey. That’s not a stretch at this point, I think it’s a fact.” . . . To which Hutchinson added: “Of course everyone at TSN, especially knucklehead Jeff O’Neill, knows the greatest skater of all-time is Auston Matthews.”
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The Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars won the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League championship on Sunday, riding G Marcus Allen to a 4-0 victory over the visiting Greater Vancouver Canadians. Allen stopped 22 shots in posting his second straight shutout. It was a best-of-three final, with the Canadians winning the opener Friday, 3-2 in 2OT, and the Cougars winning 2-0 on Saturday. . . . The Cougars will be the host team for the Telus Cup, which is scheduled for April 24-30. . . . In Saskatchewan, the Regina Pat Canadians, who enjoyed a 36-6-2 regular season, won the midget AAA title with a 7-0 playoff run.
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Kieran Block played four seasons with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. At 22, he was soon to join the U of Alberta Golden Bears, when he was involved in a cliff-diving incident in which he shattered both legs. He would spend almost a year in a wheelchair and later played for Canada’s national sledge hockey team. Block is 31 years of age now and, after numerous surgical procedures, he played senior AAA hockey this season. What an amazing story this is and Jason Hills of the Edmotnton Journal has it all right here.
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After the first weekend of WHL playoffs, a lot of people are talking about two goaltenders.
Carl Stankowski, a 16-year-old from Calgary, has stepped in for the Seattle Thunderbirds, taking over the starting role, at least on a short-term basis, for the injured Rylan Toth and has put up two victories over the Tri-City Americans.
“I can’t even imagine,” Seattle F Scott Eansor told Andy Eide of 710 ESPN Seattle after Stankowski stopped 28 shots in a 5-2 victory in Game 2 on Saturday.“My first year in playoffs I was a little starstruck. I can’t even imagine him, being alone in the net. He’s been mentally strong and you can tell right now that he’s continuing to do that on the ice, I’m really proud of him.”
Stankowski was a second-round pick by Seattle in the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. He got into seven regular-season games, going 3-0-1, 2.18, .910.
Meanwhile, Michael Herringer, a 20-year-old from Comox, B.C., followed a 4-0 shutout over the Kamloops Blazers on Friday with a 3-2 victory on Saturday. While Herringer faced only 15 shots in Game 1, he was a whole lot busier in Game 2 when he stopped 33 shots.
His night’s work included what may have been a game-saver off the stick of Kamloops F Collin Shirley.

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SUNDAY GAMES:


At Lethbridge, F Egor Babenko scored three times to lead the Hurricanes to a 5-2 victory over the Red
EGOR BABENKO
Deer Rebels. . . . Red Deer had posted a 4-2 victory in Lethbridge on Saturday. . . . Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Red Deer. . . . Babenko, from Tyumen, Russia, is in his third season with Lethbridge. Last season, he had 69 points, including 29 goals, in 67 games. This season, he scored 24 goals and added 31 assists in 66 games. . . . He was scoreless in five games in last season’s playoffs, so these were his first post-season goals. . . . The Hurricanes took control by scoring the game’s first five goals. . . . F Ryan Bowen got things started at 6:56 of the first period. . . . Babenko made it 2-0 at 1:17 of the second period. . . . It moved to 3-0 as F Tanner Nagel scored, shorthanded, at 11:57. . . . Babenko added two more goals, at 17:17 of the second and 2:18 of the third. . . . Red Deer got two third-period PP goals, from F Michael Spacek, at 5:59, and F Evan Polei, at 11:46. . . . Lethbridge got two assists from each of Alec Baer and Jordy Bellerive. . . . F Lane Zablocki drew two assists for Red Deer, and Spacek had one. . . . The Hurricanes got 24 saves from G Stuart Skinner. . . . Red Deer starter Riley Lamb was beaten five times on 25 shots in 42:18. Lasse Petersen finished up, stopping the four shots he faced in 17:42. . . . Red Deer was 2-5 on the PP; Lethbridge was 0-6. . . . The Hurricanes made one lineup change, inserting D Ty Prefontaine for D Kyle Yewchuk. . . . Announced attendance: 3,380.
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At Prince George, the Cougars scored the game’s first five goals en route to a 5-1 victory over the
TY EDMONDS
Portland Winterhawks. . . . Portland had won Game 1, 4-2, in Prince George on Friday. . . . The series will resume in Portland with games on Wednesday and Thursday. . . . This series has a 2-2-1-1-1 format, so they’ll be back in Prince George for Game 5 on Saturday. . . . The Cougars had F Brad Morrison back in their lineup and he scored the game’s first goal, at 15:57 of the first period. Morrison, who has had three straight 20-goal seasons, hadn’t played since Feb. 24 — he missed 10 games — when he suffered an ankle injury during a fight. . . . F Aaron Boyd upped the lead to 3-0 with goals at 8:32 and 18:35 of the second period. . . . D Shane Collins made it 4-0 just 22 seconds into the third period and F Radovan Bondra added a PP goal 35 seconds later. . . . Portland got a PP goal from F Cody Glass at 12:53 of the third. . . . D Brendan Guhle had two assists for the Cougars. . . . The Cougars got a big game from G Ty Edmonds, who finished with 40 saves. This is his third playoff season; he had one victory in 10 decisions going into this game. . . . Cole Kehler started for Portland, and stopped 19 of 24 shots in 40:57. Shane Farkas came on in relief and stopped all 12 shots he faced in 19:03. . . . Each team was 1-4 on the PP. . . . Announced attendance: 4,141.
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MONDAY GAMES (all times local):

No Games Scheduled.
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TUESDAY GAMES (all times local):

Moose Jaw at Swift Current, 7 p.m. (Series tied, 1-1)
Medicine Hat vs. Brandon, at Dauphin, Man., 7:30 p.m. (Medicine Hat leads, 2-0)
Regina at Calgary, 7 p.m. (Regina leads, 2-0)
Kelowna at Kamloops, 7 p.m. (Kelowna leads, 2-0)
Everett at Victoria, 7:05 p.m. (Series tied, 1-1)

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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 9:46 PM
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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Jason Hills of the Edmonton Sun has spoken with Dr. Michael Czarnota, the consulting neurophysiologist for the WHL and OHL.
Here is part of what Hills wrote:
Czarnota worries about what the future may hold for some players down the road.
"I haven't worked with these guys long enough to see the true impact yet, but I have to be honest, it's something I worry about," said Czarnota.
"I'm almost obsessed to do everything I can to make it least likely to occur as possible. But I would be deluding myself in feeling I can keep that from happening completely, but we're going to do everything we can to try and eliminate these terrible head injuries."
Hill’s complete story is right here.
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The WHL released the second injury report of the new season on Tuesday and, as in the first, injuries are categorized as lower body or upper body.
Why?
“One of the reasons we’re doing that is just the competitiveness of the game, nobody wants other players targeting areas of injuries,” Spokane Chiefs GM Tim Speltz told Dave Trimmer of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “Nobody is trying to hide anything, we’re just trying to protect the players. It’s not something the opposition needs to know.”
That being the case, it sounds as though a league that has outlawed headshots — and so far as issued seven- and 10-game suspensions for same — is concerned about players targeting other players’ heads.
Perhaps the headshot problem runs deeper than we thought.
Besides, with the manner in which hockey players at all levels use social media these days, you can bet there no longer are any secrets involving injuries.
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Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s disciplinarian, dropped the sledge hammer on Tuesday, suspending F Charles Inglis of the Prince George Cougars for 10 games.
Inglis picked up a major and game misconduct for delivering a check to the head of Victoria Royals D Tyler Stahl, who left the Saturday game and is out indefinitely with a concussion.
“These are the types of hits all leagues are trying to get out of the game,” Prince George general manager Dallas Thompson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we had an incident. Now the suspension has come down. We move on.”
Inglis, who had 32 goals last season and has three in as many games this season, will be eligible to return Oct. 26 when the Cougars meet the Rockets in Kelowna.
The Cougars, in their first game without Inglis, opened an East Division swing Tuesday night with a 6-3 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders.
Inglis now holds the dubious distinction of owning the longest suspension handed out by Doerksen this season. F Cody Beach of the Moose Jaw Warriors is serving a seven-game suspension for an opening night hit on F Bruno Mraz of the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Meanwhile, Doerksen also doled out four other suspensions on Tuesday.
F Brendan Leipsic of the Portland Winterhawks got five games under supplemental discipline for an incident against the visiting Tri-City Americans on Sept. 30. (Already this season, the Americans have plucked a player off the Winterhawks’ roster via waivers and the Winterhawks asked for, and received, supplemental discipline against Tri-City’s Jordan Messier – he was suspended for two games – after an earlier game. Some rivalry!)
F Marcus Messier of the Tri-City Americans will sit out four games for a checking from behind incident in a game at Spokane on Saturday. Tri-City D Justin Hamonic was given a double minor at the time, but it turns out the culprit was Messier.
D Cason Machacek of the Seattle Thunderbirds got a two-game sentence for “one man fight and repeat offender” in a game at Portland on Saturday.
F Klarc Wilson of the Edmonton Oilers will miss one game for a checking-from-behind major and game misconduct in a game at Medicine Hat on Saturday.
(The OHL handed out three suspensions Tuesday, each of them for a check to an opponent’s head. Those suspensions were for 15, 10 and eight games. For details, and video, check out the OHL’s website. The OHL already has dished out four suspensions of at least 10 games.)
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It would seem the goaltending shuffle is in high gear in the WHL.
On Monday, the Moose Jaw Warriors acquired G Luke Siemens, who turns 19 in November, from the Everett Silvertips. That move prompted the Warriors to waive G Deven Dubyk, 20, and release G Brandon Stone, 19.
On Tuesday, two more veteran goaltenders were on the move, Jon Groenheyde  shifting from the Edmonton Oil Kings to the Swift Current Broncos and Adam Morrison going from the Saskatoon Blades to the Vancouver Giants.
Groenheyde and Morrison both are 20 years of age.
Groenheyde was acquired by Edmonton last season, with G Cam Lanigan going to the Kamloops Blazers in exchange. This season, Groenheyde has gotten into just one game with Edmonton, which is going with Laurent Brossoit, 18, as its starter. Tristan Jarry, 16, now backs up Brossoit.
In exchange for Groenheyde, the Broncos gave up F Jordan Peddle, 20, who has spent three seasons in Swift Current. Peddle has 64 points in 198 regular-season games.
Groenheyde is expected to play Saturday when the Lethbridge Hurricanes visit Swift Current.
The Giants, meanwhile, acquired G Adam Morrison, 20, and F Levi Bews, 17, from the Saskatoon Blades in exchange for F Michael Burns, 20, D Zach Hodder, 18, and a fourth-round selection in the 2013 bantam draft.
The Giants are trying to plug what has been a leaky defence – they have given up 22 goals over their last four games – and are hoping Morrison, who is from White Rock, B.C., will be at least part of the answer.
Morrison, a third-round pick by the Blades in the 2006 bantam draft, was in his fourth season in Saskatoon and has a career record of 44-22-6. His acquisition leaves the Giants with three goaltenders, the others being Brendan Jensen, 18, who has been starting, and freshman Jackson Whistle, 16. The Giants now are expected to move Jensen and keep Whistle to back up Morrison.
Bews, 17, had seven points in 52 games with the Blades last season.
The Giants are at home to the Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday night and expect to have Morrison and Bews available. Morrison, in fact, is expected to get the start.
The Giants remain with three 20-year-olds on their roster, the others being F James Henry and D Neil Manning.
The Blades, meanwhile, also are carrying three 20-year-olds, with Burns joining F Jesse Paradis and F Jake Trask. Saskatoon also shows F Darian Dziurzynski on its roster but he is with the AHL’s Portland Pirates, at least for now.
The Giants had acquired Burns from the Edmonton Oil Kings last season, while Hodder, the 20th overall selection in the 2008 bantam draft, had been at home in Delta., B.C., awaiting a trade.
The departure of Morrison left the Blades with Russian freshman Andrey Makarov, 18, as the only goaltender on their roster. However, they later recalled G Adam Todd from the BCHL’s Alberni Valley Bulldogs. Todd was a fourth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft.
Burns, Hodder and Todd all are expected to be in uniform Wednesday night against the visiting Prince George Cougars.
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D Matt MacKenzie, 20, has signed a three-year contract with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. MacKenzie, who was acquired by the Tri-City Americans from the Calgary Hitmen, remains with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, at least for now. He was a third-round selection by Buffalo in the 2010 NHL draft. He has 98 points and 180 penalty minutes in 225 regular-season WHL games.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings, already without veteran D Brodie Melnychuk (broken wrist), have lost F Dominick Favreau and D Rene Hunter to injuries.
Favreau has a lower-body injury and the team says he could miss three weeks.
Here’s Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun on Hunter’s situation:
Meanwhile, the club’s injury report lists Hunter, 18, as out one week after he took a hit to the head from Saskatoon Blades forward Nick Zajac on Saturday.
When asked whether Hunter sustained a concussion, Wheat Kings head coach Cory Clouston would only tell the Sun that it was an “upper body” injury.
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JUST NOTES: The WHL website now includes the transaction involving D Braeden (Bunny) Laroque, 19. It turns out he was dealt by the Edmonton Oil Kings to the Seattle Thunderbirds for a fourth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. . . . The Portland Winterhawks have assigned D Matthew Franczyk, 18, to the MJHL’s Winnipeg South Blues. He was pointless in one game with Portland this season. Last season, he played one game with the Swift Current Broncos and 12 with the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . .
F Brett Connolly, 19, has made the season-opening roster of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Connolly played the last three seasons with his hometown Prince George Cougars, although injuries limited him to 16 games in 2009-10. In order to keep Connolly, the sixth overall pick in the NHL’s 2010 draft, on its roster, the Lightning sent F Dana Tyrell to the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals. Tyrell and Connolly once were linemates with the Cougars. . . . F Mark Stone of the Brandon Wheat Kings is the CHL’s player of the week. He had nine points, including four goals, in three games last week. . . .
The Red Deer Rebels have lost freshman F Brooks Maxwell, 17, for up to six weeks with a broken wrist. He was injured Saturday in a 7-2 loss to the Raiders in Prince Albert.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
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Posted by Gregg Drinnan at 1:53 AM
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