Winterhawks win championship final opener

1. The Vancouver Giants are in the market for a head coach and I am told that management held “serious discussions” with former NHL coach Marc Crawford, but that things didn’t work out. Crawford, who last coached major junior from 1989-91 with the OHL’s Cornwall Royals, and his family have a home in North Vancouver. . . . I am told that Giants majority owner Ron Toigo spoke with Crawford but that Crawford, 53, has no desire at this time to go back to riding the bus. . . . Crawford, who spent 15 seasons as an NHL head coach with the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings, has spent the last two seasons in Zurich as head coach of the ZSC Lions of the Switzerland’s National League A. The Lions won the league championship last month, sweeping the Kloten Flyers in the best-of-seven final. . . . During this season, Crawford agreed to a two-year extension that runs through 2015-16.

2. When Todd Lumbard was tending goal for the Brandon Wheat Kings and I was writing for the Brandon Sun, he was a favourite go-to guy. Why? Because he was thoughtful, soft-spoken and respectful, and always quick with a greeting and a smile. Today, he’s the president and part-owner of the Regina Pats. . . . There’s more right here from Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post.

3. After 10 years in Vancouver with the Giants, Don Hay is back in Kamloops as head coach of the Blazers. Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun talked with Hay and the resulting column is right here.

4. If you are a hockey junkie, this is for you. Larry Fisher of the Kelowna Daily Courier has a website (larry-fisher.com) on which you will find a list that contains the names of every ex-NHLer who played overseas in 2013-14. . . . The numbers will blow you away. . . . For example, there were 183 in the KHL alone. . . . The list was compiled by Jesse Gill, who obviously has a love for hockey. . . . Check it out right here.

5. Matt Dunigan was forced to end his professional football career because of concussions. That was in 1996. Today, he still feels the pain as he takes his message to others. . . . Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix has more right here.
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G Curtis Honey, 20, won’t be back with the Brandon Wheat Kings, who will run with Jordan Papirny as their starter. “I think he’s a good goalie,” Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner/GM/head coach, told Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun of Honey, “and we went back and forth and decided that Jordan was the way to go at the end . . . We won’t carry a 20-year-old goaltender next (season). We’ll look to get him an opportunity elsewhere.” . . . Honey, from Edmonton, battled injury problems as he went 12-14-2, 4.07, .888. Over three seasons with Brandon, he was 23-33-6, 3.98, .890. . . . Honey’s twin brother, Connor, is a forward with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
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D Dalton Thrower, who played out his eligibility with the Vancouver Giants this season, is to have surgery on his left ankle on Tuesday, reports Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province. . . . Thrower has ligament damage in the ankle and last played on Jan. 24. . . . Thrower was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the NHL’s 2012 draft while with the Saskatoon Blades, but has yet to sign with the Habs. . . . Saskatoon dealt him to the Giants in May 2013. . . . With the Giants, he had 38 points, including 12 goals, in 42 games.
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THE QMJHL FINAL:
In Baie-Comeau, the Val-d’Or Foreurs got a PP goal from D Guillaume Gelinas at 7:24 of OT and beat the Drakkar, 4-3. . . . The goal was Gelinas’ second of the game and ninth of the playoffs. . . . The Foreurs forced OT when F Pierre-Maxime Poudrier got his fourth playoff goal at 18:27 of the third period. . . . The series is tied 1-1, the Drakkar having won 3-0 on Friday night. . . . Game 3 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Val-d’Or.
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THE OHL FINAL:
Like the QMJHL, the OHL final is tied 1-1 and resumes Tuesday with the Guelph Storm travelling to North Bay to play the Battalion. . . . The Battalion is in its first season in North Bay after having moved there from Brampton last summer.
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THE FOURTH ROUND (best-of-seven; all times local):
WHL final, for the Ed Chynoweth Cup
(x - if necessary)
(All games televised live by Shaw)
(All games televised by Root Sports -- Game 2 live, others on delayed basis)
PORTLAND (2, West) vs. Edmonton (1, East)
(Portland leads, 1-0)
Season series: Portland, 0-0-1; Edmonton, 1-0-0.
Saturday: Edmonton 2 at Portland 5 (10,947)
Sunday: Edmonton at Portland, 5 p.m. (Moda Center)
Tuesday: Portland at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Wednesday: Portland at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
x-Friday: Edmonton at Portland, 7 p.m. (Moda Center)
x-Sunday, May 11: Portland at Edmonton, 4 p.m.
x-Monday, May 12: Edmonton at Portland, 7 p.m. (Moda Center)
INJURIES
Portland: None.
Edmonton: None.
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SATURDAY’S GAME:
In Portland, the Winterhawks got four goals from three American-born forwards and beat the Edmonton Oil Kings, 5-2. . . . This was Game 1 of a best-of-seven series for the Ed Chynoweth Cup. Game 2 is scheduled for today, 5 p.m., at the Moda Center in Portland. . . . The defending-champion Winterhawks built a 3-0 first-period lead on the strength of single goals from F Keegan Iverson of St. Louis Park, Minn., F Paul Bittner of Crookston, Minn., and F Chase De Leo of La Mirada, Calif. . . . The latter two scored in the last two minutes of the period, at 18:07 and 19:04. . . . Iverson has three goals; De Leo now has eight. . . . The Oil Kings got two early second-period goals -- F Brett Pollock scored his 11th of these playoffs 20 seconds in and F Henrik Samuelsson got his third at 2:20. . . . But the Winterhawks, as they had done in the first period, scored late in the second, with D Mathew Dumba counting on a PP at 19:23 to restore the two-goal lead. . . . He’s got four goals in these playoffs. . . . Bittner added his second of the game and fourth of the playoffs at 3:41. . . . F Nic Petan drew three assists for Portland, while D Derrick Pouliot had two. . . . Portland F Oliver Bjorkstrand had one assist; he leads the playoff scoring race 29 points, one more than Pouliot, who has a WHL-high 24 helpers. . . . Each goaltender, Corbin Boes of Portland and Tristan Jarry of Edmonton -- stopped 31 shots. . . . Portland was 1-for-5 on the PP; Edmonton was 0-for-4. . . . A post-game tweet from Sunaya Sapurji (@sunayas) of Yahoo! Sports: “I'm not going to go down that road with some of those calls." Edmonton Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal on some of the penalties tonight. #WHL. . . . Portland F Brendan Leipsic, who has 27 points in 14 games, sat out the opener as he served a one-game WHL suspension left over from the Western Conference final. He was given a spearing major and game misconduct late in Game 5 against the host Kelowna Rockets. Leipsic is eligible to return for Game 2 tonight. . . . Samuelsson was hit with a double minor for spearing at the end of the third period last night. . . . Some observers felt that Samuelsson came after a play that was offside at the Portland line. Columnist Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun tweeted: “Replay shows linesman blew an offside call on Samuelsson goal.” . . . Edmonton F Mitch Moroz left in the second period, seemingly favouring his right leg, but was back to start the third. . . . The Winterhawks are 41-3 since Jan. 11, including a 29-1 run over the last two months. . . . Portland is 13-2 in the playoffs, including 8-0 at home. Edmonton now is 12-3. . . . These teams are meeting in the final for a third consecutive season. Edmonton won two years ago; Portland won last spring. . . .
Jones writes in the Sun that Jarry struggled in Game 1, but that Laxdal isn’t concerned. That column is right here.
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From Kootenay Ice F Tim Bozon (@timbozon94): “Thank you everyone at the cap Breton #cers made lots improvement and met really nice people...#lifeisgood #shapeisback”
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From Roy MacGregor (@RoyMacG) of The Globe and Mail: “Maybe we can't abolish the Senate -- but how about a Canadian law to ban afternoon playoff games?”
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From the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers): “Aaaand the @pdxwinterhawks take Game 1 of the WHL Finals … is there something in the PDX water?”


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Hockey and a couple of halls of fame

THE MacBETH REPORT:
Shayne Wiebe didn’t know he was getting married until he read it right here.
Whoops!
Wiebe (Kamloops, Brandon, 2006-11), who has signed with Olten (Switzerland, NL B), won’t be reporting until Aug. 12, which is a week after some of the other players.
In translating an Olten news release, an error was made. Rather than reporting that Wiebe would be in a wedding, it was translated and interpreted that he was to be married.
A giant OOPS!
My apologies to Shayne, his girlfriend/wife/significant other (if he has one) and family, his family, any future girlfriends/wives/significant others, et al.
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The hockey crowd will be fathering in Regina tonight as the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame inducts its class of 2013. In the spotlight will be inductees Red Berenson, Clark Gillies, Bernie Federko and Eddie Shore, along with former on-ice official Mick McGeough, builders Bill Hay and Del Wilson, and Jack Maddia in the grassroots category. Also going into the hall will be the 1914 Regina Victorias, who won the Allan Cup. . . . I have a soft spot in my heart for the Vics, because their roster included Edward Lyman (Hick) Abbott and Joe Potts. Abbott was a star player, while Potts was the team’s manager. . . . The Abbott Cup, which once was awarded annually to the best junior team in the west, was named after Hick Abbott, who was killed during the First World War. That trophy has since been retired.
For more on Potts and Abbott, right here is something that I wrote a few years ago.
While Hick Abbott is in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Vics, it is a travesty that he isn't in that Hall of Fame as an athlete.
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Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald has more right here about Gillies and his induction into the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame. Ålthough the dinner is being held in Regina, the hall of fame is located at the Credit Union iPlex in Swift Current.
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Still with hockey and halls of fame, the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in Penticton inducted its class of 2013 on Friday night.
Two Memorial Cup-winning teams — the Kamloops Blazers from 1993-94 and 1994-95 — were inducted, as was Kamloops native Mark Recchi, who played two seasons here and now is one of the WHL franchise’s five owners.
The two Memorial Cup winners were led by general manager Bob Brown and head coach Don Hay, both of whom were in Penticton for the banquet and ceremony, along with a number of players from both teams.
Brown was the club’s general manager from 1986 through the 1994-95 season. He was inexplicably dismissed shortly after the Blazers won the 1995 Memorial Cup on home ice.
Hay began with the Blazers as an assistant coach in 1986 and was head coach from 1992-93 through 1994-95.
Recchi, who was born and raised in Kamloops, played two seasons with the Blazers (1986-88) after being acquired from the New Westminster Bruins.
Selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL draft, Recchi went on to a lengthy NHL career and is a three-time Stanley Cup winner.
He played in 1,652 regular-season games, which is fourth on the NHL’s all-time list. Recchi is 19th in career goals (577), 14th in assists (956) and 12th in points (1,533). He retired after the 2010-11 season and now is an advisor to hockey operations with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, who are owned by Tom Gaglardi, the Blazers’ majority owner.
Also inducted into the Hall of Fame last night were longtime NHLer Paul Kariya, who starred with the BCHL’s Penticton Panthers (1990-92); Marc Crawford, a former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks; and builders Colin Patterson and Nancy Wilson. Patterson is a veteran coach who won a Memorial Cup as an assistant coach with the Kootenay Ice, while Wilson, a longtime player and coach who lives in Summerland, is the first female to be inducted into the hall.
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The Vancouver Giants have dealt F Riley Kieser, 20, to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a sixth-round selection in the 2014 bantam draft. . . . Kieser, who is from Sherwood Park, Alta., had 35 points, including 13 goals, in 102 regular-season games over two seasons with the Giants.
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame has its big weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., starting today. One of the inductees will be Dr. Frank Jobe, who pioneered what is known as Tommy John surgery. Of course, Jobe will be introduced by Tommy John. . . . Dave Anderson of The New York Times makes a case right here for John to be in the Hall of Fame, as well.
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Roberto Luongo, back again as the Vancouver Canucks’ starting goaltender, switched agents earlier this week, dropping Gilles Lupien in favour of CAA Sports, meaning Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry. If you’re wondering what Lupien thinks of the move, and what he thinks of Luongo’s situation with the Canucks, well, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail has that and more right here.
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“If the Russian government were passing legislation that discriminated against Jews, Canada would have announced a boycott of the 2014 Olympics already,” writes Adam Goldenberg for MacLean’s, a Canadian newsmagazine. “That we have been so placid about Canada’s looming participation in what will be a massive public relations coup for Vladimir Putin’s gay-hating regime is both shortsighted and historically myopic. Russia’s LGBT community is being openly persecuted by its own government. Those of us whose ancestors once stood in the same line of fire have a moral obligation to be anything but complacent.” . . . Goldenberg’s complete column is right here.
This just might grow into something. Jennifer Saltman of the Vancouver Province reports right here that some Vancouver bars have stopped serving Russian vodka in protest over that country’s treatment of the LGBT community.

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Clinton Atkinson (Moose Jaw, Tri-City, 2008-11) signed a one-year contract with Miskolci Jegesmedve (Hungary, MOL Liga). He had nine goals and 50 assists in 60 games with Coquitlam Express (BCHL) last season. The new head coach in Miskolc is Tim Kehler, who was GM and head coach of Salmon Arm (BCHL) the past two seasons and was an assistant coach in Swift Current for three seasons prior to moving to Salmon Arm.
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Something is rotten in Innsbruck.
So writes John Leake in what is, in fact, an additional chapter to the already published book Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery.
If you are a regular here, you will recall that a short time ago I highly recommended Leake’s book, which deals with the disappearance of former Saskatoon Blades D Duncan MacPherson and the subsequent trials and tribulations with which his parents, Lynda and Bob, had to deal as they sought the truth about what had happened to their son.
With this piece — Something is rotten in Innsbruck — Leake revisits three other cases, each of which involved a body and each of which also involved Dr. Walter Rabl, the president of the Austrian Society of Forensic Medicine.
Lynda and Bob MacPherson dealt quite a lot with Dr. Rabl who, as Leake found out once he began looking into the situation, wasn’t nearly everything he had pretended to be.
Read this right here and you will agree that, yes, something is rotten in Innsbruck. Really, really rotten. And if you haven’t yet read the book, do so. You won’t be disappointed.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Rob Miller is the new head coach of the Augusta RiverHawks of the Southern Professional Hockey League. He takes over from Brad Ralph, who now is head coach of the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads. . . . Miller, 33, spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Federeal league’s Brooklyn Aviators. . . .
Marc Crawford is leaving the TSN studio to go back behind the bench. He has signed on as head coach of the ZSC Lions, who play out of Zurich in the Swiss National League A. He most recently coached in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, who dropped him after the 2010-11 season. . . . Crawford replaces Bob Hartley, who left the Lions to take over as head coach of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.
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Now here is a giant can of worms. . . .
Jacob  Trouba was the ninth overall selection in last month’s NHL draft. He was taken by the Winnipeg Jets.
Trouba was a third-round selection by the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL’s 2010 draft.
Trouba, meanwhile, has said he will attend the U of Michigan and play for the Wolverines.
Recently, however, there have been reports that Trouba is wavering and that he may join the Rangers.
On Monday, Matt Slovin of The Michigan Daily reported that a source has told him that “Kitchener has presented the Trouba family with a ‘huge offer’ that remains on the table. The source added that he ‘believes it will happen.’ ”
According to Slovin, “In place of an education package, the source said Trouba could be compensated to about $200,000.”
Slovin’s piece is right here.
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F Marek Tvrdon of the Vancouver Giants has signed with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. He was a fourth-round selection in the NHL’s 2011 draft. A natural scorer, Tvrdon, 19, had 74 points, including 31 goals, with the Giants last season. In 2010-11, he had 11 points in 12 games when a shoulder injury brought his season to an end. Tvrdon is from Nitra, Slovakia.
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Brent Sutter has been an NHL head coach for the last five seasons. Right now, however, he is unemployed. Should that continue into the 2012-13 season, Sutter says he will help out with the management side of the Red Deer Rebels, the WHL franchise that he and his family own.
“We’ve always had good people in place here and I’m going to help Jesse (Wallin, the Rebels’ GM and head coach) out with the management part,” Sutter told Greg Meachem, the sports editor of the Red Deer Advocate.
Sutter also told Meachem that the time has come for the Rebels “to get back on board as far as making the playoffs” and “back to being a elite team in the league.”
Meachem’s story is right here.
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He’s 47 years old and estimates that he was knocked unconscious about 100 times during his football career.
John Glennon of The Tennessean has more right here.
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Howie Meeker was in Vernon, B.C., the other day and had some interesting things to say to Kevin Mitchell of the Vernon Morning Star.
On the L.A. Kings winning the Stanley Cup: “I was kind of delighted they won. I was disappointed that the Canadian clubs weren’t in there until the end. I think what they’ve done is really changed the whole history of the game. Defence now comes way, way ahead of offence.”
On skill versus size: “Here in Canada and the rest of the world, we’re not developing enough skilled hockey players to sell the game on speed, skill and finesse. So, if I draft anywhere after 10, I don’t get anything but big, tough, hard-working, honest guys. They’ve taken over.”
On shot-blocking coming to dominate the game: “An ant couldn’t crawl through (the scrums in front). Guys are making millions of dollars a year by being a target in a shootin’ gallery. God bless ’em. They’re crazy but it’s spoiled the game.”
On Don Cherry: “Nobody can give him advice so as long as he wants to stay there, let him stay there. I don’t watch him. I admire him for what he does. He’s got a circus act going, him and his buddy (Ron MacLean) and he’s got a great following but I wanna know what’s going on out on the ice, I don’t wanna know about his buddies and all this other baloney. I don’t think he’s done anything for the game of hockey, but he’s done well for himself.”
Mitchell’s complete story is right here.


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