D Martin Gründling (Moose Jaw, 2005-07) has signed for the rest of this season with Banská Bystrica (Slovakia, Extraliga). This season, with Skalica (Slovakia, Extraliga), he had two goals and 10 assists in 51 games. He was the team captain.
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Steve Montador, a former NHL defenceman who struggled with post-concussion syndrome, was found dead in his home on Sunday morning. His name is on a concussion-related lawsuit that has been filed against the NHL. . . . Rick Westhead of TSN has more right here.
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Eric Duhatschek of The Globe and Mail has a fond remembrance of Steve Montador right here.
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SUNDAY’S GAMES
B.C. DIVISION: No teams played.U.S. DIVISION: Seattle lost at home and remains third, three points behind idle Portland.
EAST DIVISION: Brandon won at home to move back to within two points of idle Kelowna, which leads the overall standings. Each team has 15 games remaining. . . . Prince Albert lost on the road and remains eight points out of a playoff spot. . . . Saskatoon won on the road and now has one more victory (17) than it had all of last season.
CENTRAL DIVISION: Kootenay lost at home. The Ice holds down the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot.
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In Brandon, F Duncan Campbell scored twice to lead the Wheat Kings to a 5-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Campbell has 10 goals this season. . . . He opened the scoring at 3:55 of the first period and made it 4-2 at 17:18 of the third. . . . F Morgan Klimchuk drew three assists for Brandon, while F Tim McGauley had two assists as he ran his point streak to 13 games. . . . McGauley came up short on a second-period penalty shot attempt. . . . Brandon F Peter Quenneville scored his 17th goal, into an empty net, and added an assist. . . . D Reid Gow scored his first goal since joining the Wheat Kings from the U of Manitoba Bisons after the Christmas break. . . . Brandon G Jordan Papirny stopped 35 shots, seven fewer than Prince Albert’s Rylan Parenteau. . . . Brandon was 0-for-8 on the PP; Prince Albert was 1-for-4. . . . Three players were given misconducts at various points for mouth guard infractions. . . . Raiders F Colton Heffley scored his sixth goal of the season in what was his 300th regular-season game. The first 270 of those were with the Kelowna Rockets. . . . F Reid Duke was among Brandon’s scratches. He has an undisclosed injury. The Wheat Kings remain without D Kale Clague, F Jayce Hawryluk, G Alex Moodie and D Ivan Provorov. . . . The Wheat Kings (42-9-6) are 13-0-2 in their last 15 games. . . . The Raiders (23-32-2) had won their previous two games. . . . 
In Cranbrook, F Sam McKechnie scored 24 seconds into OT to give the Saskatoon Blades a 5-4 victory over the Kootenay Ice. . . . McKechnie, who now has 20 goals, scored twice in the game. . . . Ice F Tim Bozon forced OT when he scored his third goal of the game, and 25th of the season, with 53.2 seconds left in the third period. . . . McKechnie’s first goal, at 4:24 of the second, gave the Blades a 4-1 lead. . . . Bozon and F Vince Loschiavo, with his fifth, got the Ice to within 4-3 in the second period. . . . F Cameron Hebig had two assists for the Blades. . . . Saskatoon D Brycen Martin had one assist to run his point streak to 11 games. . . . F Jaedon Descheneau had two assists for the Ice. . . . Each team was 1-for-2 on the PP. . . . The game featured two goaltenders who were teammates last season with the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts. Brock Hamm of the Blades stopped 33 shots. Declan Hobbs, who is expected to go back to the Contacts today, turned aside 25 shots in what was his first WHL start. . . . The Blades were playing their seventh game in 10 days. . . . Saskatoon went 4-0-0 against the Ice this season, outscoring it 19-12 in the process. . . . The Blades (17-36-3) won 16 games all of last season. . . . The Ice (28-27-2) had head coach Ryan McGill back behind the bench. He had missed the previous two games. . . .
In Kent, Wash., F Jack Walker scored three times and added an assist to help the Victoria Royals to a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Walker completed his hat trick with an empty-netter at 18:39 of the third period. . . . Victoria F Austin Carroll, with his 33rd goal, and Walker, with two, gave the Royals a 3-0 first-period lead. . . . Walker has 15 goals. . . . Carroll also had two assists, as did D Joe Hicketts. He’s got five assists over his last two games. . . . Royals F Tyler Soy scored his 24th goal and added an assist, giving him five points in two games. . . . F Mathew Barzal and D Shea Theodore each had two assists for Seattle. . . . Victoria lost D Ryan Gagnon at 4:15 of the third period when he took a headshot major and game misconduct for a hit on F Luke Osterman, who left the game. . . . Victoria G Coleman Vollrath stopped 28 shots. . . . Each team was playing its third game in three days. The Royals, who played in three different cities, went 2-1-0. The Thunderbirds, who also played two road games, one of them in Everett, went 1-1-1. . . . The Royals (32-21-4) have won two in a row. . . . The Thunderbirds (29-21-7) had points in their previous three games (2-0-1). . . . Headline on Seattle news release after the game: Royals Colonize T-Birds.———
MONDAY’S GAMES
(all times local)Medicine Hat at Swift Current, 2 p.m.
Brandon at Regina 2 p.m.
Prince George at Edmonton, 2 p.m.
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Hockey loses another enforcer: Steve Montador, ex-NHL found dead today, fought 66 times in NHL reg season, about same as Derek Boogaard.
— John Branch (@JohnBranchNYT) February 16, 2015
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D Martin Grundling (Moose Jaw, 2005-07) was one of nine players not offered contracts for next season by Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He had one goal in 48 games this season.
Japan lost 1-0 to host Hungary in the third-place game at the IIHF’s Division 1 Group A world championship in Budapest a week ago. Aaron Keller, who played for the Kamloops Blazers (1992-96), was honoured as the tournament’s top defenceman and was named to the all-star team. Keller has played in Japan since 1997-98. . . . Kazakhstan won the tournament, beating Italy 3-0 in the final. Both countries earned promotion and will play with the big boys in the 2014 world championship in Minsk, Belarus. . . . F Pat Iannone of Italy, who is a native of Fruitvale, B.C., was honoured as the tournament’s MVP. He played for Kootenay, Tri-City, Medicine Hat and Regina (1999-2003) and has played in Italy since the 2003-04 season. . . .
F Jake Virtanen of the Calgary Hitmen was hit with one of those ‘tbd’ suspensions on Saturday. Virtanen drew a kneeing major and game misconduct for a hit on Edmonton D Cody Corbett during the Oil Kings’ 6-0 home-ice victory on Friday night. . . . Corbett didn’t return to the game following the hit. . . . The league is likely to firm up the suspension before Game 3 on Tuesday in Calgary.
D Martin Gernat put up four playoff points on Friday night and signed his first NHL contract on Saturday. Not a bad weekend. . . . Gernat had two goals and two assists as his Edmonton Oil Kings beat the visiting Calgary Hitmen 6-0 on Friday night. . . . On Saturday, he signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers. He was the 122nd overall selection in the NHL’s 2011 draft. . . . Gernat missed most of this regular season after undergoing shoulder surgery. He finished with 13 points in 23 games, and now has 12 points in seven playoff games. Last season, he had 55 points in 60 games.
Saturday night. . . . Bentley G Dan Bakala was named the tournament’s MVP after going 4-0 with two shutouts. . . . Chris Neiszner, Scott Doucet and Keenan Desmet scored the goals in the championship game. . . . The Generals, who also won in 2009, are the first Alberta team to win more than one Allan Cup.
In Portland, G Mac Carruth stopped 27 shots as the Winterhawks blanked the Kamloops Blazers, 4-0. . . . Carruth has three shutouts in these playoffs and seven in his career. . . . In seven April games, Carruth is 7-0, 0.71, .975. . . . F Ty Rattie and F Brendan Leipsic each had a goal and two assists for the Winterhawks. . . . Rattie now has a WHL-leading 25 points in the playoffs, four more than F JC Lipon of Kamloops, who was pointless for a second straight game. . . . The Blazers were 0-for-5 on the PP and now are 0-for-10 in the series. . . . The Winterhawks were 2-for-8 and now are 3-for-11. . . . Rattie’s goal increased his career playoff point total to 82, putting him in a tie for fourth place tie with F Brad Moran (Calgary, 1995-2000) on the alltime list. Rattie then broke the tie with an assist on Portland’s third goal. Another assist put him at 84 points, two behind F Rob Brown (Kamloops, 1983-87), who is in third spot. . . . No doubt disappointing conspiracy theorists, the WHL chose not to suspend Rattie for his checking-from-behind major and game misconduct in the third period of Game 1 on Friday. Kamloops F Chase Souto, who was hit on that play, took a spearing minor at the time, so perhaps the WHL took that into consideration. . . . Rattie also has 43 playoff goals, four off the record held by former Medicine Hat Tigers F Mark Pederson. . . . Carruth set a WHL record for career playoff appearances by a goaltender. This was his 66th postseason game, one more than Cam Ward (Red Deer, 2001-04). . . . Attendance was 9,132. . . . The Blazers hadn’t been blanked in a playoff game since March 23, 2002, when Shane Bendera and the Kelowna Rockets beat them 3-0 in Kamloops. The Blazers played 57 postseason games between blankings.
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