Three former WHLers have committed to attend the U of Manitoba in Winnipeg and play for the Bisons. . . . F Paul Ciarelli, a native of Winnipeg, played the last four seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . . F Aaron Lewadniuk, who is from Carman, Man., played two seasons (2008-10) with the Wheat Kings, before playing the last two seasons in the ECHL. . . . D Brock Sutherland, who is from Brandon, spent this season with the Calgary Hitmen. He also played with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Tri-City Americans.
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Adam Proteau of The Hockey News looks at the menace that is shot-blocking and where the Stanley Cups playoff are headed. It’s right here and it isn’t pretty.
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THE COACHING GAME:
Jim McKenzie (Moose Jaw, Victoria, 1985-89) has agreed to a two-year contract extension as head coach of the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks. The deal carries through 2013-14. . . . McKenzie, 42, took over as head coach from the fired Kevin Patrick on Jan. 13 and went 8-19-6 as the Lumberjacks completed their second season in the USHL. . . .
Cary Eades is the new GM and head coach of the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede. Eades took the job a week after the U of North Dakota chose not to renew his contract as associate head coach. With the Stampede, he replaces Kevin Hartzell, who was dropped by a new ownership group after seven seasons with the organization.
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THE WHL FINAL:
The Edmonton Oil Kings and the Winterhawks meet tonight in Portland in Game 6. The Oil Kings lead the series 3-2 and can end it with a victory. A Portland victory sends the series back to Edmonton for Game 7 on Sunday. Yes, on Sunday!
The Oil Kings, Portland F Sven Baertschi told Kris Anderson of the Portland Tribune, “know that we're a little better than them. And we know that, too. We got enough skill and enough talent, and we have players who work hard enough to make sure we win those games.”
Anderson’s complete story is right here.
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Here is the schedule for the WHL’s championship final for the Ed Chynoweth Cup (all times local):
Thursday, May 3: Portland 2 at Edmonton 3 (7,466)
Friday, May 4: Portland 5 at Edmonton 1 (10,720)
Sunday, May 6: Edmonton 3 at Portland 4 (10,947)
Tuesday, May 8: Edmonton 4 at Portland 3 (OT) (10,947)
Thursday, May 10: Portland 3 at Edmonton 4 (11,077)
Saturday, May 12: at Portland (Rose Garden), 6 p.m.
x-Sunday, May 13: at Edmonton, 6 p.m.

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Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald reports that the Everett Silvertips are disputing the lawsuit that has been brought against them by former general manager Doug Soetaert. That story is right here.
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Former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien is 49 years of age and already he is experiencing memory loss.
Nathan Fenno of the Washington Times has more right here.
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Lorne Molleken will be back behind the bench of the Saskatoon Blades next season. Molleken, who is the Blades’ general manager and head coach, has told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that he will reassess his position(s) after the 2012-13 season, which means after the 2013 Memorial Cup. The Blades will be the tournament’s host team.
Molleken also told Nugent-Bowman that the roster of next season’s team will bear little resemblance to the Saskatoon roster that lost in four games to the Medicine Hat Tigers this week.
That story is right here.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles have announced that they won’t bring back assistant coach Kevin Higo, whose two-year contract is to expire on July 31. Higo, from Lethbridge, was an assistant coach with the Moose Jaw Warriors for two seasons (2008-10). . . .
Victor Gervais (Seattle, 1986-90) is the new GM/head coach of the junior B Westshore Wolves, a new club in the Vancouver Island junior league. Gervais has spent the last five seasons with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. This season, he was GM and assistant coach, with Len Barrie as majority owner and head coach. . . . The Wolves will play out of Victoria’s Bear Mountain Arena, which also is home to the Grizzlies. . . .
The U of Alberta Golden Bears have redone their organizational tree. No longer will they have a head coach and an assistant coach; instead, there will be a general manager and a head coach. Stan Marple, the interim head coach last season, will be the first GM, while the search is on for a coach. Evan Daum has that story in the Edmonton Journal right here.
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D Morgan Rielly isn’t yet ready to return to the Moose Jaw Warriors’ lineup; in fact, it sounds as though he may not play for a couple of weeks, although he has been practising for 10 days. Rielly, who had major knee surgery on Dec. 1. He visited with his Vancouver surgeon this week and Alan Millar, the Warriors’ director of hockey operations, told Matthew Gourlie of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that Rielly is “week-to-week.” Millar told Gourlie: “The appointment with the surgeon went very well. (Rielly) continues to be on pace to have a chance to play somewhat ahead of schedule. I know there was a lot of speculation and some reports that he would be in the line-up (tonight). He will not be in the line-up. He will not play at all in this series.” . . . The Warriors take a 3-1 series lead over the Regina Pats into Game 5 in Moose Jaw tonight.
Gourlie’s story, and there’s more to it, is right here.
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Is Saskatoon, a city that would be home to an NHL franchise, a good sports town, or not? Les MacPherson, a columnist with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, tackles that question right here.
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D Duncan Siemens of the Saskatoon Blades will finish his season with the Lake Erie Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche. Siemens was selected by Colorado with the 11th pick of the 2011 NHL draft. . . .
D Josh Caron of the Everett Silvertips, who signed a free-agent deal with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, is expected to join the AHL’s Houston Aeros for the remainder of the season. . . . Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald reports that F Ryan Harrison has been invited to join the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters, and D Brennan Yadlowski may hook up with the ECHL’s Colorado Eagles.
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Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president, hockey, was busy again on Thursday.
He hit Everett F Ryan Harrison with a ‘tbd’ suspension for a charging major and game misconduct in Game 4 against the visiting Tri-City Americans on Wednesday. Assuming that Harrison, 19, is back in the fall, the start of his season almost certainly will be delayed. . . .
F Max Reinhart of the Kootenay Ice was hit with a one-game suspension for a game misconduct he took against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday. Reinhart didn’t play last night as the Oil Kings completed a sweep of the defending-champion Ice. . . .
Ice D Spencer Wand also sat out last night’s game after being suspended for a game following a pregame violation on Wednesday. . . .
Regina Pats F Dyson Stevenson won’t play tonight in Game 5 against the host Moose Jaw Warriors. He incurred a one-game suspension after taking a clipping major and game misconduct in Game 4 in Regina on Wednesday. He has a team-high three goals and is tied with F Jordan Weal for the team lead in points, with five. . . .
And, finally, Regina president Brent Parker was fined $2,500 for “inappropriate behaviour” after Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.
Glenn Reid of CBC Regina tweeted: “GM Brent Parker fined $2500 for inappropriate conduct. I thought he was screaming at me for a second there (Wednesday) night.”
Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reported that Parker “punched a hole in the door of the video replay booth inside the press box” after the game and “also became involved in a heated verbal confrontation with the off-ice officials who were inside the booth.”
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Harder had a busy time of it. He also spoke with Wayne Gretzky, whose good friend, Pat Conacher, is in his first season as the Regina Pats’ head coach. That story is right here.
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Bill Graveland of The Canadian Press reports on a WHL player who received probation and community service after pleading guilty to charges from a high-speed car crash in which his girlfriend was killed. That story is right here.
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THURSDAY’S WHL GAMES:
(If you want WHL facts and stats, get on Twitter and follow @WHLFacts)
In Winnipeg, the Brandon Wheat Kings got a goal at 8:26 of OT to beat the Calgary Hitmen 3-2 and win a first-round series in five games. . . . The Wheat Kings played their home games in Winnipeg because the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is in Westman Place in Brandon. . . . The Wheat Kings actually scored twice on the game-winning play. F Paul Ciarelli fired a shot that hit the cross-bar in the back of the net. As one of the referees waved it off, F Darian Dziurzynski, who turns 21 today, banged in the rebound. . . . Originally credited to Dziurzynski, the goal was later changed to Ciarelli. . . . The Hitmen killed off a Brandon power play just before the winning goal and, in fact, came close to winning when G Corbin Boes made a tremendous glove save off F Jimmy Bubnick. . . . It is the eighth time in the last 11 seasons that Brandon has moved into the second round. . . . Boes finished with 42 saves. . . . Ciarelli scored at 4:14 of the third period to forge a 2-2 tie. Those were his first two goals of the series. . . . Dziurzynski and Jens Meilleur each had two assists for Brandon as they figured in both Ciarelli goals. . . . The Hitmen played all five games without F Victor Rask (leg), who scored 33 goals in the regular season. . . . Attendance was 4,002. . . . You can bet this series victory meant just a little bit more to Brandon owner/general manager Kelly McCrimmon. His brother, Brad, would have been 53 on Thursday. Brad was the head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the KHL team that was wiped out in a plane crash on Sept. 7. . . . The Wheat Kings will be back in Westman Place for the second round. Brandon will face the Edmonton Oil Kings next, if the Moose Jaw Warriors eliminate the Regina Pats. The Warriors take a 3-1 lead in that series into Game 5 tonight in Moose Jaw. . . .

In Cranbrook, F Rhett Rachinski scored the game’s last two goals as the Edmonton Oil Kings beat the Kootenay Ice 3-1 and swept the defending champions from the playoffs. . . . Edmonton has won its last 15 games. . . . Rachinski broke a 1-1 tie with his first goal of the series at 14:09 of the second period and added an empty-netter at 19:23 of the third. . . . The Oil Kings, in their fifth season in the WHL, won a series for the first time. They went in having been swept from the first round in both of their appearances. . . . Ice G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 25 shots, while Laurent Brossoit of Edmonton turned aside 14. . . . The biggest story of the two games in Cranbrook may well have been the attendance — 2,293 on Wednesday and 2,146 last night. Those are the two smallest Rec-Plex playoff crowds in franchise history. . . . The highlight for the fans may have been when Marian Dixon shot a puck from the far blue-line through a hole in a sheet of plywood and won a truck from Denham Ford. . . . A Thursday night tweet from Edmonton D Griffin Reinhart: “Best comment on the ice goes to my little bro Sam saying ‘If you touch me I'm telling mom’ when we were in a scrum.” . . .

In Kelowna, F Ty Rattie scored four times as the Portland Winterhawks beat the Rockets 5-3 to sweep that first-round series. . . . The Winterhawks will meet the Kamloops Blazers in the second round. That series will open with Games 1 and 2 in Portland’s Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum on April 6 and 7. . . . Rattie scored his club’s first three goals, giving Portland 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 leads. . . . He later added an empty-netter for his 10th goal in the four games. He also had three assists. . . . Interestingly, in the four games in this series, Rattie had one-, two-, three- and four-goal games. . . . Last spring, Rattie finished the playoffs with nine goals in 17 games. . . . He actually outscored the Rockets, 10-9, in the four games. . . . Portland F Sven Baertschi had two assists. . . . Linemates Rattie, Baertschi and Marcel Noebels, who had one helper, each was plus-4.
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THURSDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
None.
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THURSDAY’S CHECKING-TO-THE-HEAD COUNT:
F Curtis Lazar, Edmonton.

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Justin Mapletoft (Red Deer, 1996-2001) signed a contract through Nov. 30 with Sierre (Switzerland, NL B). He had six assists in 14 games this season for the Schwenninger Wild Wings (Germany, 2.Bundesliga) prior to his release last week. Sierre signed Mapletoft as an injury replacement for former OHL F Lee Jinman.
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In Calgary, F Lukas Sutter scored two goals, including the winner, as the Saskatoon Blades dumped the Hitmen, 6-5. . . . Sutter broke a 5-5 tie at 8:58 of the third period as the Blades won their seventh straight game. . . . Sutter, an 18-year-old from Lethbridge, now has 21 points, including eight goals, in 24 games. Last season, he finished with 19 points, four of them goals, in 71 games. . . . Calgary F Jimmy Bubnick had a goal and two assists. He has 183 points in 285 career regular-season games. . . . Saskatoon G Andrey Makarov stopped 41 shots. He leads the WHL with 15 victories. . . . The Blades, with 35 points, lead the overall standings, one point ahead of the Brandon Wheat Kings. . . .

In Vancouver, the defending-champion Kootenay Ice got big nights from the Reinhart boys and beat the Giants, 4-1. . . . F Sam Reinhart, 16, had a goal and three assists, and older brother Max, 18, had a goal and two helpers. The Reinhart boys are from Vancouver. . . . Sam has 14 points in 23 games; Max has 25 points in 20 games. . . . The Giants had won six in a row going into this one. . . . The Ice is 2-0 on what is the start of a nine-game road swing. It opened with an 8-3 victory over the Victoria Royals on Saturday night and continues on Tuesday in Prince George against the Cougars. . . . D Eric Walker, who has left Northern Michigan U and joined the Giants, didn’t play. . . . Ice G Nathan Lieuwen stopped 33 shots in improving his record to 11-4-3. He has a 1.82 GAA and a .936 save percentage. . . . Vancouver opens its six-game East Division swing on Friday in Prince Albert. . . .

In Moose Jaw, F Paul Ciarelli scored at 1:40 of OT as the Brandon Wheat Kings beat the Warriors, 7-6. . . . Brandon F Alessio Bertaggia tied the score at 6-6 when he scored on a penalty shot at 10:39 of the third. He finished with two goals, giving him 11. . . . The Warriors took a 6-3 lead into the third period. Trailing 3-2, they seemingly took control by scoring four times in a span of 4:07 in the second period. . . . One night earlier, Brandon had coughed up a 4-0 lead in losing 5-4 to the Broncos in Swift Current. . . . Last night, Brandon F Mark Stone had a goal and three assists. He leads the WHL scoring race, with 54 points in 25 games. He has an eight-point lead on F Emerson Etem of the Medicine Hat Tigers, who has played two fewer games. . . . F Andrew Johnson had two goals and two assists for the Warriors. . . . Brandon D Ryan Pulock left the game early in the second period after being checked from behind by Moose Jaw F Tanner Eberle, who was given a major and game misconduct. . . .
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SUNDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT
F Tanner Eberle, Moose Jaw (major)
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JUST NOTES: When G Calvin Pickard of the Seattle Thunderbirds blanked the visiting Tri-City Americans 3-0 on Friday, it was the first shutout in the league since Oct. 29. On that night, Tyler Bunz of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Patrik Bartosak of the Red Deer Rebels both pitched shutouts. . . . There have been only 15 shutouts in the WHL this season. . . .
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Joe O’Connor of the National Post spent some time at a special breakfast the other day. Among the guests was Jim McKenny, who has been sober for 25 years but has a son on the streets. That piece is right here.
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David Shoalts of The Globe and Mail knows the NHL will be celebrating the return of Sidney Crosby today. But, as he points out, this isn’t the end of the concussion problems. The last three paragraphs of this piece are especially interesting because they deal with how much concussions might be down in the NHL this season.

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Patrick Holland of the Tri-City Americans fights through traffic in an attempt to get a shot off on Saskatoon Blades
goaltender Andrey Makarov on Wednesday night in Kennewick, Wash.
(Photo by John Allen / AridAcres.com)

THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Derek LeBlanc (Brandon, Calgary, 2003-07) requested and was granted his release by the Belfast Giants (Northern Ireland, UK Elite) for personal reasons. He had four goals and nine assists in 12 games for the Giants this season. . . .
G Dusan Salficky (Tri-City, 1990-91) has been loaned by Litomerice (Czech Republic, 1.Liga) to Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic, Extraliga) for at least one game. Salficky has yet to appear in a game this season. Last season, he had a 3.88 GAA and a .885 save percentage in 12 games with Plzen (Czech Republic, Extraliga), a 2.73 GAA and a .927 save percentage in nine games with Litomerice, and a 1.14 GAA and a .963 save percentage in six games with Slovan Ustecti Lvi (Czech Republic, 1.Liga).
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F Austin Connor, who was acquired by the Vancouver Giants from the Prince Albert Raiders on Monday, has chosen to retire. The Raiders, instead, have sent the Giants a fourth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. The Raiders got F Teal Burns and F Tyler Hart in the deal, with D Arvin Atwal going to Vancouver.
Connor, who is from Beechy, Sask., has decided he would rather farm than play hockey.
Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province has that story right here.
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Rob Vanstone, in the Regina Leader-Post: “The WHL is transmitting mixed messages. While vowing to crack down on headshots, with the laudable goal of reducing concussions, the league refuses to provide specific injury information on its website. Instead, the site typically refers to upper- and lower-body injuries. In this case, the WHL’s collective big brains should give their heads a shake.”
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Vanstone, continued: “Let’s amend that: They should give their upper bodies a shake.”
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I am told that D Matt Benning of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints has been offered a scholarship to Minnesota-Duluth, starting with the 2013-14 season. Benning is the son of Brian Benning, a defenceman with the Portland Winterhawks and Kamloops Blazers for parts of two seasons (1983-85). The younger Benning was a second-round bantam draft pick by the Kootenay Ice in 2009. His rights were dealt this summer to the Tri-City Americans, but he chose not to report as he wanted to keep his NCAA options open. It would seem that the NCAA option now has materialized.
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JUST NOTES: The Tri-City Americans have assigned F Justin Gutierrez to the NAHL’s Wichita Falls Wildcats. Gutierrez, who turns 16 on Dec. 22, was pointless in one game with the Americans. He is the younger brother of former WHLer Moises Gutierrez. . . . Rick Brodsky, who owns the Prince George Cougars, is a co-owner of the Wichita Falls franchise. . . . Head coach Don Hay of the Vancouver Giants will be the head coach of the WHL team that will meet a touring Russian side in the annual Subway Super Series. He will be assisted by Ryan Huska of the Kelowna Rockets and Lorne Molleken of the Saskatooon Blades. Of course, Hay also is head coach of Canada’s national junior team, and Huska is one of his assistants. . . . The WHL team will meet the Russians in Regina on Nov. 16 and in Moose Jaw on Nov. 17. . . . Greg Mayer of the Regina Pats, Curtis Amiot of the Moose Jaw Warriors and Jamie LeBlanc of the Swift Current Broncos will serve as the WHL team’s training staff.
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Some Wednesday highlights:
In Edmonton, D Griffin Reinhart scored his first two goals to lift the Oil Kings to a 2-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Reinhart forged a 1-1 tie at 13:20 of the second period, while on the PP, then got the winner at 18:28 of the third. . . . F Michael St. Croix assisted on both Edmonton goals. . . . Moose Jaw took 50 of 82 penalty minutes. . . . Edmonton held a 42-18 edge in shots. . . .
In Red Deer, the Rebels scored the game’s last three goals, the final one into an empty net, and beat the Kamloops Blazers, 4-2. . . . All three goals were unassisted efforts, with F Tyson Ness and F Chad Robinson erasing a 2-1 deficit with goals 24 seconds apart early in the third period. . . . F Turner Elson got the empty-netter at 19:41. . . . Red Deer’s Patrik Bartosak, the CHL’s goaltender of the week, stopped 30 shots. . . .
In Everett, the Brandon Wheat Kings got two goals and an assist from each of F Darian Dziurzynski and F Paul Ciarelli and beat the Silvertips, 8-2. . . . There have been reports that Dziurzynski scored three goals, but the online scoresheet shows him with two. . . . F Brenden Walker and F Michael Ferland each had a goal and two helpers. . . . Brandon G Brandon Anderson stopped 30 shots. He’s 2-0 since being acquired Sunday from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. . . . Dziurynski has three (or four) goals in two games since being acquired from the Saskatoon Blades, also on Sunday. . . . Brandon F Mark Stone had a goal as he ran his season-opening point streak to 11 games. . . . The Wheat Kings were without F Bruno Mraz, who left Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Thunderbirds after hitting his head on the boards. . . . The Silvertips had three players leave with injuries — D Ryan Murray, F Josh Birkholz and F Ryan Harrison. . . . Murray, one of the WHL’s top defencemen, left in the first period after taking a hit from Stone. Murray was on crutches after the game. . . . The Wheat Kings next play Friday in Medicine Hat against the Tigers. That game will mark the second time the Clouston brothers have clashed as head coaches. Cory is in his first season as Brandon’s head coach; Shaun is the Tigers’ second-year head coach. . . . Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun notes that the two met on Jan. 3, 2003, when the Kootenay Ice, with Cory running things, beat the Tri-City Americans, with Shaun as head coach, 4-1, in Kennewick, Wash. . . . It’s believed that the only other brothers to have opposed each other in the WHL was the Sauters, Doug with the Calgary Wranglers and Mike with the Lethbridge Broncos, in 1979-80. . . .
In Kennewick, Wash., F Justin Feser scored twice and set up another as the Tri-City Americans got past the Saskatoon Blades, 5-2. . . . Feser’s second goal, at 18:00 of the third, gave the Americans a 4-2 lead and F Brendan Shinnimin iced it with an empty-netter 38 seconds later. . . . Tri-City G Ty Rimmer stopped 33 shots, three fewer than Saskatoon’s Andrey Makarov. . . . The Blades have lost three in a row in the U.S. Division after opening the swing with a victory in Everett. . . . The Americans will spend the weekend in Prince George. Tri-City won last season’s series 2-1-0-1, but the Americans hold a 20-3-0-1 edge since 2005-06.
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Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News has been following the impending sale of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. Tom Gaglardi, the majority owner of the Kamloops Blazers, is hoping to purchase the Stars out of bankruptcy and there is an important deadline arriving on Saturday.
Heika’s latest piece is right here.
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A report in the Estevan Mercury indicates that the four western Canadian junior A leagues are seriously considering abandoning the RBC Cup and starting up their own championship.
Why?
“According to the document,” the newspaper reports, “a major reason for the change is to get away from Hockey Canada’s overbearing rules for hosting tournaments, which restrict profit for the host community by forcing them to change most or all of their advertising to Hockey Canada sponsors.
“The document cites ‘Hockey Canada exclusivities’ and ‘administrative fees for event management’ among the reasons for taking this initiative.”
The Mercury’s complete story is right here.

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