My boy @Gropper8 shakes hands with legend Don Cherry after BMO Top Prospects Game #memoryofalifetime pic.twitter.com/EkocSrdkEJ
— Colleen Gropp (@colleengropp) January 23, 2015
F Jakub Langhammer (Spokane, 2002-04) has signed the for rest of this season with Regensburg (Germany, Oberliga). This season, with Eispiraten Crimmitschau (Germany, DEL2), he had seven goals and five assists in 29 games. He was released at his request by Crimmitschau on Jan. 8.
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D Sam Ruopp of the Prince George Cougars has been suspended for five games after taking a kneeing major and game misconduct in a 6-1 loss to the visiting Everett Silvertips on Tuesday. Ruopp, the Cougars’ captain, drew a two-game suspension for the same infraction earlier in the season. . . . Ruopp has missed one game already, and won’t play tonight in Medicine Hat.———
The Portland Winterhawks revealed Thursday that D Nick Heid, 17, underwent shoulder surgery on Wednesday and won’t play again this season. . . . “Nick is a big part of our future and this surgery will help ensure he’s healthy for training camp in August,” Jamie Kompon, the team’s GM and head coach, said in a news release. . . . Heid, from Fridley, Minn., was in his first season with the Winterhawks. He last played on Jan. 9. Heid was pointless in 17 games. . . . Late Thursday afternoon, Heid tweeted: “Tough decision to make, but having my shoulder repaired will help ensure that I am ready for next season. Thanks to everyone for your support and good luck to the @pdxwinterhawks the remainder of the season.”———
The OHL’s Sarnia Sting franchise is in the process of changing hands. When all is said and done, former NHL D Derian Hatcher and David Legwand, a forward with the Ottawa Senators, will own the Sting. . . . Terry Bridge of the Sarnia Observer has more right here.
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If you are into podcasts, you can’t go wrong with the latest effort at Pucklandia. It features former WHL F Oren Koules, who is a producer of the Saw movies as well as the hit TV show Two And A Half Men. He also is the father of Portland Winterhawks F Miles Koules. There are some great stories told right here.
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I made mention in this space yesterday of a pair of tweets from former NHL referee Paul Stewart. He writes regularly for The Huffington Post and on Thursday he wrote a length on the Zac Rinaldo hit on Kris Letang and the role that coaches are, or aren’t, playing when it comes to player safety in hockey. That piece is right here.
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When given the opportunity, I will be sure to watch the documentary Red Army, a film about perhaps the greatest hockey team in the history of the sport. The Red Army team dominated internationally in the 1970s and into the ’80s. . . . Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated has more right here, including a thrilling anecdote involving the night in 1987 when Wayne Gretzky invited the Soviet’s teams Green unit to his folks’ home in Brantford, Ont., for a barbecue.
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If you haven’t already seen this right here, it is every minor hockey player’s worst nightmare -- a ranting parent. Only this one is different. He hits the glass and, well, watch for yourself.
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Michael Powell of The New York Times was there Thursday when New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, one of the great actors of our time, spoke to the media about the inflation and deflation of footballs. Powell’s piece is right here and it really is funny.
Later in the day, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady chatted with the media and, yes, he denied, denied, denied. Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times has more right here.
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THURSDAY’S GAME:
In Edmonton, F Tim Bozon scored three goals to lead the Kootenay Ice to a 5-3 victory over the Oil Kings. . . . It was Edmonton’s sixth annual CN Hockey Hooky promotion. The game began at 11:30 a.m., and attendance was announced at 10,396. . . . According to the Oil Kings’ website, about 7,000 school students were in attendance. . . . The Oil Kings led 3-1 late in the second period when the Ice tied it on goals by Boson, at 17:28, and D Tyler King, at 19:11. . . . King has seven goals. . . . Bozon broke the tie with his third goal, and 17th of the season, on a PP at 1:18 of the third. . . . Ice F Levi Cable provided insurance with his 20th goal, an empty-netter, at 19:42. . . . F Brett Pollock scored twice, giving him 21, and added an assist for Edmonton. His 20th goal of the season was his 100th career point. . . . It was Bozon’s fourth career hat trick -- he has two with the Ice after putting up two with the Kamloops Blazers. . . . Ice D Rinat Valiev had two assists. . . . Kootenay G Wyatt Hoflin stopped 28 shots, six fewer than Edmonton’s Tristan Jarry. . . . The Ice was 2-for-3 on the PP; the Oil Kings were 0-for-3. . . . The Ice (24-22-1) is fifth in the Central Division, one point behind Edmonton and four in back of Calgary. . . . The Oil Kings (22-19-6) still hold down the Eastern Conference’s first wild-card spot. . . . Taylor Rocca of the Cranbrook Daily Townsman has a game story right here.———
God Bless Miss Canada. By the looks of that score, she is also an advocate of bigger nets pic.twitter.com/mVmPWcmFKE
— John Buccigross (@Buccigross) January 23, 2015
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In Medicine Hat, F Markus Eisenschmid, F Curtis Sanford and F Dryden Hunt each scored twice as the Tigers doubled the Vancouver Giants, 8-4. . . . Eisenschmid broke a 1-1 tie with his first goal, on a PP, at 9:46 of the first period. . . . The Giants were chasing the game from that point on and never were able to equalize. . . . Eisenschmid has 12 goals, Sanford 37 and Hunt 20. . . . Hunt ran his point streak to 17 games, which is tied for the longest in the WHL this season. . . . F Matt Bradley and F Chad Butcher each had three assists for the Tigers, while F Trevor Cox, who leads the WHL points race, scored his 18th goal, shorthanded, and added an assist as he got to 75 points. . . . Cox leads the WHL in assists (57) and loins (75), all in 45 games. . . . He’s got an eight-point lead over Sanford, whose 37 goals are one behind F Nick Merkley of the Kelowna Rockets. . . . Medicine Hat D Kyle Burroughs had two assisgts. . . . Vancouver F Jackson Houck scored his 15th goal and added an assist. . . . The Tigers were 3-for-6 on the PP; the Giants were 2-for-4. . . . D Ty Stanton was back in the Tigers’ lineup after not playing since Jan. 3 because of an undisclosed injury. . . . Vancouver F Thomas Foster sat out as he completed a three-game WHL suspension. . . . The Tigers (31-12-2), who are home to Prince George on Friday, have won two in a row. . . . The Giants (19-25-2), who are two games into a six-game Central Division trip, have lost five straight. Their trek continues Friday in Lethbridge. . . . 
In Prince George, F Kohl Bauml scored two goals for the second straight night as the Everett Silvertips beat the Cougars, 4-2. . . . Bauml, who has 23 goals, scored twice on Tuesday as the Silvertips dumped the Cougars, 6-1. . . . Last night, his two third-period goals stretched a 2-1 Everett lead. . . . Bauml also had an assist. . . . Everett F Carson Stadnyk scored his 18th goal, on a PP, and added two assists, while D Ben Betker had two assists. . . . F Nikita Scherbak scored his 21st goal for the Silvertips. . . . F Aaron Macklin scored the Cougars’ lone goal, on a PP, at 8:06 of the second to cut into a 2-0 deficit. . . . The Cougars were 1-for-7 on the PP; the Silvertips were 1-for-2. . . . The Cougars were without D Sam Ruopp, who took a kneeing major and game misconduct in Tuesday’s game. Everett D Jordan Wharrie, who was on the other end of that hit, is expected to be out at least through the weekend. . . . Everett D Noah Juulsen and Prince George F Jansen Harkins are at the Top Prospects Game in St. Catharines, Ont. . . . The Silvertips (30-12-4) have won six in a row. . . . The Cougars (20-26-2) have lost seven straight (0-5-2) as they head to Medicine Hat and a Friday night game with the Tigers. . . . Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald points out that the Silvertips in 2015 “are 9-1 and have outscored their opponents 44-13. Eight of those 10 games have been on the road.” . . . The Silvertips will stop off in Kelowna and play the Rockets on Friday and Saturday nights. . . . 
In Kamloops, the Blazers scored three times before the game was 11 minutes old and went on to a 3-1 victory over the Tri-City Americans. . . . Kamloops G Connor Ingram stopped 26 shots, and was especially sharp in the second period when the Americans held a 14-1 edge in shots. . . . Ingram, a 17-year-old freshman from Imperial, Sask., was selected as the game’s first star for a fifth straight home game. . . . Tri-City G Evan Sarthou, who was making his 17th straight start, was coming off back-to-back shutouts. . . . Kamloops D Patrik Maier scored the game’s first goal 46 seconds into the first period. He has four goals this season, two of them against the Americans. . . . F Matt Needham had two assists for Kamloops. One of them came on F Cole Ully’s 21st goal. Ully also had an assist. . . . Tri-City F Ty Comrie scored the game’s last goal, his fifth, at 15:35 of the first. . . . The Americans came in with the 11th-best PP in the WHL, but went 0-for-6 with the man advantage against a penalty-killing unit that was No. 20. . . . D Brandon Carlo was among the Americans’ scratches. He is at the Top Prospects Game in St. Catharines, Ont. . . . The Americans also scratched D Riley Hillis, F Braden Purtill, F Vladislav Lukin, G Eric Comrie and F Brian Williams, all of whom are injured. . . . With Comrie injured, Beck Warm, a 15-year-old from the major midget Vancouver-North West Giants, backed up Sarthou. . . . F Michael Rasmussen, 15, made his WHL debut with the Americans. From Surrey, B.C., he was the seventh overall selection in the 2014 bantam draft. This season, in 36 games with OHA Prep White in Penticton, he has 45 points, including 24 goals. That team is coached by former Regina Pats head coach Malcolm Cameron. . . . The Blazers (17-24-6) have won three straight for the first time this season. They now are tied with Vancouver for fourth place in the five-team B.C. Division, just two points behind Prince George. . . . The Americans (22-22-2) had won their previous two games. . . . The Blazers will play in Victoria on Friday and Saturday. . . . The Americans return home to face Seattle on Friday.
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