Hurricanes-Pats gets TV treatment ... Regina merch sales off the charts ... Home-ice advantage important?

We don't have our roster yet, but Golden Knights fans are already enjoying the #StanleyCupPlayoffs2017. pic.twitter.com/qUU3msDzGZ — Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 20, 2017

Has Dart Guy become the new Marlboro Man? If so, you have to wonder how happy the NHL pooh-bahs are to have a guy with a dart stuck in the middle of his painted face as one of the icons for the first round of playoffs.
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 If you were wondering, Shaw TV and Access7 will show the WHL’s Eastern Conference final between the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Regina Pats. That series opens with games in Regina on Friday and Saturday nights. . . . This should be something of a grudge match, too, seeing as the Pats, a wild-card team a year ago, dumped the Central Division-champion Hurricanes in five games in a first-round series.
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 There should be some emotion in the Western Conference final, too, seeing as it’s the fourth time in five seasons that Kelowna and Seattle have clashed in the playoffs. A year ago, the Thunderbirds swept the Rockets in the conference final. . . . The most memorable series between these teams occurred in the first round in 2013 when Seattle won the first three games and Kelowna won the last four.
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 Rylan Toth of the Thunderbirds led all WHL goaltenders with 36 regular-season victories. However, he was injured late in the season and hasn’t even dressed for a game in these playoffs. In his absence, freshman Carl Stankowski has gone 8-0, 2.24, .913. . . . This being the playoffs, Toth’s mother, Marie, likely doesn’t even know if he’s healthy enough to play. But what does Seattle head coach Steve Konowalchuk do if Toth is ready?
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 I didn’t have a dog in the hunt, but it was good to see F Tyler Wong, the Hurricanes’ captain, emerge as Tuesday night’s hero with the Game 7 OT goal — shorthanded at that — against the host Medicine Hat Tigers. Wong is wrapping up his WHL career with his fifth season in Lethbridge and he’s stuck it out through thick and thin. You know that no one has enjoyed the past two seasons more than has Wong, who may be the most-loved player in franchise history.
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 Wong and Kelowna F Reid Gardiner are tied for the playoff scoring lead, each with 22 points. . . . So, yes, Regina will pay a little extra attention to Wong, and, yes, it already has started. Here’s John Paddock, Regina’s GM and head coach, in conversation with Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post: “(Wong is) a hard-working, inspirational guy who has skill. He’s physical. He jumps a couple feet in the air when he hits guys and doesn’t get called.” . . . Sheesh, John, don’t you realize that WHL officials, both on-ice and off, don’t read anything in the playoffs.
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 You may recall that it was almost two years ago — May 5, 2015 — when WHL commish Ron Robison was in Lethbridge, suggesting to the team’s board of directors that they should sell the franchise. You have to think the hockey fans of Lethbridge are rather pleased that it didn’t happen. ——
 What does it mean to a WHL team to be alive this deep into the playoffs? Well, Stacey Cattell, the Pats’ COO, told CBC News in Regina that “merchandise sales are . . . almost 50 per cent more than they were last (season) overall.” He also revealed that the Pats surpassed last season’s total merchandise sales by the fourth game of these playoffs.
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 If you haven’t yet seen Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees at the plate, well, you’re cheating yourself. The Yankees’ starting right fielder, he is 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds, and he moves like a much smaller man. Last night, Judge, who bats right, hit a 448-foot home run that landed halfway up the left-field bleachers. At the age of 24, he has two of the three longest homers to have been hit at the ‘new’ Yankee Stadium — he hit a 457-footer last season and that’s No. 1. ——

pic.twitter.com/y0ix8YPphU — Christian Roatis (@CRoatis) April 19, 2017

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As the WHL takes a break, Hartley Miller, the sports director at 94.3 The Goat in Prince George, points out: Home teams went 22-22 in the first round; Home teams went 13-10 in the second round. He adds that when it came to Game 7s, home teams in Round 1 were 1-1 and they were 1-1 in Round 2. The numbers would indicate that home-ice advantage, which teams supposedly play so hard for over the 72-game regular season, is vastly over-rated. The third round — aka conference finals — is scheduled to open on Friday with the Kelowna Rockets meeting the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., and the Lethbridge Hurricanes visiting the Regina Pats. To this point, the Rockets have played in 11 playoff games; the Thunderbirds have been in the minimum eight, having swept the Tri-City Americans and Everett Silvertips. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes, who scratched five regulars for Games 6 and 7 against the Medicine Hat Tigers, have played in 14 games; the Pats have been in 11.
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 The Lethbridge Hurricanes have signed F Brendan Stafford, 17, to a WHL contract. From Edmonton, Stafford is a list player. He also is a cousin go F Drew Stafford of the NHL’s Boston Bruins. This season, Brendan had six goals and 18 assists in 60 games with the AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders. Last season, he had 17 goals and 21 assists in 52 games with the midget A team at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minn.
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 D Scott Allan, who played with three WHL teams, has decided to attend Concordia University of Edmonton and play hockey for the Thunder. Allan, who is from Thornton, Colo., played most of the last two seasons with the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors, helping them to a national championship a year ago. In the WHL, the 6-foot-7, 225-pounder had stints (2013-15) with the Medicine Hat Tigers, Seattle Thunderbirds and Lethbridge Hurricanes.
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 The Battlefords North Stars will represent the SJHL at the Western Canada Cup in Penticton, April 29 through May 7. The North Stars beat the host Flin Flon Bombers 6-5 on Wednesday night to sweep the SJHL’s championship series and win the Canalta Cup. In fact, the North Stars went 12-0 as they ran roughshod through the playoffs. If you’re wondering, the last teams to run the SJHL playoff table were the dynastic Prince Albert Raiders, in 1976 and 1982. . . . The North Stars last were SJHL kings in 2000. . . . In the MJHL, the Portage Terriers won their third straight championship, beating the visiting OCN Blizzard, 1-0, last night behind 27 saves from G Kurtis Chapman. The Terriers, who have won seven titles in 10 seasons, won the series, and the Turnbull Cup, in six games. Portage lost the first two games of the final, then roared back with four victories. . . . In the BCHL, the host Penticton Vees erased a 3-0 deficit and beat the Chilliwack Chiefs, 4-3 in OT. The Vees now lead the series, 3-1, with the first opportunity to wrap it up on Saturday in Chilliwack. . . . F Ryley Risling got the OT winner. . . . The Vees, of course, are in the Western Canada Cup as the host team, so the Chiefs will be the BCHL representative.
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WEDNESDAY’S GAMES (all times local):

No Games Scheduled.
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THURSDAY’S GAMES (all times local):

No Games Scheduled
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FRIDAY’S GAMES (all times local):

Kelowna vs. Seattle, at Kent, Wash., 7:35 p.m. (Game 1) Lethbridge at Regina, 7 p.m. (Game 1)
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Gordie Bombay helps Terriers win . . . Remembering the 1974 Steelers . . . Lowry to chat with Sharks?

F Dávid Šoltés (Prince George, 2013-15) signed a one-year contract with Košice (Slovakia, Extraliga). This season, as a 19-year-old with the Cougars, he had 28 points, 13 of them goals, in 44 games.
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The host Portage Terriers, who also are the MJHL champions, won the RBC Cup on Sunday, beating the
CCHL-champion Carleton Place Canadians 5-2 in the championship game.
The title goes from one team of Terriers, the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers, who won it last season, to another.
I can’t tell you how shocked I was to read that Portage’s victory in the national championship game was the first for a Manitoba team since 1974.
Yikes! That was a long time ago. I should know, because I was there.
I was in my first year at the Winnipeg Tribune, after two at the Brandon Sun, and one of my beats was the MJHL.
The Selkirk Steelers, under head coach George Dorman, won the MJHL title in 1973-74 and headed out on the playoff trail.
The Steelers won the MJHL, beating arch-rival Portage in seven games — the Terriers had won the national title the previous season — and taking out the West Kildonan North Stars in five.
The Steelers took the best-of-seven ANAVET Cup final from the Terry Simpson-coached Prince Albert Raiders, 4-2, and then beat the B.C.-champion Kelowna Buckaroos, 4-3, despite playing the last four games in the Little Apple.
There weren’t any three-, four- or five-team tournaments back in the day, and the victory over Kelowna put the Steelers into a best-of-seven national final with the Central Junior A League-champion Smiths Falls Bears.
The Steelers camped out in Ottawa — the first thing Dorman did was get the team out of the small motel in which the CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) had the team staying and into a Ramada Inn.
The series went seven games, with all games played in the Nepean Sportsplex because there wasn’t any ice in the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre. The Steelers won the first two games, 5-4 and 7-4, with the Bears taking Game 3, 3-0. After Selkirk won the fourth game, 2-1 behind a 48-save effort by G Andy Stoesz, I seem to recall writing that the series was all over, that the Bears were done like dinner.
You guessed it! Smiths Falls came back with 6-3 and 5-4 victories, the latter in OT, to set up a Game 7 with the winner taking home the Centennial Cup, this being the days before corporate sponsorship put business names on so many things.
In Game 7, the teams played through three scoreless periods — Smith Falls F Terry Fournier ripped a shot off the cross-bar late in the third — and appeared headed to a second OT when Gord Kaluzniak scored. In those days, under CAHA rules, teams played 10 minutes of overtime, no matter how many goals were scored, but if they were still tied they went to 20-minute sudden-death periods. Kaluzniak, a Selkirk kid, scored with two minutes left in the 10-minute period, and the Steelers were able to defend their lead until period’s end.
Considering that the victory gave the MJHL its second straight Centennial Cup, it is hard to imagine that the league wouldn’t be home to the trophy again until last night.
What makes it that much more interesting is that the Centennial Cup was presented to the CAHA by the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association to commemorate the province’s centennial year of 1970.
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The Portage Terriers are the first host team to win the RBC Cup as national junior A champions since the SJHL’s Weyburn Red Wings in 2005.
Somehow it was only fitting that in this era of social media, at least one media outlet reported that “Terriers forward Gordie Bombay” scored a PP goal. Portage F Jordyn Boyd uses the Twitter handle @GordieBombay14. Boyd, who has played in the WHL with the Everett Silvertips and Kootenay Ice, gave the Terriers a 3-1 lead early in the third period.
The Bowles brothers, Brad and Shawn, stretched the lead to 5-1 later in the period. Shawn also had two assists. Their sister, Candace, works for Brandon radio station CKLQ and is the in-game host for the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Canadians had beaten the Terriers, 3-0, in the round-robin.
Last year, the Yorkton Terriers beat those same Carleton Place Canadians, 4-3 in overtime, in the final game in Vernon, B.C.
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The Memorial Cup tournament opens Friday in Quebec City with the WHL-champion Kelowna Rockets meeting the host Quebec Remparts. Also competing will be the OHL-champion Oshawa Generals and the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic. . . . Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News provides an early preview right here.
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Here is the Memorial Cup schedule (all games on Sportsnet; all times Eastern):
Friday, May 22: Kelowna vs. Quebec, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 23: Rimouski vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 24: Quebec vs. Oshawa, 4:30 p.m.
Monday, May 25: Rimouski vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 26: Oshawa vs. Kelowna, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 27: Quebec vs. Rimouski, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 28: Tiebreaker, if necessary, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 29: Semifina, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 31: Championship game, TBA
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The hockey season is over for many Canadians, it having ended when the last two Canadian teams, the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames, were eliminated from the NHL playoffs. In his latest piece, Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail writes: “It is impossible to count the number of Canadians who will now largely tune out. After the hardest winter in memory for so many, warm spring evenings or weekend afternoons are for spending anywhere but in front of the television watching, say, a team from Florida play a team from California.” . . . That column is right here.
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THE COACHING GAME:

Various sources, including Darren Dreger of TSN, have reported that Dave Lowry, the head coach of the WHL’s Victoria Royals, is in the mix for the head-coaching position with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. . . . Lowry, who has completed three seasons as the Royals’ head coach, also is the head coach of Canada’s national junior team. . . . Also believed to be contenders for the position are former NHL coaches Peter DeBoer, Dan Bylsma and Randy Carlyle. . . . Of course, the Sharks also want to have a chat with Mike Babcock. . . . Even if Lowry doesn’t get the Sharks’ job, his name now is in the NHL loop and you can bet that more interviews with different teams will follow, maybe not this offseason but in the future. . . . The Sharks have been looking for a head coach since they announced that Todd McLellan wouldn’t return for an eighth season. That was said to be by mutual agreement. . . . McLellan, a former WHL coach (Swift Current, 1994-2000), spent the past few weeks as the head coach of the Canadian team that won the IIHF World championship in Prague on Sunday. Canada, under McLellan, ran the table, completing its tournament with a 6-1 victory over Russia.
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At the moment, there are three WHL teams — the Kootenay Ice, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Vancouver Giants — without head coaches.
Last offseason, there were 10 teams changing coaches; this season, it doesn’t seem the number of changes will approach anywhere near that total.
In Kootenay, the Ice is looking for a replacement for Ryan McGill, while Lethbridge GM Peter Anholt is said to be down to a shortlist of three as he searches for a replacement for himself. The Giants, at some point, will hire a replacement for Claude Noel.
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Perhaps you heard about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s big game on the weekend. He scored eight times in an exhibition game that featured a lot of former NHLers and was played in Moscow. Putin’s team won, 18-6. . . . Putin spent most of the game on a line with Pavel Bure and Valeri Kamensky. . . .
The QMJHL championship will be decided tonight in Quebec City as the Remparts and Rimouski Oceanic play Game 7. The host Oceanic won Game 6 on Sunday, beating the Remparts 5-4 in OT on a goal by D Jan Kostalek. . . .
You may have seen the mini-documentary on Dickson Liong that got a whole lot of exposure earlier this month. On the weekend, Liong wrote a piece for The Fourth Period, explaining how he came to be the star of that piece. His story is right here.
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World champs 🇨🇦 @Burnzie88 pic.twitter.com/CjlNmZWo1h

— Tyson McLellan (@TysonMcLellan88) May 17, 2015

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THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Johannes Salmonsson (Spokane, 2005-06) signed a two-year contract with Linköping (Sweden, Elitserien). He had five goals and 13 assists in 41 games for AIK Stockholm (Sweden, Elitserien) this season.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The Salmon Arm SilverBacks will introduce Troy Mick as their general manager and head coach today. Owner Randy Williams also is bringing Mick on board as a business partner. . . . Mick has been working as the director of hockey operations and the under-18 boys coach at the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy in Kelowna. . . . In Salmon Arm, Mick will take over from Colin O’Hara, who resigned a week ago as GM and head coach. O’Hara was there for two seasons. . . . Mick is a familiar figure in the interior of B.C., having coached the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers and the junior B Revelstoke Grizzlies in recent seasons.
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The Portage Terriers won the MJHL championship on Tuesday night, beating the visiting Winnipeg Saints 2-1 to take the best-of-seven final in five games. . . . The Terriers have won the title four of the last five seasons, including each of the last two seasons. . . . Blake Spiller has been the head coach for all four championships. . . . The Terriers went 12-3 in the playoffs.
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I’m sorry, but are all Portland Winterhawks’ fans paranoid, or is it just a select few?
With Kamloops having scratched G Cole Cheveldave due to what obviously is a concussion, there are those people out there who actually believe the Blazers have done this simply to get Portland F Oliver Gabriel out of the lineup.
Seriously!
Here’s a sample of texts and tweets sent my way over the last couple of days:
“Does it actually make sense in your head that blazers would scratch their most needed player in exchange for a #5 forward?”
“They scratch Cheveldave to make it look good.”
“If you saw infraction you’d shake head at nonsense call.”
“What an absolute joke!”
People! People! People! Take a deep breath and climb down off the roof.
Cheveldave is the Blazers’ No. 1 goaltender. He was selected as a Western Conference second-team all-star. Were it not for the regular season turned in by F Tim Bozon, Cheveldave may well have been the Western Conference’s rookie of the year.
And you’re suggesting that the Blazers would put Cheveldave in the stands with an injury that is the figment of someone’s imagination!
Go back and take a look at the fuzzy video of the hit. Surely, you will at least admit that Cheveldave was the victim of a rather hard check. Surely, you also will admit that the hit sent Cheveldave flying. And, surely, you will admit that there is a least a slim chance, even while viewing it through your Rose City-coloured glasses, that Cheveldave may have been injured on the play.
To suggest that Cheveldave has been told to fake an injury, or that a doctor has been told to invent an injury, in an attempt to get Gabriel out of the Portland lineup is laughable.
Now . . . if we were talking about Ty Rattie or Sven Baertschi . . .
Seriously, ask yourself this. If you’re a Portland fan and one of the Blazers, say Brandon Herrod, had run over Mac Carruth like that, how sharp would you have the guillotine by now?
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TUESDAY’S GAMES:
What is going on in the WHL? Five of the eight first-round series ended in the minimum four games; two others went five games.
Here we are into the second round and three of the four series stand at 3-0. Three road teams won last night to go up 3-0.
All of this follows a 2011 playoff season in which there were six sweeps, three five-game series and six six-game sets.

In Brandon, the Edmonton Oil Kings scored the game’s last five goals and beat the Wheat Kings, 5-1. . . . The Oil King, who have won 18 straight games, including seven in the playoffs, lead this series 3-0 and can wrap it up tonight in Brandon. . . . Brandon D Ryan Pulock scored the game’s first goal, on a PP, at 10:48 of the first. . . . Edmonton scored two second-period goals, the eventual winner coming from F Curtis Lazar, his fourth playoff goal, at 14:21. . . . The visitors had a 19-2 edge in shots in the second period. . .  .The Oil Kings got two assists from F Henrik Samuelsson, who missed a couple of shifts after taking a heavy check from Brandon F Michael Ferland. . . . Edmonton G Laurent Brossoit stopped 25 shots, 12 fewer than Brandon’s Corbin Boes. . . . Edmonton was 2-5 on the PP; Brandon was 1-3. . . . According to the Wheat Kings, F Mark Stone is questionable for Game 4 with an injury. He didn’t come out of the dressing room for the third period. . . . Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun reports: “Attendance was 3,651, the lowest turnout for a playoff game in Brandon since March 21, 2009 when 3,506 showed up for a first-round game against the Kootenay Ice.” . . .

In Medicine Hat, the Moose Jaw Warriors erased a 1-0 deficit with four straight goals and beat the Tigers, 4-2. . . . Moose Jaw leads the series 3-0 with Game 4 in Medicine Hat tonight. . . . Medicine Hat F Curtis Valk gave his side a 1-0 lead at 8:15 of the first. . . . Moose Jaw F Brayden Point who turned 16 on March 12, got his fourth playoff goal in eight games at 1:49 of the second and D Kendall McFaull gave his guys the lead at 12:40. . . . Moose Jaw F Cam Braes had one assist to run his point streak to eight games. . . . Tigers G Tyler Bunz stopped 48 shots, 24 more than Moose Jaw’s Luke Siemens. . . . The Tigers had F Emerson Etem back from a one-game suspension, but he was held off the scoresheet. . . . Moose Jaw D Morgan Rielly (knee) remains on the sideline. . . .

In Kamloops, F Brad Ross scored four times — even strength, power play, two shorthanded — to lead the Portland Winterhawks to a 5-2 victory over the Blazers. . . . The Winterhawks, with a 3-0 lead, can finish the series tonight in Kamloops. . . . Ross scored four goals in 16 playoff games last spring. He now has seen in seven games in these playoffs. . . . The Winterhawks broke a 1-1 tie with two shorthanded goals 33 seconds apart early in the second period. . . . Ross now holds the franchise record for shorthanded goals (4) in one playoff season. . . . Portland F Taylor Peters drew three shorthanded assists. . . . @WHLFacts tweeted that Ross “has just become the first WHL player in at least 15 years to get 4 Shorthanded Goals in one playoff season.” . . . More from @WHLFacts: “Taylor Peters has become the first WHL player in at least 15 years with 4 Shorthanded Assists in one playoff season” . . . The Winterhawks also set a franchise record with three shorthanded goals in one playoff game. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth stopped 38 shots in running his record this spring to 7-0. . . . Kamloops G Cam Lanigan turned aside 24 shots. . . . The Blazers are without G Cole Cheveldave (concussion). Portland F Oliver Gabriel was suspended for four games for the Game 1 hit on which Cheveldave was injured. Gabriel now has served two games of that suspension. . . . Attendance was 3,712, the third-smallest playoff crowd since the Blazers moved into what now is Interior Savings Centre for the 1992-93 season. The only smaller crowds came on March 25 and 26, 2008, when 2,895 and 2,570 fans showed up for Games 3 and 4 of a first-round sweep at the hands of the Tri-City Americans.

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