Spitfires have spot in Memorial Cup final ... Hitmen move two veteran scouts ... Rockets' top pick commits to UND

F Michal Hlinka (Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, 2010-12) has signed a one-year extension with Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia, KHL). This season, he had seven goals and four assists in 43 games. Hlinka also spent time with Dukla Trenčín (Slovakia, Extraliga) this season, scoring three goals and adding an assist in 13 games.

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The host Windsor Spitfires claimed the first berth in the Memorial Cup final with a 4-2 victory over the OHL-champion Erie Otters on Wednesday night. The Otters (2-1) will play in Friday’s semifinal, where they will meet the QMJHL-champion Saint John Sea Dogs (1-2). The winner of that game will meet the Spitfires (3-0) in Sunday’s final. . . . The WHL-champion Seattle Thunderbirds went 0-3 and were eliminated on Tuesday when they lost 7-0 to Saint John. . . . 

Last night, F Jeremiah Addison, who finished with three goals, got Windsor started with a pair of first-period goals, at 5:50 and 15:28. F Gabriel Vilardi earned the primary assist on both goals en route to a four-assist game. . . . F Mikhail Sergachev upped it to 3-0 with his first goal, on a PP, just 43 seconds into the second period. . . . F Kyle Maksimovich got Erie on the scoreboard when he scored off a rebound at 8:10 of the third period. . . . Addison completed his hat trick at 13:31. . . . F Taylor Raddysh’s third goal of the tournament got Erie to within two goals at 17:34, on a PP. . . . 

The Spitfires got a big game from G Michael DiPietro, with 33 saves. At the other end, Troy Timpano turned aside 15 shots. . . . Erie was 1-3 on the PP; Windsor was 1-4. . . . Erie F Alex DeBrincat, who scored 65 goals in the regular season, was helped from the ice late in the second period after taking a hit from Addison. However, DeBrincat was back for the third period. . . . Announced attendance: 6,136.

Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun has a game story right here.

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The Calgary Hitmen moved Mike Moore from general manager and vice-president of business operations to vice-president and alternate governor last week. The announcement was made by Ken King, the president and CEO of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation. . . . Taking Note was told Wednesday night that the Hitmen also jettisoned Dan Bonar and Roy Stasiuk, although those moves weren’t included in the announcement. . . . Bonar, 60, had been with the Hitmen since 2003, starting as a scout. He was named head scout on July 11, 2011, and took over as director of player personnel prior to the 2013-14 season. Bonar, from Deloraine, Man., played three seasons (1974-77) with the Brandon Wheat Kings before going on to a pro career that included 169 NHL games with the Los Angeles Kings. . . . Stasiuk, from Edmonton, was named Calgary’s Prairie scouting director on July 31, 2015. Before joining Calgary, he spent six seasons scouting for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to that, Stasiuk, 54, spent 20 seasons in the WHL, working with the Prince Albert Raiders, Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton Oil Kings, Kootenay Ice and Lethbridge Hurricanes.

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F Ethan Bowen, whose WHL rights belong to the Kelowna Rockets, has committed to North Dakota, for 2020-21, while saying he will play for the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs in 2018-19. Bowen, who turned 15 on May 14, is from Chilliwack. He played this season at the Yale Hockey Academy in Abbotsford, B.C., putting up 33 goals and 29 assists in 29 games with the bantam prep team. . . . Had there not been doubts about which route he would take, Bowen would have been an early first-round selection in the WHL’s 2017 bantam draft. The Rockets took him with their first pick, which happened to be in the second round. 

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The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes have signed Craig Cunningham, 26, to a two-year contract as a pro scout. He also will work in player development. Cunningham, from Trail, B.C., played in the WHL with the Vancouver Giants and Portland Winterhawks (2006-11). He was the captain of the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, when his playing career ended this season when he suffered a cardiac emergency prior to a game on Nov. 19. Doctors later had to amputate part of his left leg.

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Darryl Sydor is back in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues announced Wednesday that Sydor has been signed to a three-year contract as an assistant coach. Sydor, 45, will work alongside Blues head coach Mike Yeo. . . . Sydor, a co-owner of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, was an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild for five seasons during Yeo’s time there as head coach. . . . This season, Sydor was an assistant coach with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. . . . Sydor, from Edmonton, played four seasons (1988-92) in Kamloops.

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Arnie Caplan is the new general manager and head coach of the MJHL’s Waywayseecappo Wolverines. Caplan, 49, most recently was the head coach of the Portage College Voyageurs of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. As a goaltender, he made brief stops in the MJHL and the WHL, before spending four years with the Acadia Axemen. . . . With the Wolverines, Caplan replaces Barry Butler, who had been the GM/head coach for all but two seasons since 1999-2000, when the franchise joined the MJHL.

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Kirk MacDonald has been named director of hockey operations and head coach of the ECHL’s Reading Royals, who have a working agreement with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. MacDonald signed a three-year contract. MacDonald took over as interim head coach on April 3, replacing Larry Courville, who was fired with a week left in the regular season. He had revealed in February that he wouldn’t be returning for another season. MacDonald, who is from Victoria, had been an assistant coach since July 2014. 

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Public service announcement: If you're "that guy" who thinks it's necessary to yell out random things during national anthems - please STOP!

— Loosepucks (@loosepucks) May 24, 2017

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Might sanctions hit at 2016 WJC? . . . Hitmen add experienced scouts . . . Silvertips lose their voice

F Denis Tolpeko (Seattle, Regina, 2003-06) was traded by Salevat Yulaev Ufa to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (both Russia, KHL) for 2016 second- and third-round picks in the KHL Junior Draft. Last season, with Salevat Yulaev, he had 10 goals and eight assists in 59 games.
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The 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship is scheduled for Helsinki, Finland, where games are to be played in two arenas, including Hartwall Arena.
Team USA and Canada are to play their round-robin games in an older arena that is owned by the city of Helsinki. The playoff round is to be played in Hartwall Arena.
But what if the U.S. government stepped in and told Team USA that it couldn’t play there? What if teams from European Union (EU) countries weren’t allowed to play there? What then?
Why would that happen?
Well . . . follow along here . . .
The MacBeth Report informs us that on Thursday the U.S. government added Roman Rotenberg, Kai Pannanen, Långvik Capital, Airfix Aviation, and two companies operated by Pannanen to its embargo list.
Rotenberg holds Finnish and Russian passports.
Pannanen is a Finnish citizen who is a member of the board of directors of the Jokerit hockey team.
Långvik Capital is owned by Arkady and Boris Rottenberg. Roman Rottenberg is Boris’s son and Arkady’s nephew.
Arkady Rottenberg owns the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow and is a childhood friend and judo partner of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Boris Rotenberg owns the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow soccer team. He also is a childhood friend and judo partner of Putin.
Airfix Aviation is owned by Gennady Timchenko, who owns the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg franchise and is the chairman of the KHL’s board. He holds Russian, Finnish and Armenian citizenship.
Which brings us to Arena Events OY, which owns Hartwall Arena and a majority interest, perhaps even 100 per cent, in Jokerit, which is to play in the KHL in 2015-16.
Arena Events purchased Jokerit and Hartwall Arena in 2012. At that time, Arena Events was owned by Långvik Capital and Timchenko. However, Timchenko, and Arkady and Boris Rotenberg soon found themselves on the U.S. sanctions list, so the ownership picture changed, with Roman Rotenberg becoming the owner of Långvik Capital.
The Finnish government asked the U.S. government about the inclusion of two Finnish citizens and four Finnish companies on the sanctions list. According to Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, the U.S. told Finland “the list was expanded to include people and practices who support already-blacklisted magnates Gennadi Timchenko and Boris Rotenberg.”
Marko Lempinen, a columnist with Ilta-Sanomat, speculated that should Jokerit get added to the list the team might fold.
After all, EU companies aren’t allowed to do business with companies or individuals on the EU sanctions list.
Lempinen also wondered in print when Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg will decide that such problems associated with Jokerit and Hartwall Arena aren’t worth the bother any longer. As Lempinen mused, they are billionaires and wouldn’t be harmed economically by folding Jokerit and letting Hartwall sit unoccupied for a year or two.
Which brings us back to the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The tournament opens Dec. 26, 2015, with Russia meeting Czech Republic in Hartwall Arena.
As mentioned, the playoff round is to be held in Hartwall Arena. Let’s assume that Team USA qualifies for the playoff round.
If Jokerit and Hartwall Arena are on the embargo list, can Team USA play any games in the facility?
In fact, if Roman Rotenberg is added to the EU sanctions list, along with Långvik Capital, can teams from any EU countries play in Hartwall Arena without violating the sanctions?
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Ron Toigo, the majority owner of the Vancouver Giants, didn’t do anything Friday to quell the rumours of a possible move.
The Giants play in Pacific Coliseum where, he told Greg Douglas, who writes a Saturday column for the Vancouver Sun, that “the rent we’re paying is the highest in the league. It’s not working.”
There has been speculation that the City of Surrey is prepared to offer up some land if a developer wants to build an arena. That led to rumours that the Giants might be on the move.
“I keep hearing that a new arena in South Surrey is in the planning stages,” Toigo told Douglas. “But so far it’s just been a lot of talk.”
Douglas pointed out that the Giants’ attendance has fallen from 8,717 in 2008-09 to about 5,800 last season.
“Am I concerned about it? Absolutely,” Toigo told Douglas. “We’re starting to lose money. . . . The Coliseum is tired and needs capital funding but doesn’t get a subsidy from any level of government.”
Stay tuned. This story likely is far from over.
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The Calgary Hitmen have added two former WHL general managers to their scouting staff. Roy Stasiuk has been named Prairie scouting director, while Dallas Thompson will work as B.C. scouting director. . . . The Hitmen also announced the retirement of Ray Payne, who was their travelling scout. He will continue to scout for the Hitmen on a part-time basis in the Vancouver area. . . . Stasiuk, from Edmonton, was on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ scouting staff for the past six seasons. He has worked in the WHL with Prince Albert, Red Deer, Edmonton, Kootenay and Lethbridge. He had a stint as general manager in Lethbridge, after working as assistant GM/director of player personnel with Kootenay. . . . Thompson worked for 10 years as the general manager of the Prince George Cougars. . . . Dan Bonar remains Calgary’s director, player personnel and oversees the scouting staff.
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The Everett Silvertips have lost Travis Huntington, their play-by-play voice. He is leaving the organization for personal reasons. . . . “The decision to leave was a very difficult one motivated by a desire to be closer to family and friends in Colorado,” Huntington said in a news release, “but I will greatly miss being a member of this team and the friends I’ve made.” . . . Huntington, 32, was the director of broadcasting and public relations for four seasons. . . . He is from Platteville, Colo.
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Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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Glad everyone on my flight is safer now that they took my toothpaste

— Brendan Burke (@bburke_1) August 1, 2015

Meanwhile, at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton . . .

The lady next to me, in her 60's, denied a beer at the ball game because of their "ID everyone" policy. Why did we let the idiots take over?

— Chris LaBossiere (@ChrisLaBossiere) August 1, 2015

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You will have read here yesterday about Portland having received a bantam draft pick, or picks, from the Everett Silvertips as compensation for having signed Garry Davidson, the Winterhawks’ director of player personnel, as general manager.
I was told that the WHL allows only draft picks to be exchanged in the compensation package.
But I have been reminded of a situation that took place late in 2005 involving the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice.
On Nov. 9, 2005, the Hurricanes dealt F Curtis Billsten, 19, to Kootenay for F Laine Allen, 19, and a conditional third-round bantam draft pick.
According to the Cranbrook Daily Townsman, “The acquisition of Billsten came one day after Roy Stasiuk, former head scout of the Ice, took the general manager position in Lethbridge. (Ice general manager Jeff) Chynoweth said the trade was part of compensation for Stasiuk's move.”
Allen, who was playing for the AJHL’s Drumheller Dragons, never did play for Lethbridge.
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JUST NOTES:
I wrote something here the other day that I would like to perhaps clarify.
In a nightly roundup of Tuesday’s games, I happened to write this: “Brandon F Mark Stone was awarded a late assist sometime after Saturday’s 6-2 victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. So he went into last night’s game with a WHL-leading 102 points, not 101.” . . . I just want to emphasize that there was nothing untoward in Stone being given the assist. When scoring changes such as this are requested, the team sends in a video clip to the WHL office to make its point. . . . This isn’t like back in the day when there would be rumours about players getting assists when they hadn’t even been on the ice.
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F Michael Ferland of the Brandon Wheat Kings, the CHL’s reigning player of the week, practised Thursday. He left in the first period of a 5-4 shootout loss to the visiting Kootenay Ice on Tuesday with a suspected head injury. . . . Ferland has career highs in goals (40), assists (43) and points (83). . . . “I feel great,” Ferland told Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun after practice. “I wasn’t feeling too good in Tuesday’s game . . . but I feel 100 per cent and ready to go this weekend.” . . . The Wheat Kings are at home to the Swift Current Broncos tonight and the Regina Pats on Saturday. . . . Brandon, after a whole lot of inconsistent play, is 7-1-1 in its last nine and just might be getting things together in time for playoffs.
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A note from James Shewaga, the sports editor of the Brandon Sun:
“A few weeks ago, new Keystone Centre general manager Neil Thomson stated he was confident they could come to terms on a new lease with the Wheat Kings by the end of the month. However, the Sun has learned that negotiations have essentially ground to a halt, with both sides far apart on a new agreement to replace the current 15-year deal that expires at the end of this season.
“At risk is the future of the club in Brandon, a proud 45-year tradition, priceless positive publicity and economic spinoffs for the city, not to mention well over half a million dollars in annual revenue that the financially-strapped Keystone Centre simply can’t afford to lose.”
Brandon without the Wheat Kings? Yikes!
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F Henrik Samuelsson of the Edmonton Oil Kings has played 18 games since coming over from Sweden after the Christmas respite. He now has drawn two games in suspensions from two separate incidents. The latest — a kneeing major in a 6-4 loss to the visiting Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday — drew a one-game suspension. That followed a one-game sentence for a charging major in a game at Calgary on Jan. 15.
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D Brandon Davidson of the Regina Pats expects to be back in the lineup tonight against the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. Davidson had played in 162 straight games before sitting out a 2-1 victory over the visiting Kootenay Ice on Wednesday with a sore neck. . . . Davidson was hit by Kootenay D Jeff Hubic during a 4-2 Regina victory in Cranbrook on Saturday. Hubic was suspended for one game. . . . Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post reports that Davidson had last missed a game on Dec. 31, 2009, during his freshman season.
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F Brett Connolly, who has been playing about six minutes a game in recent times, played 13:03 last night as the Tampa Bay Lightning lost 4-3 to the Jets in Winnipeg. . . . He played 19 shifts. . . . He saw 10:56 of ice at even strength and 2:07 on the PP. . . . NHL teams have until the NHL trade deadline, which arrives on Monday, to return players to their major junior teams. The Tri-City Americans hold Connolly’s WHL rights.
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In the BCHL, the Penticton Vees ran their winning streak to 35 games as they scored three times in the third period and beat the visiting Trail Smoke Eaters, 4-2. . . . The Vees next play on Saturday when they are in Merritt for a date with the Centennials. . . . The Vees lead the Interior Conference, at 47-3-0-2, with the Centennials second at 29-17-2-5. . . . Uhh, that would be wins, losses, ties and OT losses.
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TWEET OF THE DAY:
From D Eric Walker of the Swift Current Broncos, who were on their way to Brandon where they meet the Wheat Kings tonight:
“Personally I'm glad we're not watching movies on the bus. Gives us all a chance to look around and take in the Saskatchewan scenery.”
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Close behind was this tweet from D Brock Sutherland of the Calgary Hitmen:
“If goalies cared about stoppin pucks as much as they did their masks, I wouldn’t be scoring on them all the time.”
Sutherland has, uhh, nine goals in 243 regular-season games. But he’s on a tear, having recorded the first three-point game of his career as the Hitmen beat the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 5-3 on Wednesday. Whoops! A check of the online scoresheet shows that one of his two assists disappeared and he was left with just two points.
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The family of former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL. He died on Feb. 17, 2011, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to The Associated Press story:
“The lawsuit accuses the NFL of negligently causing the brain damage that led Duerson to take his own life at the age of 50 by not warning him of the negative effects of concussions. Attorney Thomas Demetrio, who is representing Duerson's family, said the NFL should have been a leader in educating current and former players about head injuries.”
The complete AP story is right here.


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