F Rhett Gordon (Regina, 1992-96) announced his retirement after helping the Nottingham Panthers (England, UK Elite) win the UK Elite championship. Gordon started the season with the Colorado Eagles (ECHL), getting one goal and four assists in 10 games. He joined the Panthers in January and had three goals and 16 assists in 19 games. Gordon, as quoted in Monday's online edition of the Sheffield Star: "This was a very difficult decision and I thought long and hard about it but I feel the time is right for me to retire." . . .
F Matt Pettinger (Calgary, 1999-2000) signed a two-year contract with the Hamburg Freezers (Germany, DEL). He had 14 goals and 23 assists in 52 games with Kölner Haie (Cologne Sharks) this season. Cologne GM Stephane Richer: "Matt will be a real asset to our team. He's agile, good on the road, strong and physical on the puck. He is also a reliable scorer and can bring his experience to our team also to enrich it off the ice. A player like Matt has been missing from our team." . . .
F Antonin Honejsek (Moose Jaw, 2009-11) signed a two-year contract extension with Zlin (Czech Republic, Extraliga). Honejsek had three goals and four assists in 34 games with Zlin, four goals and seven assists in six games with Zlin U20, and two assists in three games on loan to Horacka Slavia Trebic (Czech Republic, 1.Liga).
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There weren’t any WHL games on Monday night, but three series resume tonight.
The Medicine Hat Tigers will have F Emerson Etem back in their lineup for Game 3 as they play host to the Moose Jaw Warriors. Etem sat out Game 2 after taking a kneeing major early in Game 1. The Warriors hold a 2-0 lead. . . .
The Edmonton Oil Kings hold a 2-0 lead as they head into Brandon for two games with the Wheat Kings. . . . Brandon hasn’t played at home since March 17. It played its first-round games in Winnipeg as the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair had taken over Westman Place in Brandon. . . .
Portland LW Oliver Gabriel has served one game and is awaiting a final ruling on his suspension stemming from a Game 1 collision with Kamloops G Cole Cheveldave … Medicine Hat RW?Emerson Etem has had his suspension finalized at one game — which he has already served — after taking a kneeing major in Game 1 of the Tigers’ series against Moose Jaw. . . .
The Kamloops Blazers won’t have G Cole Cheveldave for a second straight game as they take on the visiting Portland Winterhawks. Cheveldave was injured — no one is saying but it would appear he has a concussion — late in Game 1 when Portland F Oliver Gabriel ran over him behind the net. . . . Gabriel sat out Game 2 with a suspension. The length of that suspension hadn’t been determined as of early, early this morning. . . . The Winterhawks hold a 2-0 lead in this series. . . .
The Spokane Chiefs and Tri-City Americans, meanwhile, are tied 1-1 and will resume hostilities on Wednesday night in Spokane.
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THE COACHING GAME:
The USHL’s Indiana Ice fired general manager and head coach Kyle Wallack on Monday. Wallack had been an associate head coach at Yale U since 2006. He signed with the Ice on June 1, 2011, agreeing to a deal through 2013-14. Wallack replaced Charlie Skjodt, who at the time moved up to president. Skjodt was named interim head coach through the end of this season. . . . The Ice was 37-19-4 last season when it was ousted in the second round of playoffs. This season, the Ice is 34-15-9 and second in the Eastern Conference. . . . "There were a number of factors that led me to make this decision at this time of the year, but team unity, improvement in team play during the season and the development of the players who sign up for the Indiana Ice will never be compromised, " said Ice CEO Paul Skjodt in a news release. . . . There have been five coaching changes in the 16-team USHL this season. . . . The USHL is into the final week of its regular season. . . .
The midget AAA Brandon Wheat Kings will have Ken Schneider as their head coach again in 2012-13. Schneider, one of hockey’s good guys, played in the WHL with Brandon (1979-82), finishing up as the Wheat Kings’ captain. He is the father of former WHL D Mark Schneider (Kamloops, Brandon, Regina, 2006-11). Mark played this season with the U of Regina Cougars. . . .
The Kootenay Ice has an opening on its coaching staff after the U of Regina Cougars named Todd Johnson as their new head coach, effective immediately. Johnson, who played in the WHL with Moose Jaw, Kamloops and Red Deer (1990-93), has been an assistant with the Ice for the last two seasons. With the Cougars, he takes over from Blaine Sautner, who resigned in order to return to the family farm. . . . “I’m really happy for Todd as he is a classy young man who . . . will do a real good job for them,” Jeff Chynoweth, the Ice’s president and general manager, told me Monday evening. “Proud also to have another coach move on up.” . . .
Ryan Pollock, the associate coach and assistant GM of the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs, has resigned, citing personal and family reasons. Pollock spent the last five seasons with the Pontiacs, starting as an assistant coach and moving to associate coach/assistant GM under Chad Mercier for this season. . . . The Pontiacs also are looking for a trainer after Kim Sydora left following the season.
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Marc Habscheid, the general manager and head coach of the Victoria Royals, and team president Dave Dakers have denied a rumbling in the Edmonton Journal from the weekend. Jim Matheson, in his weekly Hockey World report, had speculated that Habscheid might be looking to give up the GM’s role, which might open the door for Doug Soeteart, the former Everett Silvertips’ GM, to land in Victoria. According to Cleve Dheensaw of the Victoria Times Colonist, Habscheid and Dakers responded identically: “There is nothing to it."
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