Ice mourns death of Memorial Cup winner . . . Ferner to the rescue . . . Americans win fourth in row

F Petr Kalus (Regina, 2005-06) has been released by the Nottingham Panthers (England, UK Elite). He had one assist in four games. Earlier in the season, he was pointless in three games with Orli Znojmo (Czech Republic, Erste Bank Liga). . . .

F Adam Courchaine (Medicine Hat, Vancouver, 2001-05) has been released by Székesfehérvár (Hungary, Erste Bank Liga) by mutual agreement. He had five goals and five assists in 16 games.

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Sad day. RIP Marek Svatos. God bless my friend. #HockeyIsFamily

— Robert (Bob) Tory (@BTORY) November 6, 2016

Nov. 6, 2001 - 15 years ago today, Marek Svatos scored the 3rd & 4th @WHLKootenayICE goals in a 4-3 win over Moose Jaw

— WHL Facts (@WHLFacts) November 6, 2016

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Like a number of other hockey people, Jeff Chynoweth, the president and general manager of the Kootenay Ice, spent Sunday reflecting on the life of Marek Svatos.

Marek Svatos, here with the Colorado Avalanche, died
on the weekend at the age of 34. (Photo: nhl.com)

Svatos, who played for the Memorial Cup-champion Ice in 2001-02, was found dead on Saturday. Svatos died in Lone Tree, Colo., near Denver. He was 34.

According to the Denver Post:

“Lone Tree police responded to Svatos’ home on Bluffmont Street after a family member called shortly after midnight for medical aid, Sgt. Ryan Gallegos said Sunday. He didn’t divulge details of the call.

“A cause of death had not been confirmed as of Sunday afternoon.”

From Kosice, Slovakia, Svatos, who was selected by the Ice in the CHL’s 2000 import draft, played two seasons (2000-02) with the Ice, totalling 118 points, including 61 goals, in 92 games. In his second season, he put up 77 points, 38 of them goals, in 53 games.

He played 32 playoff games with Kootenay, scoring 19 goals and adding eight assists. In four Memorial Cup games, he had a goal and four assists.

“The news of his passing has hit the Ice family hard,” Chynoweth told Taking Note on Sunday morning, adding that he already had heard from a few former teammates. “It’s so sad. He gone way too young.”

Asked about his memories of Svatos, Chynoweth replied: “He always had a smile on his face.”

Svatos came over to Cranbrook after being drafted, but wasn’t able to play immediately for the Ice as his club team in Slovakia, HC Kosice, wouldn’t release him.

“We had to get a court injunction to get him released from his contract back home,” Chynoweth said. “But he made an immediate impact for us when he was cleared to play. He loved to score goals and went to the hard areas of the ice to do that. He was a great talent and teammate.”

En route to the Memorial Cup title, the Ice ran up against the Prince George Cougars in the first round. The Ice, then in the B.C. Division, had finished 38-27-0, two points behind the division-champion Kamloops Blazers and four ahead of the Cougars (34-27-2).

“Marek’s battles with (Prince George defenceman) Dan Hamhuis . . . stick out as another defining moment as they went tooth-and-nail against each other all series,” Chynoweth said. “Marek was tough as nails and played through shoulder and ankle injuries through our run to the Memorial Cup.”

Svatos went on to play 344 NHL games, all but 28 of them with the Colorado Avalanche, and put up 172 points, including 100 goals. His career was short-circuited by shoulder and knee injuries.

Svatos is survived by his wife, Diana, and two children.

Former Kootenay Ice (@WHLKootenayICE) player Marek Svatos passes away: https://t.co/IDB73Z5qYB pic.twitter.com/3A3nhkHXSQ

— CranbrookTownsman (@CranTownsman) November 7, 2016

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Imagine the surprise on Mark Ferner’s face when the general manager and head coach of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers discovered a stranger in the team’s dressing room prior to a game in Duncan, B.C., on Friday night.

“I asked who he was and what he was doing there,” Ferner told the Vernon Morning Star.

What happened next?

“He ran and I chased him,” Ferner said.

Ferner’s players were out and about on a pre-game run prior to playing the Cowichan Valley Capitals.

“They jumped on him and got their cash and jewellery back,” Ferner said. “He was 16 and the police know him.”

Later, the Vipers watched a 2-0 lead disappear as they lost, 5-2, to the Capitals.

The Morning Star’s story is right here.

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SUNDAY’S GAME:

Brutal stretch for @pdxwinterhawks. 8 straight losses, all were 1-goal games in the last 2 minutes.

— Scott Sepich (@SSepich) November 7, 2016

At Portland, G Rylan Parenteau blocked 44 shots in leading the Tri-City Americans to a 3-2 victory over the Winterhawks. . . . Tri-City overcame a 2-0 first-period deficit. . . . F Jake Gricius (2) and F Ryan Hughes (6) scored for Portland. . . . Tri-City F Kyle Olson started the comeback with his sixth goal at 8:45 of the second period. . . . The Americans tied it at 5:25 of the third period when F Michael Rasmussen counted his WHL-leading 16th goal on a PP. . . . The game-winner came from F Parker AuCoin, his seventh goal this season, at 11:14 of the third period. . . . Parenteau is 6-2-1, 3.57, .900 since the Americans acquired him from the Prince Albrert Raiders. This was his 50th regular-season victory. . . . G Cole Kehler turned aside 28 shots for Portland. . . . Tri-City was 1-3 on the PP; Portland was 0-4. . . . The Americans (12-6-1) have won four in a row. . . . The Winterhawks (8-11-0) have lost eight straight. . . . Announced attendance: 5,856.

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LEADERS

POINTS: F Sam Steel, Regina, F Mason Shaw, Medicine Hat, each 28; F Kailer Yamamoto, Spokane, 26; F Chad Butcher, Medicine Hat, 25; F Cody Glass, Portland, each 25.

GOALS: F Michael Rasmussen, Tri-City, 16; Steel, F Tyler Steenbergen, Swift Current, each 14; Yamamoto, F Zak Zborosky, Kootenay, each 13.

ASSISTS: Shaw, 23; F Brayden Burke, Lethbridge, Butcher, Glass, each 18; D Chase Harrison, Regina, F Steve Owre, Medicine Hat, F Aleksi Heponiemi, Swift Current, each 16.

VICTORIES: Nick Schneider, Medicine Hat, 11; Ty Edmonds, Prince George, Griffen Outhouse, Victoria, each 10; Carter Hart, Everett, Michael Herringer, Kelowna, each 9.

GAA: Hart, 1.89; Connor Ingram, Kamloops, 2.01; Ty Edmonds, Prince George, 2.29; Logan Flodell, Saskatoon, 2.34; Cody Porter, Calgary, 2.46.

SAVE %: Ingram, .937; Flodell, .932; Hart, .926; Edmonds, .921; Outhouse, Porter, Ian Scott, Prince Albert, each .920.

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MONDAY’S GAMES (all times local):

No Games Scheduled.

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Pursuit of pro job takes Ferner to Everett

MARK FERNER

He’s still the same Mark Ferner. Down home. Folksy. Old school. Hey, he could pass for a Sutter if you didn’t know him.
Neither life in the big American city nor all of that success in Vernon, where he spent four seasons coaching the junior A Vipers, has changed the man who now is the head coach of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips.
He’s still the same Mark Ferner, one of our city’s favourite sons, albeit adopted, whose stint as head coach of the then-your Kamloops Blazers ended the way so many of these relationships do.
Yes, he was fired.
“Was I ready to coach here?” he asks, before adding: “I don’t know if I was or not.”
The tone of his voice, however, tells you the answer.
He continues: “Being honest . . . with what the situation was . . . we all understand and all know that situation when Dean (Clark) had stepped down and just wanted to be the GM.”
To take you back, it was the 2004-05 season. The Blazers were owned by a group of community shareholders and the organization was trying to overcome, among other things, the disappearance of about $1 million, the eventual jailing of the office manager, the resignation of the franchise’s long-time president and on and on.
Twenty games into 2004-05, Clark stepped aside and Ferner moved up from associate coach to head coach.
The next season, with the Blazers 16-16-0 and playing mostly uninspired hockey, Clark pulled the pin on Ferner. It was a bitter experience that opened an abyss between the former teammates.
“I talk to Hitch a lot,” Ferner says, referencing former Blazers head coach Ken Hitchcock, “and he said, ‘You really don’t become a coach, a real coach, until you’ve been fired.’ ”
Until you have felt the pain?
“Yeah . . . yeah,” Ferner says and more scar tissue breaks free.
If that doesn’t make you a coach, winning championships will.
Under Ferner, the Vipers experienced only 51 regulation-time losses in 240 regular-season games. They won the last three BCHL championships. They won two straight RBC national titles before losing in the final last spring.
Clearly, Ferner could have stayed in Vernon indefinitely. Just as clearly, it was time to move.
“I want to give myself an opportunity to coach pro hockey,” Ferner says. “I don’t know if I could get to the pro level from junior A.”
During his stint in Vernon, he heard from pro teams. They loved the success he had had but, at day’s end, it still was junior A. Which is how it came to pass that Doug Soetaert, the general manager of the Silvertips, on July 6 introduced Ferner as the fourth head coach in franchise history.
The Silvertips, who are in their ninth WHL season, have had an uncommon amount of success in their early life. But it started to come apart last season and Soetaert has undertaken a full-scale rebuild.
As Ferner stands and talks, his Silvertips are 8-26-8. Two nights later, they are 8-27-9. They aren’t likely to make the playoffs, something that will feel strange to Ferner, considering his last three seasons with the Vipers.
The U.S. Division also is a tough place in which to live when you are working on your foundation. It is home to the Tri-City Americans, perhaps the CHL’s model franchise these days, as well as the Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs, who aren’t far behind.
Ferner knows that, but he feels his young charges can only learn from those three teams.
“The culture has to change,” he says, repeating something that was a mantra during his days on the Blazers’ coaching staff.
He now sees a big part of his job as “making sure that the kids understand what the expectations are and that there is no substitute for hard work. Regardless of the talent level that we have, the one thing that has to stay consistent is our work ethic . . . and that’s non-negotiable.”
These days, he says, it’s all about work ethic and trust.
“Confidence is a huge thing in this game,” he notes, “and they’re a fragile group right now. There has to be a lot of teaching, not babying, but at the same time the message has been sent if you’re not going to work, you’re not going to play.”
That message was delivered via ex-Blazers winger J.T. Barnett, who was a healthy scratch Friday against the visiting Chiefs.
That is the Ferner way, something some players will learn the hard way.
In a conversation last week, Kamloops defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer talked about how structured play and trust in each other have played roles in the Blazers’ success to this point. That is exactly what Ferner is trying to establish with the Silvertips.
“We need to trust what we’re doing; we need to trust each other,” Ferner says.
He tells his players to “go out and believe you’re good enough to be here. You’re here because you’re a good player. You’re not here because of things you can’t do; you’re here because of things you can do.”
Yes, he feels he is making progress, but sometimes it is slow going.
He says the process hasn’t been hard on him personally, but admits that “it’s humbling . . . no question.”
But, he adds, “it’s hockey and I understand where we’re at, where we just consistently can’t do it for 60 minutes right now. We see flashes of it . . . if the game was 27 minutes long, some nights we’d be OK. It’s getting them to understand it’s not a sometime thing, it’s an all-the-time thing.”
In other words, Ferner, as usual, is all-in. He wants to make sure his players are, too.

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)

Russians take home the trophy

How many coaches would yank a goaltender less than four minutes into one game and start him again the very next night? That’s what Team Russia head coach Valery Bragin, the tie-less one, did with goaltender Dmitry Shikin in the two Subway Super Series games that were played in Kamloops and Prince George on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Shikin gave up two goals on three shots and left Wednesday’s game with his side down 2-0 just 3:36 into the game. Emil Garipov came on and was excellent in backstopping the Russians to a 7-6 shootout victory.
Last night, the Russians stoned Team WHL 5-2 in Prince George to win the Super Series for the first time in its eight years and perhaps save what, prior to this month, had been a mediocre series, at least out west.
Going into this year, the WHL had won 13 of the 14 games it had played against the Russians in this series.
The Russians had always, for whatever reason, brought over a markedly weaker team than was needed to compete with CHL teams. Four years ago, the last time the series stopped in Kamloops, the WHL posted an 8-1 victory in what was a simply awful hockey game.
This year, however, the Russians brought over an older team that was stronger and more mature than what we have seen in past years. Every player on the 22-man roster for the game in Kamloops was born in 1991. Of those 22 players, 16 had played for Bragin at the U-20 Fourth Nations tournament in Sweden in September.
This bunch of Russians took every bump and then some. They were quick on transition, strong on the puck and they gave the WHL’s defence fits, especially in deep on the forecheck. The WHL defencemen really had have a tough time dealing with that pressure.
The WHL, which actually held a 6-3 lead in the third period of the game in Kamloops, carried over only six players to the game in the Prince George. And it took until six or seven minutes into the third period before the WHL team looked comfortable. By then, the Russians held a 4-0 lead and were on their way to winning the series for the first time.
This reminded me a bit of 1972 when the Canadians (NHL) and the then-Soviet Union met in the first Super Series. The NHL stars that year were caught off guard by just how good the Soviet players were. I would suggest that the WHL players were expecting less than what they got in these two games.
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Through this series the Russian players are mostly nameless teenagers to most observers.
Which is why it was so wonderful to watch these players celebrate at the end of the game in Prince George. Watching them go to centre ice, shed gloves and sticks, and pose for one of those championship team photos with the trophy, well, it was just like watching a North American team celebrate a title.
If you don't think this thing meant something to them, you weren't paying attention.
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So . . . what’s next?
Well, Hockey Canada will release the list of players invited to its selection camp on Nov. 29. From there it’s on to the camp in Toronto, Dec. 11-15.
The 2011 World Junior Championship will be contested in Buffalo, Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.
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2010 SUPER SERIES:
Nov. 8, at Saint John, N.B.: Russia 5, QMJHL 4
Nov. 10, at Drummondville: Russia 4, QMJHL 3
Nov. 11, at London: OHL 4, Russia 0
Nov. 15, at Sudbury: OHL 2, Russia 1 (SO)
Nov. 17: at Kamloops: Russia 7, WHL 6 (SO)
Nov. 18: at Prince George: Russia 5, WHL 2
Russia 4-1-1-22-21-12
CHL 2-3-1-21-22-6
OHL 2-0-0-6-1-5
QMJHL 0-2-0-7-9-0
WHL 0-1-1-8-12-1
(Note: Three points for regulation victory; two points for shootout victory; one point for shootout loss.)
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With the Subway Super Series having wrapped up, it’s time to start thinking about the various World Junior Championships that will be held over the next six weeks.
F Kristians Pelss of the Edmonton Oil Kings will play for Latvia in the 2011 World Junior Championship, Division 1A, that runs Dec. 13-19 in Bobruisk, Belarus. Pelss, 18, was the 19^th pick in the CHL’s 2010 import draft. He also was a seventh-round pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL’s 2010 draft. Pelss has a goal and three assists in 20 games with the Oil Kings. . . . Latvia will compete against Belarus, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, two WHL players are on Germany’s preliminary roster for the 2011 World Junior Championship that will be held in Buffalo, Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. F Marcel Noebels of the Seattle Thunderbirds and F Bernhard Keil of the Kamloops Blazers are on the German roster that right now features four goaltenders, 15 forwards and nine defencemen. Noebels has 14 points in 19 games with Seattle, while Keil, who has struggled to adapt to the grind of the WHL, has one goal in 15 games with the Blazers. He has been a healthy scratch four times in the last eight games.
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I was told late Thursday night that F Kyle St. Denis, 20, has been released off the injured list by the Kelowna Rockets. St. Denis has had multiple concussions and didn’t get medical clearance to start this season with the Rockets. From Trail, B.C., he had 22 points in 22 games in 2008-09 and 22 points in 26 games last season. Of course, the games played is the key statistic. Obviously, he has the skill to play in the WHL but the concussions just wouldn’t let him. . . . I also am told that his junior A rights belonged to the BCHL's Vernon Vipers, who have dealt them to the Victoria Grizzlies. St. Denis, however, wants to play with the Smoke Eaters, whose roster includes his brother Travis, who has 39 points in 22 games.
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The Kelowna Rockets dealt D Antoine Corbin, 18, to the Prince Albert Raiders on Thursday. The Rockets got back a 2012 third-round bantam draft pick. Corbin, who is in his second WHL season, was a fifth-round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. . . . He had four points and 25 penalty minutes in 11 games this season with the Rockets. . . . Corbin, who is from Kelowna, is expected to play for the Raiders tonight against the Hurricanes in Lethbridge.
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If you were wondering, it took the Pats 22 hours 30 minutes to get from Regina to Vancouver, where they open B.C. Division tour tonight against the Giants. . . . The Pats have three prospects with them for the next few days. D Kyle Burroughs, a third-round pick from Langley, B.C., D Nolan De Jong, a seventh-round selection from Saanich, B.C., and F Demico Hannoun, a product of North Delta., B.C., who was taken in the ninth round, have practised with the club the last couple of days. . . . The Prince Albert Raiders have added F Tyler Paslawski, 18, to their roster for their three-game weekend. Paslawski, was assigned to the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks almost a month ago and had two assists in eight games. . . . BC Hockey has selected Kamloops as the host site for the 2011 U-16 B.C. Cup. The tournament will be held April 27 through May 1 at Interior Savings Centre. . . . Marc Weber of the Vancouver Province reports on the Dub Hub that the Vancouver Giants are down to five defencemen Luke Fenske (shoulder) the latest of their players to be injured. The Giants are at home to the Regina Pats tonight but then don’t play for a week. F Brendan Rowisnki, who was acquired last week from the Moose Jaw Warriors, won’t play, either. He had major offseason knee surgery and played two games with the Warriors before being traded. But he hasn’t received medical clearance from the Giants’ staff. Fenske and Rowinski both may be back for that Nov. 26 game when the Giants meet the Oil Kings in Edmonton. . . .
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More than a handful of former WHL players have been shuffled around over the last couple of days. . . . F James Wright (Vancouver, 2005-10) went from the AHL’s Norfolk Road Admirals to the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. . . . The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks returned F Mario Bliznak (Vancouver, 2005-08) to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. . . . The NHL’s Florida Panthers sent D Keaton Ellerby (Kamloops, Moose Jaw, 2004-08) to the AHL’s Rochester Americans and recalled F Michal Repik (Vancouver, 2005-08). . . . Repik was the Americans’ leading scorer, with 22 points, including 18 assists, in 17 games. . . . The NHL’s Minnesota Wild assigned D Justin Falk (Calgary, Spokane, 2004-08) to the AHL’s Houston Aeros. . . . The NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes recalled D Brett Carson (Moose Jaw, Calgary 2001-06) from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on Wednesday and returned him on Thursday.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
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