Moller to join Team Sweden

The Los Angeles Kings have given C Oscar Moller the OK to leave the team and join the Swedish national team at the World Junior Championship in Ottawa. The tournament runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. Moller, 19, played the last two seasons with the WHL’s Chilliwack Bruins, who had hoped to have him return this season. But he cracked the Kings’ roster with a stellar training camp. He has 13 points, including six goals, in 28 NHL games and is averaging 13 minutes 46 seconds of ice time per game.
Kings GM Dean Lombardi explained his reasoning for letting Moller join Sweden to Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times: "It is a special opportunity for young kids to play in that tournament. The pressure in that tournament for a young player is pretty significant, and it's a big thing for their growth to play in that tournament. It's a great thing for his continued development, especially because they told us he was going to be one of their captains.”
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Brent Gogol holds the WHL record for most penalty minutes in one season (511), which was set with the Victoria Cougars and Billings Bighorns in 1977-78. That record will never be broken for two reasons: (1) There isn’t nearly as much fighting as there was back then; and, (2) the WHL no longer includes misconduct penalties in its individual player totals.
Gogol’s son, Curt, is a 17-year-old freshman defenceman with the Kelowna Rockets. “It’s going to take a lot tougher guy than me to break that record, for sure,” Curt, a Calgary native, told the Calgary Sun’s Scott Fisher. “It might take me my full career, all four years here to break that.”
The younger Gogol has 53 penalty minutes this season, after putting up 100 with the midget AAA Calgary Flames last season.
“He fought more than once every game,” he said of his father. “So he’s always taught me how to rough it up and how to protect myself if I get in fights. He’s been a good role model.”
You have to wonder, though, which one of them gets to carve the Christmas turkey?
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The Portland Winter Hawks have added G Ian Curtis, 18, and he will join the team after Christmas to fill the void created when G Keith Hamilton joins Team Pacific for the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge in Port Alberni, B.C. Curtis, 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, began his WHL career with the Swift Current Broncos before being dealt to the Prince G eorge Cougars, who released him earlier this season. . . .
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JUST NOTES: The Calgary Hitmen scored a 4-3 victory over the visiting Kelowna Rockets on Sunday afternoon. . . . Calgary F Ian Schultz suffered an apparent left knee injury late in the first period and was on crutches after the game. . . . Calgary F Jason MacDonald, who was released by the Rockets early in 2007-08, scored what proved to be the winning goal. . . . The Hitmen have won 12 straight on home ice where they are 18-1-0-0. . . . The Rockets held a 16-3 edge in shots in the third period but had only a 25-21 edge over three periods. The Hitmen had outshot the opposition in each of their last 17 games. . . . Kelowna D Tyson Barrie (concussion), who was injured Friday night, sat this one out. The Rockets dressed 18 players, including five defencemen. . . . The Rockets, who play Tuesday in Red Deer and Wednesday in Edmonton, are bringing in F Brett Bulmer, an 11th round pick in the 2007 bantam draft. He plays for the major midget Cariboo Cougars who play out of Prince George. As well, C Shane McColgan of the Los Angeles Junior Kings, the 13th pick in the 2008 draft, is to make his WHL debut on this road trip. . . .
In Edmonton, F Colton Sceviour scored his 17th goal of the season in OT as the Lethbridge Hurricanes dumped the Oil Kings, 3-2. . . . F Derek Hulak scored in the shootout to give the visiting Saskatoon Blades a 2-1 victory over the Regina Pats. . . . It was victory No. 394 in the WHL for Saskatoon GM/head coach Lorne Molleken. . . . Regina lost freshman F Dominick Favreau (lacerated right hand) when he was stepped on during a fight with Saskatoon F Charles Inglis. . . . The Blades lost F Chris Langkow after he was checked hard into the end boards by Regina D Victor Bartley and appeared to injure his right leg. . . . Saskatoon G Braden Holtby stopped 37 shots — and three more in the circus — to get his 20th victory of the season. . . . The Pats had D Dominic Perrault, 17, in the lineup. He was brought in from the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars. . . .
In Kennewick, Wash., G Drew Owsley earned his first career shutout as the Tri-City Americans blanked the Medicine Hat Tigers, 3-0. C Taylor Procyshen led the Americans with two goals and an assist. His first goal was the 90th of his WHL career. Owsley made 29 stops. . . . In Vancouver, F Adam Basford struck for three goals and G Jamie Tucker stopped 14 shots for his third shutout as the Giants dumped the Prince George Cougars, 6-0. It was Basford’s first WHL three-goal game. The Giants have won six in a row. . . . Vancouver D Jon Blum set up three goals in his final game before joining Team USA for the World Junior Championship. Blum also was plus-4 and leads the WHL at plus-41 in 28 games. . . . D Brent Regner, who had one assist, was plus-5. . . . Vancouver F Casey Pierro-Zabotel scored twice and closed to within four points of WHL scoring leader Brett Sonne of Calgary. Sonne, who is at the Canadian junior team’s selection camp, has 55 points. . . . Vancouver held a 53-14 edge in shots. . . . Tucker, playing with Tyson Sexsmith at camp with the Canadian junior team, went 3-0 with a 1.33 GAA and .941 save percentage for the week. He is 10-0-0-1 on the season, with a 1.42 GAA and a .938 save percentage. . . . Basford was a sixth-round pick of the Cougars in the 2004 bantam draft but was dropped without ever playing for them. . . . The Cougars were without freshman sensation Brett Connolly. He suffered a concussion Saturday in a 4-2 loss in Everett and likely won’t play Wednesday when the Kamloops Blazers visit Prince George.