Lindy Ruff, who played with the Lethbridge Broncos (1976-79), coached his 1,000th NHL game Wednesday night, as his Buffalo Sabres got past the host New Jersey Devils 5-4 in a shootout.Ruff is the 18th head coach in NHL history to get to No. 1,000. Ruff, Al Arbour (1,500 games with the New York Islanders) and Billy Reay (1,012 with the Chicago Blackhawks) are the only head coaches to get there with just one team.
Ruff was hired to replace Ted Nolan. Since Ruff began in Buffalo with the start of the 1997-98 season, there have been 155 coaching changes in the NHL.
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After two seasons in the Golden Baseball League, the Victoria Seals have ceased operations, effective immediately.
A notice on the team’s website cites “restrictive conditions of the current lease with the City of Victoria along with the unstable state of the Golden Baseball League.”
The Seals, who operated in Victoria for two seasons, were owned by Regina Pats owner Russ Parker and his son, Darren, who served as the team’s president.
“Despite expressing continuous concerns over the current lease agreement at out-dated Royal Athletic Park, the Seals were unable to find an agreement with the City that would address several alarming issues with the operation of a professional baseball team,” the notice reads. “Specifically, the poor field conditions, lack of a permanent outfield fence, unreasonable concession agreement and strained relationship with management at the current facility.
“In addition, the current uncertainty surrounding the makeup of the GBL and the financially demanding geographic layout of the league put added stress on the organization.”
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F Brayden Schenn, who has played eight games with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, is expected to be a healthy scratch tonight for the third straight game. The Kings are to play the visiting Dallas Stars tonight. And there are starting to be whispers that he will be returned to the Brandon Wheat Kings. Schenn, 19, was the fifth overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft. . . . Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times has more right here. . . . The Prince Albert Raiders are celebrating their 40th 
anniversary and will have the Centennial Cup and the Memorial Cup in the Art Hauser Centre on Dec. 11. Before joining the WHL, the Raiders all but owned the Centennial Cup, which went to the national junior A champion, winning it in 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1982. They joined the WHL for 1982-83 and won the Memorial Cup in 1985. . . . Kamloops Blazers D Josh Caron was back skating Wednesday for the first time since suffering a broken collarbone on Sept. 25. He hopes to see game action before month’s end. . . . The injury-stricken Swift Current Broncos brought in two players for Tuesday’s game with the visiting Portland Winterhawks. The Broncos had D Tanner Clark and F Zac MacKay in the lineup. Clark, 17, is with the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos, while MacKay, 15, is with the midget AAA Swift Current Legionnaires. . . . The Broncos also have lost F Andrew Sullivan, an 18-year-old from Calgary who had three points and 82 penalty minutes in 79 career games. Sullivan, who was a seventh-round bantam pick in 2007, has left the team and returned home. . . . The Prince George Cougars announced
Wednesday that D Dan Hamhuis of the Vancouver Canucks will serve as Team WHL’s honourary captain next week when the Subway Super Series wraps up at the CN Centre. Hamhuis, who is from Smithers, B.C., played 247 regular-season with the Cougars and is their all-time leading scorer among defencemen. . . . The touring Russian team will play Team WHL in Kamloops on Nov. 17 and in Prince George on Nov. 18. . . . The Russians are 2-0, having swept the first two games from QMJHL teams. . . . The last time the Russians swept two games from one league in this series? That was in 2004 when the Russians beat the QMJHL twice by 4-3 scores, in Quebec City and Montreal. . . . The visiting Seattle Thunderbirds got a goal and two assists from each of F
Colin Jacobs and F Luke Lockhart in beating the Prince Albert Raiders, 5-2. Seattle G Calvin Pickard stopped 27 shots. . . . Lockhart has four goals and two assists over his last two games. . . . The Thunderbirds, who have won two in a row, are 2-1-1 on their East Division swing; the Raiders have lost 9 of 10. . . . In Regina, the Portland Winterhawks worked overtime to run their winning streak to 10 games. F Brad Ross scored his ninth goal of the season at 1:06 of OT to give the visitors a 5-4 victory over the Pats. . . . The goal originally was credited to F Ryan Johansen, who scored the game’s first goal, his eighth. . . . Portland F Sven Bartschi scored his 14th goal to run his points streak to 13 games. . . . Portland F Riley Boychuk forced OT with 
his second goal of the game at 17:00 of the third period. . . . F Spencer Bennett had three assists for the winners. . . . Portland G Mac Carruth stopped 33 shots and now is 9-1. . . . F Thomas Frazee, taken 11th overall by Portland in the 2005 bantam draft, had a goal and two assists for Regina. . . . Portland was without F Oliver Gabriel, who was injured Tuesday in Swift Current. . . . The Winterhawks continue their trip in Saskatoon against the Blades on Friday night. . . . The Blades will be wearing their denim-look jerseys, with Shannon Tweed and some guy named Gene Simmons in attendance. . . .The Calgary Hitmen erased a three-goal deficit but lost 5-4 in OT to the
host Lethbridge Hurricanes. The WHL’s defending champions now have lost 10 straight games. . . . Lethbridge F Mitch Maxwell got the winner on the PP at 1:20 of extra time. Calgary F Kris Foucault, who forced OT with a PP goal at 7:44 of the third, was off for high-sticking when the winner was scored. . . . Lethbridge got two goals from F Alex Kuvaev, a goal and two assist form F Graham Hood, and three assists from F Michael Sofillas. . . . G Adam Brown stopped 26 shots, including all nine he faced in the third period, as the host Kelowna 
Rockets edged the Edmonton Oil Kings, 2-1. D Tyson Barrie broke a 1-1 tie on the PP at 14:49 of the second period. . . . The Rockets, who not that long ago had a near-empty bandwagon, now have won five in a row and it’s filling up fast. The Rockets now are eighth in the Western Conference, a point up on the Spokane Chiefs and Everett Silvertips, both of whom hold two games in hand. . . . Kelowna F Mitchell (Dirty Harry) Callahan had one assist, giving him 13 points during the five-game winning streak. . . . The Red Deer Rebels went to a shootout for the first time this season and lost 3-2 to the Giants in Vancouver. The loser point was enough to lift the Rebels into first place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the idle Saskatoon Blades. . . . The shootout went 14 shooters, with Vancouver freshman F Matt Bellerive, who turns 16 on Dec. 7, getting the winner. Bellerive played sparingly and had had just one shift in the third period. . . . Red Deer F Byron Froese, with 
his 11th, and F Dalton Siwak erased a 2-0 deficit with goals at 11:42 and 12:33 of the third period. . . . Four of the WHL’s top four scorers were in the game. Craig Cunningham (38 points) and Brendan Gallagher (31) of the Giants and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (30) and Byron Froese (30) of the Rebels combined for one point, that being Froese’s goal. . . . Cunningham played in his 280th regular-season game with the Giants, tying the franchise record held by F Mitch Bartley. Cunningham will break the record this afternoon when the Giants meet the Bruins in Chilliwack. Game time is 2 p.m.---
WEDNESDAY’S CHECKING-FROM-BEHIND COUNT:
Two minors:
Red Deer D Aaron Borejko
Vancouver D Luke Fenske
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