Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Monday . . .

It’s game night in the WHL, with Game 3 of the championship final scheduled for Cranbrook.
The series is tied 1-1, with the Portland Winterhawks having opened with a 4-3 OT victory on home ice. The visiting Kootenay Ice won the second game, 7-5, after opening up a 6-1 lead.
The Winterhawks, of course, ran into some penalty problems in that game and now will be without two veteran forwards tonight.
F Tayler Jordan has been suspended for one game after taking a checking-from-behind major for a hit on Ice F Steele Boomer in Game 2.
F Brad Ross drew one of those ‘tbd’ suspensions under supplemental discipline, following a collision with Ice F Matt Fraser. Fraser needed help getting off the ice and was unable to put any weight on his left leg.
If you haven’t seen them already, the Jordan-Boomer hit is right here, with the Ross-Fraser collision right there.
It seems the league has decided not to suspend Portland F Riley Boychuk, who drew an elbowing major and game misconduct for a hit on Ice D Hayden Rintoul. That check is right here.
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Condolences to the family of former WHL D Clayton Stoner (Tri-City, 2002-05), whose brother Luke, 30, was killed Friday morning in a logging accident near Mahatta River on Vancouver Island. . . . According to a press release issued by the Port Alice RCMP, the death is being attributed to a workplace incident. . . . The Stoners are from Port McNeill. . . . Teresa Bird of the North Island Gazette has more right here. . . . Clayton Stoner, 26, spent this season with the NHL's Minnesota Wild.
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D Jared Cowen left the Spokane Chiefs when their season ended and joined the Binghamton Senators, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators. . . . He played for Binghamton on Friday night and earned an assist on the first shift of his professional career. Binghamton went on to beat the Portland, Me., Pirates, 3-0, to win a playoff series 4-2. . . . Binghamton will meet the Charlotte Checkers in the Eastern Conference final. . . . Former Seattle Thunderbirds C Jim O’Brien scored one of the Senators’ goals in that victory.
In an AHL game on Monday night, F Dustin Boyd (Moose Jaw, 2002-06) scored six seconds into the third OT period to give the host Hamilton Bulldogs a 2-1 victory over the Manitoba Moose. It was Game 7 of a Western Conference semifinal. Boyd won the period-opening faceoff, dumped the puck off the end boards, beat a defender to it and whacked it past G Eddie Lack for the winner. Hamilton F Nigel Dawes (Kootenay, 2001-05) forced the OT with a goal at 6:24 of the third period. . . . Boyd and Dawes both are from Winnipeg.
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F Sven Bartschi of the Portland Winterhawks is the WHL’s player of the week. He had seven points, including five goals, in three games last week. . . . All signs point to the BCHL’s Quesnel Millionaires being sold and on the move to Chilliwack where they will be rebranded as the Chiefs. Tyler Olsen of the Chilliwack Times has that story right here.
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Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun has an interesting piece right here on the OHL draft that was held on Saturday.
“The changing face of hockey in this province made startling history on Saturday,” Simmons writes, “when three of the first six selections — four of the first 12 players picked — in the Ontario Hockey League priority draft were players of colour.”
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In the QMJHL final, G Jacob DeSerres stopped 17 shots to help the visiting Saint John Sea Dogs to a 5-0 victory over the Gatineau Olympiques in front of 4,000 fans. . . . Saint John, which has won eight straight road games in these playoffs, leads the series 2-1 with Game 4 in Gatineau on Wednesday night. . . . DeSerres (Seattle, Brandon, 2005-10) is 10-2 in the playoffs.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
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