THE MacBETH REPORT:
F Tomas Kopecky (Lethbridge, 2000-02) signed a lockout contract with Dukla Trencin (Slovakia, Extraliga). He had 10 goals and 22 assists in 80 games with the Florida Panthers last season. . . .
D Tomas Mojzis (Moose Jaw, Seattle, 2000-03) has been assigned on loan for an indefinite period by Lev Prague (Czech Republic, KHL) to Sparta Prague (Czech Republic, Extraliga). He has no points in five games with Lev this season.
———
The Prince George Cougars have made a move in an attempt to solve some early-season goaltending woes.
The Cougars gave up a 2014 fourth-round bantam draft pick in order to acquire G Mac Engel, 19, from the Spokane Chiefs.
Engel spent the previous two seasons with the Chiefs, but lost the starter’s job to Eric Williams during last spring’s playoffs. Williams then won the No. 1 spot during training camp and the Chiefs sent Engel home to Red Deer last week to await a trade.
The Cougars (5-3-1) have been going with Devon Fordyce, 18, who backed up Drew Owsley last season, and freshman Brett Zarowny, 17.
Fordyce hasn’t finished two of his last three starts.
"Every game there's been a goal that hasn't been good," Cougars head coach Dean Clark told Sheri Lamb of the Prince George Citizen. "It's not a good thing. When you're a goaltender for me you've got to stop all the easy ones and most of the hard ones, not most of the hard ones and some of the easy ones.”
Prince George general manager Dallas Thompson said the Cougars will go with three goaltenders, at least for now.
The Cougars are at home to the Calgary Hitmen tonight and will meet the Rockets in Kelowna on Thursday. Then, wouldn’t you know it, the Cougars will play three in a row against the Chiefs. They’ll play Saturday in Spokane, and Tuesday and Wednesday in Prince George.
———
Richard Doerksen, the WHL’s vice-president, hockey, handed out 14 games worth of suspensions to four players on Monday.
F Lucas Grayson of the Everett Silvertips drew five games for a checking-to-the-head major in a game at Regina on Saturday. Pats F Dryden Hunt, who had just returned from a concussion, left after the hit and didn’t return. Grayson will miss games in Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Prince Albert and Saskatoon, and a home game against Spokane.
F Ryan Olsen of the Kelowna Rockets will sit for three games after taking a checking-to-the-head major at Victoria on Saturday. He was penalized for a high hit on Royals D Joe Hicketts. Olsen will sit for visits by Prince George and Brandon, and won’t play in Medicine Hat on Oct. 24.
D Dalton Thrower of the Saskatoon Blades got two games for a checking-to-the-head major at Lethbridge on Saturday. Thrower didn’t play Sunday against the host Lethbridge Hurricnes, so will complete his suspension by missing Wednesday’s game against the visiting Tri-City Americans.
F Tim Vanstone of the Prince Albert Raiders will watch for four games after taking a checking-from-behind major at Moose Jaw on Saturday. F Miles Warkentine of the Warriors, who was hit by Vanstone, was left with a concussion. The Raiders start a seven-game game homestand tonight against Tri-City. Vanstone will miss that game and visits by Everett, Swift Currrent and Moose Jaw.
———
F Lyndon Martell (Kamloops, Regina, 2010-12) of the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings suffered a concussion during an Oct. 6 game against the host Langley Rivermen. So far, Martell, 19, has missed three games.
———
Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province reported Monday that, according to the Vancouver Giants, “the WHL has changed how it’s counting Kale Kessy’s 12-game suspension and he’ll now be available to the Giants for a Friday, Oct. 26 visit from the Victoria Royals.” . . . The Giants acquired Kessy from the Medicine Hat Tigers last week. He is serving a suspension for an incident in a game on Sept. 22. . . . Had he not been traded, he would have been eligible to return to the Tigers’ lineup for an Oct. 26 game in Calgary. . . . While Kessy was Tigers’ property, he sat out six games. From Oct. 12 through Oct. 25, inclusive, the Giants are scheduled to play four games. . . .
———
The Red Deer Advocate reports that Rebels G Patrick Bartosak has vacated the Chateau Bow Wow.
Bartosak, a 19-year-old Czech sophomore, returned to practice yesterday after being suspended by the club late last week.
“It was a disciplinary thing that has been dealt with,” Brent Sutter, the Rebels owner and general manager, told the Advocate. “He understands it, he knows why (he was suspended). I don’t think we need to go any deeper with it than that.
“It was something that had to be done. He’s a great kid and he’s obviously a heck of a goaltender, one of the best in our league.”
The Rebels are at home to the Kamloops Blazers tonight.
———
The Tri-City Americans, who are on their six-game East Division swing, stopped at a Tim Hortons outlet in Moose Jaw on Monday before making their way to Saskatoon.
“Tim Hortons is about $350 richer,” Jim Hiller, the Americans’ head coach, jokingly told Annie Fowler of the Tr-City Herald.
The Americans are 2-0-0 on their swing. They are in Prince Albert tonight and Saskatoon on Wednesday.
———
F Rodney Southam of the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts has signed with the Tri-City Americans. The 5-foot-11, 167-pound Southam, 16, has 10 points, five of them goals, in his first five games with the Contacts. . . . Southam was listed by the Americans in July. Last season, as a rookie with the Contacts, he had 23 points and 93 penalty minutes in 43 games. . . . Southam will be with the Americans on Wednesday when they play the Blades in Saskatoon.
———
The Brandon Wheat Kings have assigned F Quintin Lisoway, 17, to the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons. Lisoway, a ninth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft, had one assist in three games with the Wheat Kings. Last season, he had 46 points with a midget team in Omaha, Neb. . . . The Wheat Kings, who left Monday on the longest road trip of their season, are carrying 24 players, including eight defencemen and 14 forwards. . . . The Wheat Kings (5-3-1) open the swing tonight in Medicine Hat.
———
F Cody Fowlie, who was released last week by the Everett Silvertips, has signed with the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. Fowlie got caught up in the 20-year-old numbers game after the Silvertips claimed D Connor Cox, who had been dropped by the Saskatoon Blades. That left Everett with four 20s, meaning one had to go. That one was Fowlie, who turns 20 on Nov. 5. Fowlie had 40 points, including 14 goals, in 72 games last season with Everett.
———
The QMJHL’s Val-d’Or Foreurs fired head coach Marc-André Dumont on Monday. Assistant coach Mario Durocher moved up as head coach. Dumont was in his fourth season as head coach. The Foreurs are 4-6-0 and in fourth place in the six-team West Division. Dumont said he already is looking for an assistant coach. . . .
Meanwhile, the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles have dismissed general manager Pierre Roux. Head coach Ron Choules will handle the GM’s duties on an interim basis. Interestingly, Roux was hired in May 2011 to replace Mario Durocher. The Screaming Eagles are 2-6-3, sixth in the six-team Maritime Division
———
Jack Todd writes an entertaining read in Monday editions of the Montreal Gazette. Part of this week’s piece was ‘The Top 10 Things We Don’t Miss About NHL Hockey:
10. Foghorn Dreghorn telling us that “TSN has just learned that the Stanley Cup is awarded to the team that wins the NHL playoffs.”
9. Barry Melrose, with or without the mullet.
8. Pierre Gauthier.
7. Leaf fans waving tin-foil Stanley Cups after the team wins two in a row in October.
6. Scott Hartnell’s hair.
5. Brian Burke’s 21,375th interview.
4. Morning skates.
3. “We just have to stay focused and take it one game at a time.”
2. Lobotomized fans watching themselves on the big scoreboard.
And the No. 1 thing we don’t miss about NHL hockey? Don Cherry.
For Todd’s complete column, click right here.
———
TWEET OF THE DAY:
From Saskatoon Blades (@blades hockey): “Hey @justinbieber, the members of @blades hockey wanted to send out an invite to come practice with the team when your in Saskatoon tomorrow.”
———
If you haven’t seen this right here, well, give it a look. It’s a music video that involves members of the Red Deer Rebels taking off on the latest fad — Gangnam Style. . . . It also features members of the morning crew from Red Deer radio station The Kraze 101.3. . . . The star of the show, however, is Morris Flewwelling, the obviously fun-loving mayor of Red Deer. . . . If you’re wondering where Brent Sutter, the Rebel’s owner and general manager, is in the video, well, if you look behind the flower beds at about the 1:27 mark.

There has never been a subscription fee for this blog, but if you enjoy stopping by here, why not consider donating to the cause? Just click HERE. . . and thank you very much.

JUST NOTES: D Ryan Pulock of the Brandon Wheat Kings has been added to the roster of the WHL team that will play a touring Russian side in Subway Super Series games in Regina on Nov. 16 and Moose Jaw on Nov. 17. Pulock, 17, replaces D Morgan Rielly of the Moose Jaw Warriors who has been removed from the roster due to an undisclosed injury. . . . D Joel Edmundson of the Moose Jaw Warriors, who has been fighting to come back from a high ankle sprain, tweeted that he “got great news from the doctor” Wednesday. The Warriors are prepping for a three-in-three weekend and could have him in the lineup. . . .
D Lucas Grayson of the Everett Silvertips has drawn a four-game suspension for a charging major he incurred Sunday in a game against the Chiefs in Spokane. Chiefs F Dominik Uher was injured on the play. Here’s Dave Trimmer of the Spokane Spokesman-Review: “Grayson road Dominik Uher into the boards as Uher was scoring the seventh goal. Uher was hurt, no question, and the way he was helped off the ice it appeared he had the famed lower body injury, no weight on his right leg. Turned out he has a famed upper body injury. He may have been out cold. Of course, we can't pinpoint that, that might mean a concussion and some neanderthal may try to hit him in the head when he comes back. Uher is listed as out for two weeks.” . . .
F Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers is the CHL’s player of the week. He had 11 points, including seven goals, last week. . . . The Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Chiefs play twice this weekend, the first time they’ve met since last season’s Western Conference final. The Winterhawks won that series in six games. They’ll play Friday and Saturday, with both games in Portland’s Rose Garden. . . . In a scheduling quirk, the Chiefs and Seattle Thunderbirds won’t meet for the first time until Jan. 7. They will meet eight times in the season’s second half.
———
In Kelowna, the Red Deer Rebels won their fourth straight game, beating the Rockets, 6-4. . . . The Rebels (12-4-1) are fifth in the Central Division but own the league’s best winning percentage (.735). . . . Nine of the 12 teams in the Central Division have at least a .500 winning percentage. . . . The Rockets have lost six in a row. . . . The game was played before 6,038 fans. That was the Rockets’ 256th consecutive regular-season sellout. . . . The Medicine Hat Tigers have sold out their last 303 regular-season games. . . .
In Prince Albert, F Mark Stone had a goal and two assists as the Brandon Wheat Kings scored a 4-1 victory over the Raiders. . . . Brandon D Ryley Miller, playing in his 156th regular-season game, scored his first WHL goal. . . . Miller, a 19-year-old from Spruce Grove, Alta., has one goal and 21 assists during his career. . . .
In Swift Current, the Saskatoon Blades got three goals from F Josh Nicholls as they beat the Broncos, 7-5. . . . Nicholls, who has 16 goals, also had an assist. . . . F Lukas Sutter added three assists for the Blades. . . . Attendance was 1,824. . . . D Erik Fleming, acquired earlier from the Seaettle Thundebirds, scored his first goal for the Broncos. It was his third goal in 159 regular-season games. He hadn’t scored in his previous 118 games. His last goal was scored on Feb. 14, 2009 in a 7-2 victory over the visiting Portland Winterhawks. . . .
In Lethbridge, G Calvin Pickard made 33 saves to lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 3-2 victory over the Hurricanes. . . . The Hurricanes, who got a goal and an assist from F Marcel Noebels, are 1-3-0 on their six-game swing into the Central Division. . . . The trek continues Friday in Calgary against the hitmen. . . .
In Cranbrook, the Tri-City Americans scored four third-period goals and beat the Kootenay Ice, 5-4. . . . The Americans have won four in a row on the road. . . . It was only the fifth victory for the Americans in their last 18 games in Cranbrook. . . . Tri-City trailed 3-1 eight minutes into the third period when it struck four times in 3:48 to take a 5-3 lead. . . . F Brendan Shinnimin had two goals and two assists for the Ams, while F Adam Hughesman had a goal and three helpers. . . . F Jesse Ismond had three goals for the Ice. . . . G Eric Comrie, who is 3-0 in his last four starts, went the distance for the Americans, playing in an arena where his brother, Mike, starred for part of one season (2000-01) with the Ice. . . . Craig West, the radio voice of the Americans, called his 998th Tri-City game. He will do No. 1,000 in Lethbridge on Saturday. His WHL total is well over a grand, though, as he is a former radio voice of the Spokane Chiefs. . . . The Americans are 13-5-0, matching the 1990-91 and 2007-08 teams for the second-best starts in franchise history. The best start? They opened 15-3-0 in 2009-10. . . . You want consistency? In each of the last six seasons, the Americans have won at least 11 of their first 18 games. . . .
In Vancouver, F Taylor Makin drew three assists as the Giants beat the Edmonton Oil Kings, 4-1. . . . Makin, 19, was playing his sixth game with the Giants. A free agent when the Giants added him, he had played 120 games with the Prince George Cougars. . . . His only other three-point game was on Dec. 19, 2009, when he had two goals and an assist in a 4-2 victory for the host Cougars over the Kamloops Blazers. . . . The Giants were without F Marek Tvrdon (ill).
———
Words cannot begin to describe the horrors of the scandal that has enveloped Penn State University. Unfortunately, what has happened, is happening and will continue to happen is all too familiar to a pair of former WHL stars.
“The appalling Penn State scandal has sent shockwaves through the college football universe, but it comes as no surprise to former NHL players Theoren Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy, both victims of sexual abuse,” writes Rory Barrs of the National Post.
That complete piece is right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter

THE MacBETH REPORT:
D Kevin Seibel (Prince George, Swift Current, Vancouver, 1998-2004) requested and was granted his release by Rødovre (Denmark, AL-Bank Ligaen). He had one goal and four assists in nine games this season.
———
There were more player moves on Monday . . .
The Everett Silvertips acquired D Lucas Grayson, 17, from the Red Deer Rebels for a fourth-round pick in the 2013 bantam draft. Grayson, from Port Hardy, B.C., was a sixth-round selection by Red Deer in the 2009 draft. He had two points and 71 penalty minutes, 45 of those from fighting majors, in 40 games last season in Red Deer. This season, he had gotten into only one game. . . .
The Silvertips also assigned F Tyler Giebel, 18, to the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers. Giebel was a second-round selection by Everett in the 2008 bantam draft; Everett actually gave the Prince Albert Raiders a third-round pick in order to move up in the second round and take Giebel. He had six points in 49 games last season and is pointless in eight games this season. . . .
F Campell Elynuik, 19, is on the move for the second time this season. Elynuik, the son of former WHLer/NHLer Pat Elynuik, has been traded by the Regina Pats to the Prince George Cougars for a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2012 bantam draft. He had three points, including a goal, and 24 penalty minutes in eight games with the Pats. They had acquired him from the Everett Silvertips for a sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft. . . .
The Vancouver Giants have acquired F Austin Connor, who turns 19 on Nov. 16, and D Arvin Atwal, 16, from the Prince Albert Raiders for F Teal Burns, 19, and D Tyler Hart, who turns 19 on Saturday. . . . Connor, a 6-foot-4, 228-pounder, is pointless with seven penalty minutes in five games. Last season, he had 13 points and 104 Pms in 59 games. . . . Atwal is with the major midget Greater Vancouver Canadians, for whom he has one assist and 22 PMs in eight games. He was an eighth-round pick by the Raiders in the 2010 bantam draft. . . . Connor will give the Giants some much-needed size up front. . . . Burns, who had 20 points as he split last season between the Portland Winterhawks and the Giants, has four assists this season. Portland selected him in the eighth round of the 2007 bantam draft. . . . Hart has two assists in nine games with the Giants. Last season, he had eight points and 80 PMs in 44 games. . . . Steve Ewen of the Vancouver Province has a good look at the Vancouver-Prince Albert deal right here.
Prince Albert also released Latvian D Kristaps Bazevics, 17, and filled that import slot with Slovakian F Michal Hlinka, 18, whom they had acquired last season from the Moose Jaw Warriors. . . . Bazevics had two penalty minutes in two games this season. . . . Hlinka had 10 points in 45 games last season. He played 23 of those games with the Raiders, picking up four points, including one goal. . . . According to a Raiders’ news released, Hlinka “will arrive immediately after receiving his visa to enter Canada, which is expected to take approximately 7-10 days.”
———
JUST NOTES: F Sven Bartschi of the Portland Winterhawks is the WHL’s player of the week. He had seven points, three of them goals, in two games last week. . . . Patrik Bartosak of the Red Deer Rebels is the WHL’s goaltender of the week. He was 2-0-0, 1.00, .966 last week. . . . The Brandon Wheat Kings have recalled F Jack Palmer, 16, from the junior B Saanich, B.C., Braves and he will play tonight against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash. Palmer, an eighth-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft, has seven points in seven games with the Braves this season. . . . The Vancouver Giants have assigned F Greg Lamoureux, 19, to the AJHL’s Okotoks Oilers. In 109 regular-season games with the Giants, he had 28 points, including six goals. . . . The Kamloops Blazers have assigned G Taran Kozun to the SJHL’s Nipawin Hawks. Kozun, 17, is from Nipawin. He got into two games with the Blazers, going 1-1-0, 3.53, .857. . . . Congratulations to Earl Morris, a former Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman, who has been inducted into the Duncan, B.C., Sports Wall of Fame. Morris played for the BCJHL’s Kelowna Buckaroos before spending two seasons (1969-71) with the Wheat Kings. He was Brandon’s captain in 1970-71.
———
SOME MONDAY NOTES:
In Lethbridge, the Kootenay Ice got a goal and two assists from F Max Reinhart in beating the Hurricanes, 4-2. . . . The defending-champion Ice improved to 7-2-2, while the Hurricanes have lost nine in a row. . . . G Liam Liston and D Spencer Galbraith, both of them acquired from the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday, were in the Lethbridge lineup. Liston made 30 saves. . . . F Nick Buonassisi, who was acquired by Lethbridge from the Prince George Cougars, is expected to make his Lethbridge debut on Friday against the visiting Kamloops Blazers. . . . Lethbridge also had D Joel Topping and F Reid Duke in its lineup. Duke was a first-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft; Topping was a second-round selection in 2010. Duke picked up an assist in what was his second game this season; Topping, who played one game last season, was in the lineup for the first time this season.
———
F Darren Kramer of the Spokane Chiefs 46 fights during the WHL’s 2010-11 regular season. That may well be the WHL record. In fact, it may be a major junior record. And if it is it may be in jeopardy as F Ty Bilcke, a 17-year-old freshman with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, has had nine fights in 12 games. Go ahead. Do the math.
Jim Parker of the Windsor Star has that story right here.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
     
gdrinnan.blogspot.com
     
Taking Note on Twitter