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Tipped Off
01-12-2007, 01:15 PM
WHL Notebook | Rough, thin road ahead
By Jim Riley

Special to The Seattle Times


The Seattle Thunderbirds will have to face a gruesome road trip through the East Division without leading scorer Aaron Gagnon.

Gagnon severely separated his shoulder early in the 2-1 shootout defeat Tuesday to Saskatoon and is out indefinitely.

Gagnon led the Western Hockey League in scoring with 54 points at the time of the injury. The team captain will travel with the team, but not play until the injury is re-evaluated when the T-birds return to Seattle on Jan. 18.

Seattle (19-11-1-10, 49 points) is tied for second place in the U.S. Division with the Tri-City Americans.

The T-birds' schedule was complicated when the game Wednesday in Prince Albert was postponed by a blizzard. Beginning Friday in Regina, Seattle is scheduled to play five games in six nights in five different cities. Saturday, the T-birds are in Brandon and play in Moose Jaw on Sunday.

The T-birds also are expecting forward Ian McKenzie to be suspended after a five-minute checking-from-behind penalty in the third period of the defeat Tuesday.

Gagnon's injury came on an innocent play when he went into the boards awkwardly.

"You could watch the play five times on tape and not even know anything happened," Seattle coach Rob Sumner said. "It's a significant injury. We know we're going to have to get through a big lump of games without him."

The T-birds picked up forward Andre Herman, 19, from Moose Jaw to add depth to their frontline just before the trade deadline Wednesday.

"Gags being out is a problem," Sumner said as the team's bus traveled to Regina in minus-20 degrees. "But where there are problems there are opportunities, and that's how our guys have to look at it."

Sumner said he will put Prab Rai, 17, who was acquired in a trade with Prince George at the Christmas break, in Gagnon's spot centering the first line alongside Bud Holloway and Jan Eberle.

"Prab has such a high skill level and sees the ice so well that he's only a little assertiveness short of being great player," Sumner said. "Once he gets a little more experience and confidence, he's a player who can impact games."

The T-birds fell to 0-10 in shootouts in the defeat to Saskatoon when they failed to score on all three shots in the tiebreaker.

"Even with our troubles in shootouts, it was one of our lesser performances," Sumner said. "We weren't really threatening with any of those shots."

Seattle is 8 for 44 in shootouts (18.2 percent) while allowing the opposition 20 goals in 45 opportunities (44 percent).

The T-birds recently spent some time in practice viewing film of NHL players in shootouts and discussing why some were successful and others weren't.

"We're trying to load up the players with as much repetition as possible in practice to build confidence in their moves," Sumner said. "They often have success in practice, but it's different in games. We're trying to bridge the gap between executing in practice and executing in games.

"Besides," he added, "there are no shootouts in the playoffs."