Neal's Notes

[pontcanna]

Hey everyone, welcome to Neal’s Notes, a look at what’s going down with the Victoria Royals and the Western Hockey League. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Andy Neal I work with the Victoria Royals in the communications department and I also host WHL Central on Shaw TV. Prior to coming to Victoria with my family, I spent two and a half seasons working for the Prince George Cougars and last year I was the play-by-play broadcaster for the team. It is an extreme pleasure to still be involved with the Western Hockey League and a thrill to be a part of the inaugural Victoria Royals’ season.

First off, what an opening weekend in the Western Hockey League! The highlight had to be here in Victoria when 7,006 fans welcomed the WHL back to the BC Capital. I had the pleasure of working with Peter Loubardias on two Shaw broadcasts this past week and he couldn’t get over how great Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre is and the atmosphere in the rink. He was calling games for the Regina Pats when the Victoria Cougars were playing in the old Memorial Arena. He’s certain that when the Cougars won just five games in the 1989-90 season, one of those wins came against the Pats. I leaned over to Peter and said ‘this is like being in an American rink’ and it’s true. I’ve told a number of people that the intermissions in Everett are as entertaining as the game itself and there’s a real difference between watching a WHL game south of the border compared to north of it. Fortunately, the Victoria fans provided a south of the border atmosphere. Keith Hamilton was brilliant in goal and what impressed me about his play was his ability to fight for the next shot despite either being on his seat or having traffic all over the place around the Royals’ net. It makes sense that the Royals and Giants would split their weekend series since they split their 10-game regular season series in 2010-11.

Count on the Giants to not quit though. The first thing people talk about is their work ethic and despite being without their top player, Brendan Gallagher, they came very close to erasing a three goal deficit in the third period. Plenty of talk out there that Gallagher could be with the Habs for a while. However, if he comes back to the Giants, look for Gallagher to have a real solid shot of making Canada’s World Junior Team for the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton and Calgary. He has as good a work ethic as there can be on the ice, very skilled around the goal and nobody knows how valuable Gallagher can be more than Giants Head Coach Don Hay, who will be behind Canada’s bench at the WJC.

How interested were people in the Royals’ home opener? Shaw TV’s audience for Saturday’s game was bigger than any game last season.

Also, I have to mention Mark Donnelly is the first anthem singer I’ve seen in person get a standing ‘O’ before he’s even sung the anthem. He’s got a great voice and is it just me, or is it better live than on television?

I just wish the same atmosphere took place in Moose Jaw, although the Brandon Wheat Kings had plenty to do with the lack of energy throughout the game. Mosaic Place opened with close 4,500 people in attendance, but the Wheaties were in full control. Alessio Bertaggia, the third overall pick in the 2011 CHL Import Draft, made quite a splash getting a hat-trick Thursday for Brandon in the opening night win. To the Warriors credit, who missed Quinton Howden and Dylan McIlrath to NHL camps and Joel Edmundson with an injury, they pulled the same trick in Brandon with Brett Lyons getting the hat-trick in a 4-3 win.

In case you’re wondering, the “Crushed Can” still stands in Moose Jaw. The ice system was moved over to Mosaic Place and that was about it. Another thing that was pointed out by Shaw TV Senior Producer Grant Wilkins was the fact that none of the Warriors banners are up yet. Cory Nyhagen, the Warriors Director of Business Operations, said a ceremony will take place where the banners will go up.

Congratulations go out to former Royals’ Assistant GM and Ass’t Coach Pat Conacher, who began his Regina Pats coaching era with back-to-back wins over the Swift Current Broncos by scores of 5-1 and 4-2.

[CdnSailor]

Great!!! Now I have to watch my P's and Q's or Jeff will find out :o

[CdnSailor]

The WHL's weekly report is on the league website now and the news is not good for a couple of Royals' regulars. Defenceman Tyler Stahl is out at least a month, right now, after that wicked elbow to the head he took from Charles Inglis of the Prince George Cougars last Saturday night. The incident landed Inglis a 10-game suspension. That's a big blow to the Royals' blue line to lose a veteran like Stahl. Also, Brandon Magee is gone for three weeks with a lower body injury suffered in the Royals' 8-2 loss to the Kamloops Blazers Sunday. Magee had a four game point streak to start the season and is a real spark plug for Victoria who can provide sufficient offence for the team. His loss will force a few adjustments to the lines, no doubt.

Back-to-back games coming up with the Medicine Hat Tigers, who have won their last two games. Emerson Etem has five goals in four games and Hunter Shinkaruk is a 17-year-old forward who will be getting plenty of attention from NHL scouts this season. Shinkaruk helped Canada to a gold medal at the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in August with a goal and an assist in five games. The Tigers have one of the best goalies in the WHL with Tyler Bunz, an Edmonton Oilers prospect. The bus ride to Victoria appears to have taken something out of Bunz, though. He tweeted Wednesday morning "14 hour bus ride...Now waiting for the ferry to head to Victoria. Starbucks with the boys #givemecaffine."

Following these two games with the Tigers, the Royals will head south of the border Saturday to meet the Seattle Thunderbirds. After Saturday's game, the team will travel to Vancouver and face the Giants Monday afternoon at Pacific Coliseum.

_____________________________________________

The CHL announced its Top 10 list and the Regina Pats, coached by former Royals' Assistant GM and Ass't Coach Pat Conacher, are the highest ranked WHL team. The Pats are ranked fourth overall with a 4-1 record. The London Knights of the OHL are the top ranked CHL team. The Tri-City Americans are ranked seventh and the Kelowna Rockets are still ranked ninth overall. The Moose Jaw Warriors got an honorable mention.

_____________________________________________

We'll find out next week which team will host and get a free berth into the 2013 Memorial Cup. The Red Deer Rebels, Saskatoon Blades and Kelowna Rockets are the final three candidates to host the CHL championship tournament, eliminating Prince George and Lethbridge earlier in the off-season. My money has been on Red Deer to get the event, especially with expansions being done to the Enmax Centrium, including 14 luxury suites and adding 1,000 seats to the 6,000 seat facility. Red Deer has hosted the IIHF World Junior Championship and is a relatively short drive between two major cities, Edmonton and Calgary. Kelowna just hosted, and won, the Memorial Cup in 2004, although it was a smashing success and gives good reason to go back to the Okanagan. Saskatoon hosted the Memorial Cup in 1989 and had the 2010 World Junior Championship, so the Bridge City is more than capable to host the event, as well. I really believe, though, that Red Deer will get the call for 2013.

_____________________________________________

The Prince George Cougars opened their Eastern road trip with a 6-3 win over the Prince Albert Raiders. Alex Forsberg and Jordan Tkatch, a pair of 16-year-old rookies for the Cougars, both had a goal and an assist. The Cougars have six players on their roster from Saskatchewan and another from Lloydminster, the border city with Alberta. Some may feel right at home on that trip. Cougars are in Saskatoon tonight. Two other BC division teams are playing tonight; Vancouver hosts Spokane and Kelowna has a date with the Tri-City Americans in Kelowna.

[CdnSailor]

Been away from the blog the last few days, got to get caught up a little. Boy, what a big weekend for the Royals to get two wins over the Kelowna Rockets Friday and Saturday. Talked to Jesse Zgraggen and Keith Hamilton on taking down the Rockets and preparing for the Vancouver Giants and Rockets again this weekend. You can see that story here. Zgraggen scored his second WHL goal for the overtime winner Saturday night. I was in the broadcast booth for his first last year in Chilliwack when I called games for the Prince George Cougars. Jesse said this goal was definitely bigger than his first.

Great weekend again for Kevin Sundher, who had six points, five of which assists. Sundher comes out of the weekend tied for first in points with 21 and leads the league with 17 assists. I always thought because of his speed he was a finisher, but he’s pass first and dishing some nice feeds. Robin Soudek continues to light it up at home. In five games at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre this season, Soudek has six goals and four assists and had three goals and two assists this weekend and a plus-5, the best Royals’ plus/minus on the weekend. Keith Hamilton got the win in both games and although he gave up five on Friday, he made two massive saves that helped the Royals to victory. The first was his glove save on Shane McColgan in the second period that could have put the game out of reach for the Rockets, then he robbed Carter Rigby in close right after Lukas Kralik had given the Royals a 6-5 lead. He preserved the lead and then the victory. The ball is Hamilton’s in goal and hopefully he takes it and runs.

The Royals open a four game road trip this weekend against Vancouver Friday and Kelowna Saturday. The Giants have lost their last two games and three of four, while the Rockets have dropped four straight after they opened the season with three straight wins. The Giants and Rockets hook up Thursday in Kelowna. The Royals will then head south to meet the Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs next Tuesday and Wednesday.

There may be some help that comes from the infirmary this weekend. Brandon Magee, who had a lower body injury early in the season against Kamloops, skated today and is hopeful he can go as early as this weekend. Last week’s injury report suggested Magee would be out for another three weeks, but he may be ahead of schedule. May being the important word there. Magee is a hard working 17-year-old who had two goals and four assists in the first four games of the season before he got hurt in Kamloops on October 2. Defencemen Zach Habscheid and Tyler Stahl, both 19-year-olds, still out with head injuries for a while yet. Good weekend for Turner Popoff, who joined the Royals’ defence this past weekend. Popoff, who is a seventh round pick of the Chilliwack Bruins in the 2009 Bantam Draft, was plus-2 in two games and threw a few solid checks along the boards. He plays for the Richmond Sockeyes of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League (PIJHL).
__________________________________________________

Quite a bit of trade action in the WHL over the last 24 hours, with seven deals done as of 3:00pm Monday. The latest saw the Vancouver Giants acquire forward Austin Connor and defenceman Arvin Atwal from the Prince Albert Raiders for forward Teal Burns and defenceman Tyler Hart.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes, Prince George Cougars and Brandon Wheat Kings have been busy. The Hurricanes picked up forward Nick Buonassisi from the Cougars for defenceman Reid Jackson and a draft pick, then traded goalie Brandon Anderson and draft picks to the Wheat Kings for goalie Liam Liston and defenceman Spencer Galbraith. The Wheat Kings fired three draft picks to Saskatoon for forward Darian Dziurzynski. The Hurricanes also moved defenceman Derek Ryckman to Tri-City for a fourth round bantam pick. The Cougars got forward Campbell Elynuik from Regina for a conditional sixth round pick and the Everett Silvertips acquired defenceman Lucas Grayson from Red Deer for a fourth round pick in 2013.

__________________________________________________ __

TSN Scout Craig Button’s October draft rankings are out on www.tsn.ca and Nail Yakupov is still ranked first among eligible players for the 2012 NHL Draft next June. The Sarnia Sting forward from Russia has seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points in only 10 games this season. There are five WHL players, all defencemen, on the list of 30 and all are in Button’s top 10: Matt Dumba (RD, #3), Morgan Reilly (MJ, #5), Ryan Murray (EVT, #7), Griffin Reinhart (EDM, #8) and Derrick Pouliot (POR, #9). Murray is a late birthday, which makes him eligible in 2012. The other four were the first four players chosen in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft.

__________________________________________________ __

The WHL’s Player of the Week is Sven Bartschi of the Portland Winterhawks. Bartschi, the 13th overall pick by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, had three goals and four assists in two games and was a plus-4. On the season, Bartschi has 14 points (5g-9a) in seven games since he returned from Flames’ training camp.

[CdnSailor]

The Victoria Royals face the Tri-City Americans tonight at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington. For those of you who aren’t aware of the Tri-City reference for the Americans, they play in Kennewick, with Pasco and Richland in Southeastern Washington nearby. The three cities either border each other or one of the surrounding rivers in the area.

The Toyota Center is one of the loudest buildings in the WHL. It seats 5,734 loud fans. This is a tough two game stretch on the road for the Royals, with the Americans the top seed in the Western Conference with 20 points (also tied with the Kootenay Ice for first overall), and the Spokane Chiefs tomorrow night on a six game win streak. The Royals look to make it back-to-back wins, after a 3-2 decision over the Rockets in Kelowna Saturday.

A few game notes for tonight’s match-up:
- Tonight is the first of four meetings this season between the Royals and Americans. They square off again December 6 & 7 in Victoria, with a final encounter on February 4 in Kennewick.
- The Chilliwack Bruins were 1-3-0-0 against the Americans last season. The Bruins defeated Tri-City 4-3 on November 19, but the Americans won the next three games.
- Over the last five seasons, the Bruins went 1-6-1-0 at the Toyota Center, with their last regular season victory in Tri-City on February 12, 2010, 6-3.
- The Bruins also defeated the Americans in Kennewick in the 2010 WHL playoffs, 4-3 in overtime in game 5 of the best of 7 Western Conference Quarter Final. Current Royals’ forward Kevin Sundher scored the game winner. The Americans won the series in six games.
- The Royals go into the game with a record of 7-6-0-0 for 14 points, second in the BC division. The Royals trail the Kamloops Blazers by four points for first in the division. The Royals are 3-5-0-0 on the road
- The Americans have a 10-4-0-0 record, first in the US division and Western Conference. The Americans are 6-1-0-0 at home.
- Both teams have scored 47 goals this season, tied with the Edmonton Oil Kings for sixth overall in the WHL.
- Both teams’ next game is against the Spokane Chiefs. The Royals’ end their four game road trip in Spokane Wednesday and the Americans host the Chiefs on Saturday.
- The Royals’ power play is ranked 17th overall in the WHL at 19.1% (13-for-68). Victoria is 5-for-34 (12.0%) on the road with the man advantage.
-The Americans’ power play is 14th overall in the WHL at 20.0% (15-for-75). Tri-City is ranked third at home on the power play at 28.6% (10-for-35).
-The Royals are ranked 18th in the WHL on the penalty kill, as they’ve gone 54-for-72 (75.0%) while short-handed. On the road, the Royals are 35-for-46 (76.1%) on the penalty kill.
-The Royals have scored two short-handed goals this season from Robin Soudek and Steven Hodges.
- Tri-City boasts the top penalty kill unit in the WHL as they have allowed 11 goals on 70 short-handed situations (84.3%). The Americans are 19-for-25 (76.0%) while short-handed at home
-The Royals are one of six teams in the WHL to have at least two victories when trailing after 40 minutes this season. Victoria trailed Medicine Hat 3-2 after two periods on October 7, but rallied for a 5-4 victory. On October 14, Kelowna had a 5-3 lead over Victoria after the second period, but the Royals came back to win 7-5. Spokane (3), Edmonton, Medicine Hat, Portland and Red Deer are the other teams to come back when trailing after two periods more than once this season.
- Steven Hodges has a goal in each of the last two games for Victoria.
- Kevin Sundher has eight points (1g-7a) in his last four games. Robin Soudek has six points (4g-2a) and Jamie Crooks has four points (2g-2a) over the last four games.
_____________________________________________

I thought it would be interesting to look at how teams do on special teams at home and on the road and there were some interesting finds thus far in the season:
- Brandon not only has the best power play overall (35.3%), but the Wheat Kings are tops at home (40.0%) and on the road (33.3%).
- 21 of the Swift Current Broncos 46 goals have been scored on the power play.
- Prince George has the lowest ranked power play at home at 8.3% and Lethbridge is the most weak on the road at 11.8%.
- The Saskatoon Blades are at 94.7% on the penalty kill at home, but 70.4% on the road, which is the largest differential between home and road efficiency on the PK in the WHL.
- The Broncos have the lowest PK percentage at home at 59.3%. The Broncos are also third worst on the PK on the road at 69.2%. Their 64.2% PK efficiency overall is by far the lowest in the league.
- The Vancouver Giants have the biggest differential of PP success at home compared to on the road. The Giants are 30.8% at home, but just 12.0% on the road.
- On the other side, the Everett Silvertips have clicked on 29.4% of their power plays on the road, compared to 16.7% at home, the biggest spread of success on the road compared to at home.
- The Hurricanes are way better on the PK on the road than at home. They are 84.2% away from Lethbridge compared to 60.0% at home, the largest spread for a team having more success on the PK on the road.
- The Tri-City Americans have the best road penalty kill at 88.9%, which means both the teams with the best overall special teams records have the best road record in each category.
- The Kootenay Ice has 22.2% efficiency on the PP at home and on the road.
- The Red Deer Rebels are 83.3% at home and on the road on the PK.
_________________________________________

Regan Bartel, the Kelowna Rockets’ voice, tweeted today that forward Brett Bulmer was getting second power play practice time for the Minnesota Wild. Not likely to see the 19-year-old back with the Rockets anytime soon, with his ninth game on Thursday in Minnesota against Anaheim.
_________________________________________

Hockey Canada unveiled its 30th anniversary third jersey today. The anniversary celebrates the Program of Excellence, with three steps involved: the regional under-17 program, the National Men’s under-18 team and the National Junior Team. This is also the 30th anniversary of the Canada’s first gold medal victory at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, a team that Victoria Royals’ General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid was a member of.
__________________________________________

Aside from the Royals at Tri-City, there are two other games. The Portland Winterhawks play the third of nine straight games on the road in Calgary. They are 0-1-0-1 on the trip. Prince George is in Vancouver to face the Giants. The Cougars haven’t scored since the 16:01 mark of the second period in their 5-4 loss to the Swift Current Broncos on October 12. That was the second game of a five game losing streak and the only game in that stretch that the Cougars have scored a goal in. On the internet, the WHL game summaries go as far back as the 1996 playoffs, which would make this scoreless drought the longest in Cougars’ history in Prince George, which is currently 203 minutes and 59 seconds, barring they did not go through this in the first two years in PG. Jake Mykitiuk is the last Cougars’ player to hit the score sheet. However, the last time the Cougars were in Vancouver, at the end of last season, they won 8-0.

[CdnSailor]

The rosters for Team WHL for the fifth and sixth games of the six-game CHL SUBWAY® Super Series were announced this morning in Moose Jaw, SK, the home of the final game of the event. Royals’ forward Kevin Sundher will play in the fifth game on Wednesday, November 16, in Regina. The spot on Team WHL is well earned by Sundher this season as he leads the league in assists with 20 and is third overall in points with 25 through 15 games. Sundher reached the 200 point plateau in his WHL career with an assist on Robin Soudek’s ninth goal of the year in the second period of the Royals’ 3-2 victory over the Rockets’ Saturday in Kelowna. All the games will be broadcast on Sportsnet and you can see the entire roster here.
___________________________________________

The Victoria Royals returned home after their four game road trip, going 2-and-2. The bus pulled up to the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre just after 9:00am. On road trips of at least three games or more, the Royals have a record of 4-3-0-0. They took two of three to start October in Prince George and Kamloops. The Royals are now 8-7-0-0 for 16 points, still second in the BC Division and two back of Kamloops for first. The Blazers, though, have three games in hand. Vancouver, with one game in hand, is a point back of Victoria. As for the conference standings, Victoria is seeded fourth and I realize it’s way, way too soon to look at playoff match-ups, but they’d face Portland if the post-season started today. Just so you know.
___________________________________________

Steven Hodges is the hottest Royals’ player right now, with a goal in four straight games and five points over that span. With three games to go before Victoria hits the quarter poll for the season, Hodges has already surpassed his goals, assists and points output from last season when he had five goals and six assists for 11 points in 58 games. In 15 games, Hodges has posted six goals and eight assists for 14 points and he’s a plus-1 on the season. Hodges is one of four players in the WHL with the longest current goal streak, tied with Vancouver’s Brendan Gallagher, Dominik Uher of Spokane and Medicine Hat’s Emerson Etem. Etem had an eight game streak to start the year.

Forward Logan Nelson takes a three game point streak into the weekend, with four assists over that stretch.
___________________________________________

With injuries to the back end for the Royals, a few rookie blueliners have stepped up nicely on defence. Brett Cote of Oakbank, MB, had three assists in the four game road trip and was +2. Cote, who was drafted by the Chilliwack Bruins in the third round of the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft, has four assists on the season and is +4, which has him tied for the team lead with Forward Jamie Crooks. Keegan Kanzig, the Bruins first pick in the 2010 Bantam Draft from Athabasca, AB, is +2 on the season through 13 games and Turner Popoff, the seventh round pick of the Bruins in 2009, earned his first WHL point with an assist against the Tri-City Americans Tuesday in a 5-4 Royals’ win. Popoff has played five games for the Royals this season. He has spent the majority of the young season with the Richmond Sockeyes of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League.

The Royals will get some help soon, with 19-year-old Zach Habscheid anticipated to return in early November, but Habscheid, Tyler Stahl and Jesse Pauls are all out for this weekend’s double-header at home against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
___________________________________________

Keith Hamilton’s 41 save victory over the Americans Tuesday was his seventh win of the season and third when he makes at least 40 saves. He made 48 saves in back-to-back wins over Vancouver and Prince George in September. 17-year-old Jared Rathjen made his first career WHL start yesterday in Spokane and stopped 27 of 33 Chiefs’ shots.
___________________________________________

With their win over Victoria last night, Spokane just completed a perfect seven-game home stand. In fact, all of the Chiefs’ wins this season have been at home and they are 8-0 in Spokane. Although they face the Americans Saturday in Kennewick, five of their next seven after that will be at home.

Prince George dropped its seventh in a row, 2-1 in Kelowna last night to the Rockets. Lethbridge owns the longest losing streak at 11, which they’ll look to end tomorrow at home to the Portland Winterhawks. In fact, the Hurricanes need to win either tomorrow or Saturday to avoid going 0-for-October. Their last win came September 30 against Calgary.

Swift Current faces Prince Albert tonight in the only Thursday night game. This is the second straight game for the Broncos in PA after they lost in overtime to the Raiders, 5-4, last Friday for their third straight loss. This is the first of three games in three nights for the Broncos, who have a home-and-home with Medicine Hat tomorrow and Saturday. The Raiders have lost three straight since that win over the Broncos and tonight is the start of a four game home stand.

Tomorrow night, the Regina Pats host the Everett Silvertips on pink ice. The Brandt Centre ice surface in Regina got the make-over in preparation for Breast Cancer Awareness night.

[CdnSailor]

Back in Victoria today after spending yesterday at the SHAW Tower in Vancouver. It was my first time doing a WHL on Shaw broadcast in the studio and I can understand if employees there enjoy heading to the office. It's a fantastic structure on West Cordova Street, with a Starbucks at the bottom and I understand a couple Vancouver Canucks such as Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows live in the upper condos. The studio is awesome and it was a great to be in there.

Shaw's game last night featured Saskatoon's 4-1 decision over the Calgary Hitmen. Andrey Makarov, who was recently added to Russia's World Junior Team roster, was terrific in net with 39 saves. He got some help from the iron, especially in the second period. The Hitmen dinged either the cross bar or the goal posts three times, but Makarov shut the door on anything that was headed for the net aside from one that got by him in the third. Saskatoon is an impressive 7-0 at home this season. Calgary has managed to get themselves near the .500 mark of late, but dipped back below with the loss last night.

Also last night, Sven Bartschi returned the Portland line-up after missing six games with a hip injury and scored the winner to help Portland to a 4-2 win in Kamloops in the seventh game of their nine game road trip. Two games left to go for the Winterhawks on this marathon journey and both are against the Kelowna Rockets at Prospera Place. Kamloops, meanwhile, saw the end of their four game win streak.

Lethbridge finally got off their losing streak, which had reached 13 games, with a 4-3 shoot-out win over the Everett Silvertips in Lethbridge. After going throug the month of October without a win, the Hurricanes start November on the right foot. The Hurricanes had to fight back from a 3-0 second period deficit. Everett has now lost three games in a row and five of the first seven games of their nine game road trip. They still have to play Kootenay and Spokane before they get back home to take on Prince George next Friday.

__________________________________________________ ______

The Victoria Royals are one sleep away from facing the Vancouver Giants at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The home team has won each of the first four games of the season series, and the Giants have had three of those at home. The teams will hit the quarter pole mark of the season tomorrow and have identical 9-7-0-1 records.

Special teams will be an interesting game within the game for the two contests. The Royals and Giants are close in both categories. Vancouver is sixth on the power play at 23.3% and the Royals are eighth at 22.4%. The Royals have a better penalty kill record, currently 15th overall at 77.6%, just ahead of the Giants 77.0%. It's hardly a surprise that Brendan Gallagher leads the Giants with six power play goals, which is tied for second most in the WHL. The Royals' leading power play sniper, however, may surprise you. Five of defenceman Hayden Rintoul's six goals this season have come on the power play, which leads the Royals in that regard. Rintoul's five power play goals is two more than leading goal-scorers Kevin Sundher and Robin Soudek, and Jamie Crooks, all of which have three on the man-advantage. The Royals have scored three short-handed goals this season from Sundher, Soudek and Steven Hodges, while the Giants have notched four while down a man. Jordan Martinook leads Vancouver with two short-handed goals, while Marek Tvrdon and Dalton Sward have the others.

__________________________________________________ ________

Team WHL has added some players to the roster for the 2011 CHL SUBWAY® Super Series, to be played in Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, November 16 and 17. Two Edmonton Oil Kings, two Kelowna Rockets, a Moose Jaw Warrior and Kamloops Blazer have been added to either of the two teams. Everett Silvertips' defenceman and high NHL draft prospect Ryan Murray will not play because of injury for the game in Regina on November 16. The Oil Kings' Griffin Reinhart will take his place, another draft prospect that is high on many radars. Forwards Brett Bulmer and Zach Franko from the Rockets and Colin Smith of the Blazers will also play against Team Russia in the fifth game of the six game series. That is also the game that Royals' forward Kevin Sundher will take part in. Murray is out with a lower body injury and he is expected to be out of the line-up for a month.

The Oil Kings' Michael St. Croix and the Warriors Cody Beach, the current WHL Player of the Week, will suit up the next night in Moose Jaw. With Colin Smith now on the team, the Blazers replace the Silvertips as one of 18 WHL teams to have a player represent them in the SUBWAY® Super Series. Only Calgary, Everett, Lethbridge and Prince George do not have a player that will suit up for Team WHL. It's a shame all teams can't be represented at this event, with all the games broadcast on Sportsnet, but this is far more than an exhibition. The Super Series is part of Hockey Canada's steps to determine its invites to the World Junior team selection camp in December.

__________________________________________________ _________

It's not determined yet on how many games the Brandon Wheat Kings will be without one of their leading goal scorers. Darian Dziurzynski, who has nine goals on the season and six in seven games since he joined the Wheat Kings from Saskatoon, is suspended for a charging major he took against Swift Current Tuesday. The league is still reviewing the hit and has not yet made a verdict.

Calgary's Brady Brassert served his one game suspension last night after a check from behind major against Prince Albert Tuesday.

The Royals' Austin Carroll will miss the first game of the Royals' two game set with the Giants after he was called for charging Friday against Seattle. Carroll was handed a two game suspension.

[CdnSailor]

November 07, 2011

The Victoria Royals went through their paces this morning for a mid-week show down with the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, which starts at 7:05pm Tuesday. Tomorrow will be the third game against a Central division rival for the Royals at home after they split two games with Medicine Hat last month. The Royals sit at 10-8-0-1 through 19 games this season, tied with the Vancouver Giants for second in the BC division, three points back of Kamloops. The Royals have gone 2-1-0-1 to start their current seven game home stand.

The Oil Kings will come to town with a 10-5-1-1, but are still only fourth in the deep Central division. The Oil Kings are in their sixth season in the WHL and have never finished above .500, but it appears that won’t be the case this season. The Oil Kings’ 31 wins last season set a team record and they are already a third of the way to getting there this season, with Tuesday the quarter pole mark for the Oil Kings.

The Royals’ leading scorer is easily the hottest in recent play. Kevin Sundher, who is third in WHL scoring with 36 points, has eight goals and 11 points over a four game point streak. Robin Soudek, who is tied with Sundher for the team lead in goals with 13, has a goal in three straight games and eight points over that time.

Edmonton, meanwhile, is led offensively this season by defenceman Martin Gernat. The 18th overall pick in the 2011 CHL Import draft from Slovakia, is an Edmonton Oilers fifth round draft pick this past June. Gernat is a 6’5” blue liner that is another fine piece on a back end that includes Mark Pysyk (1st rnd, Buf, ’10), Keegan Lowe (3rd rnd, CAR, ’11) and Griffin Reinhart. Reinhart is expected to be a high 2012 NHL draft pick.

Michael St. Croix has been the most productive Oil Kings’ player recently, as he currently holds a 10 game point streak. St. Croix has posted four goals and 11 assists over that time. The streak came after St. Croix had started the season without a point in six of the first seven games. He’s a very skilled forward who the NY Rangers drafted in the fourth round this past June. Kristians Pelss, a Latvian forward who the Oil Kings drafted in the 2010 Import Draft, is on a tear with goals in four of his last five games.
_______________________________

The Victoria Royals got one defenceman back in the line-up last weekend against the Giants with the return of Zach Habscheid. Don’t expect the Royals to have Jesse Pauls back in this weekend. Although he is skating in practice, he still wears the yellow jersey indicating no contact. Pauls has been out of the line-up with an upper body injury and has not played since October 10, a span of 10 games. His return is still a couple weeks away.

As for Tyler Stahl, he hasn’t been on the ice since the head injury he suffered when he took an elbow from the Prince George Cougars’ Charles Inglis.

Up front, Taylor Crunk is on the ice, but like Pauls, Crunk still has a yellow jersey on. Crunk hasn’t played since October 14.

So in other words, nothing has changed on the injury front for the Royals.
________________________________

Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers is the WHL’s Player of the Week. The second year star from Calgary posted back-to-back hat-tricks in Tigers’ victories over Everett last Tuesday and in Brandon Saturday. During his current four game point streak, Shinkaruk has seven goals and five assists for 12 points. Shinkaruk’s 18-goals in 19 games this season is already past the 14 he posted in 2010-11 during a very solid rookie campaign for the Tigers.

The WHL nominee for CHL Goalie of the Week is Portland’s Mac Carruth, who 3-0 this past week with a 1.50 goals against average and save percentage of .949.
________________________________

Speaking of Tigers’ snipers, the Regina Pats were able to hold Emerson Etem off the scoresheet yesterday in a 4-3 overtime win. The Pats are the first team to do so this season, which ends Etem’s point streak at 17 games and his goal streak at 8, which he has done twice this season. Mark Stone of the Brandon Wheat Kings has had a point in each of the Wheat Kings’ first 18 games this season and owns the longest current goal streak, which is at eight. Stone and the Wheat Kings are in Saskatoon tomorrow night. Jordan Weal of the Regina Pats has the longest current assists streak at 7 games, half of Stone’s league high assists streak of 14 games from September 22 – October 29.

Back to the Pats’ victory yesterday over the Tigers, defencemen Brandon Davidson and Brandon Underwood not only had three assists, but they were the assist combo on three of Regina’s four goals, including the game winner by Morgan Klimchuk.
________________________________

The Saskatoon Blades are the last perfect team on home ice in the WHL. The Blades are 8-0 at the Credit Union Centre as they head into their division tilt with Brandon tomorrow. The Blades have provided their fans with a bunch of offence at home this season as they have scored at least 4 goals in each of their eight home wins. Matej Stransky has provided the last two game winning goals for the Blades and has four on the season, tied with the Tigers’ Emerson Etem for the league lead.

The Spokane Chiefs suffered their first home loss Saturday against Tri-City with a 4-1 setback. They quickly rebounded by throttling Everett 8-1 yesterday to go to 9-1 at home this season.

Should be a great meeting between the Blades and Wheat Kings tomorrow since Brandon has a 7-3 road record this season. Kamloops’ 6-2 road record gives the Blazers the best win percentage away from home at .750 and the Tigers have the second best road win percentage in the WHL at .722 with a 6-2-1-0 mark.

[CdnSailor]

Back from Vancouver and the WHL on Shaw broadcast last night from Pacific Coliseum. The home rink for the Giants is one of my favourites in the WHL to visit. Giants played very well last night and were full value for their 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings. Bill Wilms, who handles color commentary duties for many of Shaw’s broadcasts, had the perfect description of Giants’ goaltender Adam Morrison’s night for the Giants; very efficient. Morrison faced 23 shots, including a number of good Oil Kings scoring chances. But he never got himself into trouble, with strong clearance of the puck from around the Giants goal.

Good to see Taylor Makin have a solid game for the Giants. Makin spent the past two seasons with the Prince George Cougars while I was there. The 19-year-old from Blairmore, Alberta, posted his first 3 assist game in the WHL and first three point game since December 2009. He’s a great young man and I’m glad I got a chance to catch up with him for a few moments after the game. Nice to see he landed on his feet in Vancouver after the Cougars released him early this season.

Brendan Gallagher didn’t get a point in the game, but was still unbelievable. You know what you’re going to get with Gallagher shift in-shift out. He’s one of the hardest working players I’ve ever seen and it’s easy to lose count on how many races and battles he wins. It would seem he would be a lock for Team Canada at the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton and Calgary. Giants Head Coach Don Hay, who will coach Team Canada in Alberta, raved about Gallagher’s game in an interview I did with him prior to puck drop last night.

This will be Hay’s second time coaching Team Canada at the World Junior’s and he’s got quite a standard to meet after his first time through with the program. Hay led Canada to a 7-and-0 record when the event was held in Red Deer in 1995. That took place during the NHL lock-out, which gave Hay a phenomenal team to work with. Team Canada’s 1995 entry included up front Ryan Smyth, Jason Allison, Jeff O’Neill, Darcy Tucker and Eric Daze. On defence, Canada had Bryan McCabe, Wade Redden and Ed Jovanovski. Dan Cloutier and Jamie Storr were the goaltenders.

As for the Oil Kings last night, only one goal after lighting up the Royals for eight on Tuesday. Michael St. Croix extended his point streak to 12 with an assist on a goal from Griffin Reinhart in the second period. 12 games is now the longest current streak in the WHL, which is shared by Regina’s Jordan Weal. Weal has six goals and 11 assists during the streak and has a chance to make it 13 games tonight with the Pats at home to Moose Jaw. The Warriors have quietly won their last five games, while the Pats have alternated wins and losses over their last seven games, going 4-and-3.

I’m headed back to Vancouver tomorrow night for the Seattle Thunderbirds and Calgary Hitmen showdown on Shaw, which starts at 6:00pm pacific time.
____________________________________

The CHL SUBWAY® Super Series resumes tonight with Team OHL trying to get the CHL teams on the board. For the second straight year, Team Russia took both games against Team QMJHL after a 5-4 shoot-out win last night in Quebec City. The Russians opened the six-game series with a 2-0 victory Monday in Victoriaville. Ottawa and Sault Ste. Marie play host to games 3 and 4. The OHL has dominated this series, going 18-0 against the Russian squad.

There was a roster change for Team WHL for the sixth and final game of the SUBWAY® Super Series in Moose Jaw next Thursday. Ryan Pulock, a 17-year-old defenceman from the Brandon Wheat Kings, will replace Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman Morgan Reilly, who is forced out of playing because of a lower body injury that is expected to sideline Reilly for a month. Pulock leads all WHL defencemen in scoring with 22 points (6G-16A) and because of an October birthday, will not be eligible for the NHL draft until 2013. He was among the top 16-year-old point producers last season with 42 points (8G-34A). He was a 7th round pick of the Wheat Kings in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft and I’d be curious to see where he would stack up with Matt Dumba, Griffin Reinhart, Ryan Murray, Derrick Pouliot and Reilly if he was eligible for the ’12 NHL Draft.

Regina will host the fifth game of the series on Wednesday, which will see Royals’ forward Kevin Sundher.
____________________________________

Speaking of Sundher, the Royals’ leading point producer left Tuesday’s game against Edmonton in the second period and did not return. Sundher crashed into the boards and was down on the ice for a while. Not much has been said about the injury, but Head Coach Marc Habscheid told Victoria media today that Sundher is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and that’s about it. Sundher did not practice today, but day-to-day is promising, you would think. The team has not confirmed what his playing status is for this weekend when the Royals host Red Deer Saturday and Sunday.

Sundher, when he does get back in the line-up, is poised to go past Ryan Howse as the all-time leader in Victoria Royals’/Chilliwack Bruins’ career scoring. Sundher is at 213 career WHL points (81G-132A); four points off Howse’s all time record of 217. Sundher surpassed Mark Santorelli’s assists record of 127 on October 22 in Kelowna.
_____________________________________

18-year-old Logan Nelson got out of a scoring funk Tuesday for the Royals’ with a goal and an assist against Edmonton. Those two points ended a four-game drought for Nelson, whose last point came in Spokane October 26. Lukas Kralik also got on the scoresheet for the first time in a while. Kralik earned an assist Tuesday after no points in the previous seven games. Meanwhile, Brandon Magee got another assist, which gives him six in the last five games. Since he returned from a lower body injury that kept him out of the line-up for six games, Magee has seven assists in nine games.
______________________________________

The Red Deer Rebels will come to town this weekend with four straight wins, with the last two to kick off a six game road trip. Tomorrow they face the Kamloops Blazers at 2:00pm, and then come to Victoria for back-to-back games. The Rebels are 12-4-0-1 and their .735 win percentage is the best in the league. On the way to the Pacific Coliseum yesterday, WHL on Shaw Producer Grant Wilkins and I talked about how good the Rebels would be if they had you-know-who back; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Also keep in mind that Byron Froese could have been back as a 20-year-old this season. Froese had 43 goals last season and 81 points for the Rebels a season ago and is in the WHL media guide for the Rebels projected line-up for this season. However, the 4th round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009 is with the Hawks’ AHL team, the Rockford IceHogs. Froese has been held without a point in eight games with Rockford.

19-year-old John Persson of Sweden leads the Rebels in scoring this season with eight goals and 20 points, including a goal last night in the Rebels' 6-4 win in Kelowna. Defensively, the Rebels have been very good, tied with Kootenay for second in fewest goals allowed with 42. Spokane has allowed 36 A strong defence unit with sure-fire first round pick Matt Dumba on the blue-line, but the story has also been Patrik Bartosak. The Rebels took Bartosak 59th overall in the CHL Import Draft and the rookie from the Czech Republic has gone 12-3-0-0 with a 2.04 goals against average and .934 save percentage, both stats ranked third overall among WHL goaltenders. He's filled in admirably in the shoes of Darcy Kuemper, the 2010-11 WHL Player of the Year and CHL Goalie of the Year.

[CdnSailor]

Team Pacific’s roster was announced this morning for the 2012 World Under-17 Challenge in Windsor, Ontario, and Royals’ defenceman Keegan Kanzig will suit up for the squad. The tournament runs December 29 – January 4, 2012. Kanzig was the Chilliwack Bruins first round pick in 2010, going 7th overall. The towering defenceman is 6’5”, 229 pounds and has been a constant in the Royals’ line-up after not playing in the club’s first two regular season games. In 20 games this season, Kanzig has 36 penalty minutes on the season and is at -3 in the +/- category, which is a stat that often looks much worse for 16-year-old defencemen.

Team Pacific earned a bronze medal last year in Winnipeg and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, with Royals’ forwards Steven Hodges and Brandon Magee in the line-up. Magee was the hero of their bronze medal game victory over Team Quebec when he scored the overtime winner. Kevin Sundher, meanwhile, played for Team Pacific in 2009 in Port Alberni. It was a silver medal performance for the host region that year, but Team Pacific has never won the event. Maybe this will be the year in Windsor.
_____________________________________

Kanzig is the lone Royals’ player to take part in the World U-17 event this season, with no Royals selected for Team West. It would not be a surprise at all next year if the Royals send two, if not three, players to the 2013 event. Defencemen Joe Hicketts and Ryan Gagnon, along with Michael Bell, would certainly be players that would get a long look at playing for Team Pacific, a squad of 11 players from Alberta and BC, each. All three played for Team BC at the Western Canadian Under-16 tournament in Moose Jaw and earned a bronze medal.

The Prince George Cougars and Kootenay Ice led the way with four selections each for the World Under-17 Challenge for Team Pacific and Team West. Both squads were announced today.
_____________________________________

Royals’ leading scorer Kevin Sundher is in Regina now and will suit up for Team WHL for the CHL SUBWAY® Super Series tomorrow night. Sundher leads the Royals with 13 goals and 36 points in 20 games, but missed both games against Red Deer on the weekend with an upper body injury. Good news, he’s been cleared to play tomorrow. The advantage Sundher has playing in Victoria is that he gets to play in front of Team Canada World Junior Coach Don Hay and Assistant Coach Ryan Huska. Six meetings already with Hay’s Vancouver Giants and three goals and seven points for Sundher in those games, with another match-up coming Friday in Vancouver. Sundher also has a goal and seven assists in only three games against Huska’s Kelowna Rockets. Sundher now gets a shot to really put a stamp on at least getting an invite to Canada’s World Junior selection camp, which runs December 11-13 in Calgary.

Sundher comes back to Victoria Thursday and will be ready to go for the Royals’ games against Vancouver Friday and at home against Kootenay Saturday. That means three games in four nights for Sundher.
______________________________________

Another switch to the Team WHL roster today. Joel Edmundson of the Moose Jaw Warriors will take the spot of injured defenceman Griffin Reinhart for Thursday’s game in Moose Jaw. Edmundson started the year with an ankle injury while with the St. Louis Blues at their training camp. Edmundson was selected by the Blues in the second round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. The Warriors now have four players that will hit the ice for the final game of the series at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw Thursday.

Team WHL will try to re-claim the series for the CHL squads after they lost last year for the first time to Team Russia. Ontario, like they have every year, won both games to tie the series at two wins a piece. The Russians won both games against Team WHL last year and the series is up for grabs with the next two games in Southern Saskatchewan.
________________________________________

Back to Royals’ injuries, forward Taylor Crunk and defenceman Jesse Pauls are getting very close to a return to the line-up. Both are day-to-day with upper body injuries. Pauls has been out of the line-up since October 10 and Crunk hasn’t played since October 14. The good news for the Royals is there has been no yellow jersey sighting at practice this week for non-contact.
_________________________________________

Brandon Magee has been the hottest of all Royals’ players statistically lately. The Edmonton, Alberta, product, in his second WHL season, has a four game point streak, with three goals and four assists in that time. Magee missed six games earlier this season with a lower body injury and has played 11 games since his return and has really turned it up a notch over the last seven games. Magee started the season with a four game point streak before he was injured in his fifth game in Kamloops on October 2.

Steven Hodges has scored a goal in back-to-back games, Austin Carroll has a goal and an assist in the last two games and Robin Soudek has three assists in the last pair of games. Mike Forsyth also has a two game assist streak, with an assist in each of the last two outings, which came against Red Deer on the weekend.
_________________________________________

Couple days left in Victoria before I head to Brandon Thursday for the WHL on Shaw broadcast Friday. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a couple weeks now between the Medicine Hat Tigers and Wheat Kings with the league’s top two scorers facing off. Emerson Etem for the Tigers leads the league with 25 goals in 21 games and is second in points with 44. Tigers’ 17-year-old forward Hunter Shinkaruk is second in goals with 21 in 22 games. Mark Stone, who had 106 points last season, is on pace right now for 150, but will miss a chunk of time for the Wheat Kings with Canada’s Junior Team (assuming he makes both the selection camp and final roster.). Stone leads the league with 27 assists and 46 points. Both teams are in the chase for division crowns in the East and Central divisions and it should be a great show-down Friday. The Tigers have won both games between the two this season by scores of 5-2 and 4-3 in overtime. The latter happened on November 5 in Brandon

[CdnSailor]

Victoria Royals’ practice missed a key piece of the puzzle today. A few members of the media arrived and right away the question was asked: Where’s Hayden Rintoul? Fortunately, it’s not injury related. Rintoul is under the weather today and Royals’ play-by-play man Marlon Martens made a good point; the amount that Rintoul has played this season, a day off might not be a good thing.

Taylor Crunk, who last played on October 14 thanks to an upper body injury, was in an orange line uniform with Luke Harrison and Brendan Persley today. Crunk’s return to the line-up could be as early as tomorrow against the Vancouver Giants when the Royals head to the Pacific Coliseum. Defenceman Jesse Pauls, who has not played since October 10, is also day-to-day with an upper body injury and could be back in either tomorrow against the Giants or Saturday against the Kootenay Ice.

Obviously, Kevin Sundher is in Regina for the CHL SUBWAY® Super Series game tonight against Team Russia. Team WHL lost both games last year, which allowed Team Russia to win its first series since it began in 2003. Sundher will return to Victoria tomorrow and be set to go this weekend.

Vancouver Giants’ forward Brendan Gallagher was named Captain for Team WHL tonight and Moose Jaw Warriors’ forward Quinton Howden is Captain for tomorrow in Moose Jaw.
____________________________________

Posted a feature story on the Royals’ website on forward Brandon Magee and the fact that he’s on a tear right now as he and the Royals’ head into two games. Magee is on a four game point streak, with three goals and seven points over that span. Magee finished 19th in WHL rookie scoring last season with 12 goals and 29 points and as mentioned yesterday, he scored the bronze medal winning goal in the 2011 World Under-17 Challenge in Manitoba. Magee is a fourth round pick of the Chilliwack Bruins in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft and is arguably the best fourth round pick from that group in 2009. Magee is one of seven players drafted in the fourth round in 2009 that is on a WHL roster and the only player that you could argue has more of an impact is 17-year-old goalie Chris Driedger of the Calgary Hitmen. Driedger was originally drafted by the Tri-City Americans and has played in 14 of the Hitmen’s 20 games this season. Driedger has posted a record of 6-4-1-1, with a goals against average of 2.74 and a .901 save percentage. Of the six skaters in the WHL, Magee has had clearly the biggest impact on his team.
The other players out of that group are Tyrel Seaman (Brandon Wheat Kings), Jeff Hubec (Kootenay), Jaimen Yakubowski (Lethbridge), Travis Brown (Moose Jaw) and Sawyer Lainge (Prince Albert).
____________________________________

The BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 list came out today, with three WHL teams on the list. The Tri-City Americans rank highest among WHL teams at number-3, behind the top ranked London Knights and St. John Sea Dogs, who are second. The Americans, who are 15-5-0-0 on the season and have won five straight, were ranked third last week. The Saskatoon Blades, who are on a five game win streak and have a 15-6-0-1 record, jumped into the rankings for the third week at sixth overall. The Red Deer Rebels, who have won six of the eight straight games that they have collected points in, are 7th and like Saskatoon, have climbed back in the rankings for a third week. The Medicine Hat Tigers and Brandon Wheat Kings got honorable mentions. They have an identical 14-6-1-1 record and collide Friday in Brandon.

The Kootenay Ice and Kamloops Blazers have higher win percentages than both the Tigers and Wheat Kings, but did not get a mention.

[CdnSailor]

The Victoria Royals welcomed their latest roster addition to practice this morning. 18-year-old Ben Walker of Edina, Minnesota, put on his Royals’ gear for the first time and will wear number-10 for the Royals. Walker also had his first WHL media scrum, with Victoria media in attendance to catch their first glimpse of the 5’9”, 165 pound right-hand shooting forward, who is known to have good speed and describes himself as a playmaker. Walker has spent the last two seasons with the Edina High School Hornets, posting 24 goals and 20 assists in 49 games over that time. I had a chance to speak with Ben today about his move to Victoria.

Q: How did it come about that you wound up in Victoria?
A: I got a call from (Royals’ scout) P.J. Atherton in Minnesota. He wanted to sit down and talk about the league and the team. He came to our house and educated my family on the whole thing. (Royals’ Director of USA Scouting) Glen Carrier talked to us and let me know that they wanted me to come to Victoria. It was all within a week having to decide, so that was a pretty difficult decision. But we decided that it was a really good opportunity and we decided to take it.

Q: Are the Royals the only WHL team to contact you?
A: Yah, they were the only ones to contact me. My family advisor said that there were a couple other teams, I think he said Medicine Hat, but I’m not positive on that. I hadn’t talked to them or anything, so this was the first team that I really spoke with.

Q: What did you think of your first practice with the team?
A: It was really high speed. Kind of a shocker. I hadn’t practiced since last season and the high school season hadn’t started so I felt a little winded, but hopefully I’ll catch up here.

Q: As far as your hockey development, how much did the WHL appeal to you?
A: It appealed a lot. I was really fired up when they contacted me. To just get the opportunity to come up here and play hockey and play in a lot of games. It’s kind of like making hockey your job up here. In Minnesota, it was kind of like an on the side thing.

Q: What has Head Coach Marc Habscheid told you as far as the team expectations from you this season?
A: Not sure quite yet, just play me game and make a spot, I guess.

Q: What is your game?
A: Pretty much a play maker and move the puck. I like to bring a high tempo game. I like to fly a little bit.

Q: When did you start playing hockey?
A: I actually started skating when I was three. My parents started me in hockey at the same time I started skating in Fargo, North Dakota. Just kind of started there and moved to Edina after about four years of Mites, played two more years in Edina. I just kept playing, I guess.

Q: Anyone else in your family that plays hockey?
A: I’ve got two younger brothers that play. Both my dad and uncle were soccer players.

Q: Minnesota Wild fan?
A: A little bit. I’ve never been a fan of any individual team. I’d rather watch the players that I like to watch and follow them.

Q: Who is your idol or a player that you pattern your game around?
A: I really like Martin St. Louis. I like the way he plays. He’s very tenacious and always working hard. He’s probably my favourite player.

Q: Do you know where Moose Jaw is, because you’re going there in January?
A: I have no idea, actually.

Q: What do you think of having to go on road trips that are 20 or so hours long?
A: I’ll have to wait to see how prepared for those I am, I guess. I’ll try to prep before, but I don’t really know what’s going to happen so we’ll see when we get there.

Q: What is the farthest you’ve ever had to travel to play hockey?
A: I’ve gone to Toronto and I’ve gone to Lake Placid, New York, for tournaments through summer hockey teams. I’ve gone up to Brandon and Winnipeg a lot of times, like every summer for the last 10 years.

Q: You’ve been in Victoria for less than 12 hours, but what do you think of your new surroundings?
A: From what I have seen, it’s a great city. I haven’t had too much time to go around, but it looks great.

Ben seems like a very good young man and hopefully he can make a smooth transition to the WHL.

The Royals, following a rough weekend to say the least, will be on the road this weekend to face Kamloops and Kelowna Friday and Saturday. In fact the next six games are against either of those two teams, with four dates against the Blazers and two with the Rockets.

[CdnSailor]

Nov 29/11

The Victoria Royals have a couple games coming up with the Kamloops Blazers tonight and tomorrow and this is the first time they’ve hosted the Blazers this season. In two games in Kamloops this season, the Blazers have out-scored the Royals 12-3. The first meeting in October was an 8-2 win for Kamloops, followed by a 4-1 decision last Friday night.

The Royals are trying to end a four game losing streak and the constant in those four games is the fact the Royals have fallen behind 2-0 in each of those games. Granted, the Royals stormed back to take a 3-2 lead in Kelowna before the Rockets finally won 6-5 Saturday, but it’s quite a large a large 8-ball to get behind to trail by two goals. The last time that didn’t happen, the Royals defeated the Red Deer Rebels 4-3 in a shoot-out November 13.

Another troubling trend is the fact the Royals have not produced the first goal in a game since November 5 in a 5-3 loss at home to Vancouver. That’s seven straight games that the Royals have allowed the first goal in a game heading into tonight’s tilt with Kamloops.

Kevin Sundher is back on a streak going into the first game of two with the Blazers. Sundher has produced a goal in each of the last three games for the Royals and has four points over that span. 18-year-old Colin Smith leads the Blazers in scoring this season with 13 goals and 28 points on the season. The Blazers are tied for seventh in the league for goals scored with 95, five more than the Royals.
_______________________________________

Of the 90 goals the Royals have scored this season, 61 have come from the five players on the team that have scored at least 10 goals this season: Kevin Sundher (16), Robin Soudek (14), Logan Nelson (11), Jamie Crooks (10) and Steven Hodges (10). The Royals are tied with the Brandon Wheat Kings for the league lead in players with at least 10 goals. The Wheat Kings top five goals scorers, which includes league points leader Mark Stone with 24, have produced 79 of the Wheat Kings 122 goals.

Those 61 goals from the top 5 Royals’ goal scorers amount to 67.8% of the team’s offence. That is second only to Medicine Hat, with their top five producing 70.8% (75 of 106) of their goals. Emerson Etem and Hunter Shinkaruk of the Tigers have 52 goals between them.
________________________________________

All the talk since yesterday morning has been about Canada’s invites to the National Junior team selection camp. Obviously here in Victoria, Kevin Sundher looked like he would be a lock to get an invite, but didn’t. It was disappointing to see that he did not get the call and with his speed and playmaking ability, I was one who thought he would at least get that. In fact, Kevin is fourth in scoring in the WHL among players eligible to play for Canada and overall he sits seventh. Also, playing for a team that has given up the most goals in the league makes his -3 rating a little more forgivable. When you throw in talent from the Ontario and Quebec Hockey League’s and NCAA programs, there’s only so much room for skilled players. But Team Canada is not built on who can get on the scoresheet and Sundher’s not the only player in the league producing over a point-per-game that didn’t get the call. Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers (38 points in 28 games), Jordan Weal in Regina (38pts, 25gp), Edmonton’s Michael St. Croix (33pts, 26gms) and Josh Nicholls from Saskatoon (31pts, 27gms) to name a few. The people who had to make these choices are far better hockey folks than the bloke writing this blog and they have a bevy of talent to choose from across this country.

Michael Ferland of the Brandon Wheat Kings and Mark McNeill of the Prince Albert Raiders were the surprise picks in my opinion of the 16 players from the WHL that made the team. Ferland is more of a pleasant surprise because he’s not a guy going into the season that most would expect to be in this position. But the fifth round pick of the Calgary Flames in 2010, who was not part of the National Junior Team’s summer development camp, has had a terrific season in Brandon with 17 goals and 25 assists for 42 points. He also brings size at 6’2”, 208 pounds.

McNeill, a first rounder in 2011 by the Chicago Blackhawks, hasn’t been a huge offensive force this season, with nine goals and 22 points in 27 games. However, he is on an eight game point streak, which is currently tied for the longest in the WHL. McNeill also had a fantastic CHL SUBWAY® Super Series game in Moose Jaw earlier this month with two goals and an assist and a +3 in a 7-5 loss to Russia. The Edmonton product does have a history with Hockey Canada, with six assists in seven games at the World Under-18 Championship in Germany this past April. He’s got size, speed and skill, which he demonstrated Friday when he scored the overtime winner against Vancouver in a 4-3 Raiders’ victory.

The selection camp starts December 10 in Calgary. Canada begins the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship against Finland on Boxing Day.
_________________________________________

Heading into Sunday, I was pretty certain Michael St. Croix of the Edmonton Oil Kings was going to win the WHL’s Player of the Week honors. St. Croix had a hat-trick and five points against Lethbridge Wednesday, then had four more points against the Hurricanes Saturday and finished with five goals and nine points in three games.

Then Portland’s Ty Rattie met Swift Current Sunday. Rattie had four goals and five points in that game and finished the week with seven goals and 12 points in four games. He was also a +8. Rattie was awarded the CHL’s Player of the Week honors today. Rattie is a second round, 32nd overall pick of the St. Louis Blues in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
__________________________________________

Two games are on the schedule for me this week on Shaw TV. Tomorrow night, the Medicine Hat Tigers entertain the Lethbridge Hurricanes. I’ll then fly to Kamloops Thursday for the Blazers home contest with the Prince George Cougars.

The Eastern Conference has been very competitive this season and all eight teams in the playoff picture on that side of the ledger have at least 30 points. Calgary, sitting eighth, would be fifth in the Western Conference. The Hitmen have been on a roll lately and have pulled into the top eight with wins in six of their last seven games. After starting the season with only one win in the first six games, the Hitmen have gone 13-6-1-0 since October 16. They handed Saskatoon its first home ice loss of the season Friday, then ripped Prince Albert the following night 8-2. Only the Kootenay Ice is on a longer streak than the Hitmen with five straight wins.

[CdnSailor]

It’s not back-to-back wins, but the Victoria Royals picked up three of a possible four points on the weekend. That equals what they had done in the previous 10 games and we’ll see if they can parlay that into more positives with three games coming up in four nights this week in Alberta. The Royals have played three solid games without one of their leading scorers, with forward Robin Soudek still serving a four game suspension that was handed to him following Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the Tri-City Americans at home. Without Soudek’s 17 goals and 32 points in 31 games in the line-up for supplemental discipline, the Royals gave the WHL leading Americans all they could handle on Wednesday night, before they eventually fell 5-3. The Royals then handed the Lethbridge Hurricanes an 8-5 set-back Friday night and are the only team to hold Hurricanes’ forward Cam Braes from scoring a goal in his last nine games. Friday’s game saw two of the Royals’ top players be just that, as leading scorer Kevin Sundher recorded a four point night and Jamie Crooks picked up his second hat-trick of the season, along with a four point night of his own.


On Saturday, it could have been easy to throw in the towel when they trailed 3-0 through 40 minutes. Yet the Royals found a way, and on the same five minute power play, to charge back and tie the game. Although they lost in a shoot-out, that’s got to be a major lift for the players to leave Kent, Washington, with one point against a team that is trying to hunt them down in the race to get into playoff picture. The Royals are four points ahead of the Thunderbirds and Victoria currently owns the sixth seed in the Western Conference.


Looking ahead to this week, not many challenges will be more difficult in the league for the Royals than their foes on Wednesday night. The Royals will face the Edmonton Oil Kings at Rexall Place, just over a month after the Oil Kings took an 8-2 win out of the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on November 8. The Oil Kings are on a nine game win streak and have surged to the top of the Eastern Conference. Expectations were high for the Oil Kings as they entered their fifth season in the WHL and they have lived up to it, with arguably the most complete team in the East. The Oil Kings made the first big move prior to the trade deadline with the acquisition of 20-year-old forward Tyler Maxwell from the Everett Silvertips in November, a 41-goal scorer last year. To say the trade has worked out well for the Oil Kings would be putting it very mildly. Maxwell is on an 11-game point streak, including his first eight games with Edmonton where he has posted six goals and 15 points. Teammate Dylan Wruck is also on an 11-game point streak, Michael St. Croix was last week’s WHL Player of the Week and sits in the top 10 in league scoring with 46 points, and TJ Foster is another forward over a point-per-game pace with 15 goals and 35 points in 29 games. The defence is very strong with NHL draftees Martin Gernat (5th rnd, Edm ’11), Mark Pysyk (1st rnd, Buf ’10) and Keegan Lowe (3rd rnd, Car ’11) and sure-fire first round prospect for the 2012 NHL Draft Griffin Reinhart. Pysyk, however, will not be playing since he is at Canada’s World Junior selection camp in Calgary. The Oil Kings also boast Laurent Brossoit in goal. Brossoit, a sixth round pick of the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, has the WHL’s third best goals against average (2.35) and the fifth highest save percentage (.916).


The Royals and Oil Kings game can be seen on Shaw TV starting at 6:00pm. The Royals and Hurricanes will meet again Friday night and then the Royals face the Tigers in Medicine Hat Saturday to go into the Christmas break.
______________________________________________
It was great to see the emergence of 17-year-old forward Zane Jones to the Royals’ attack recently. Until November 30, Jones had three goals in the first 27 games of the season. In the following seven games, Jones has five goals and seven points and his run included a four game goal scoring streak.


Kevin Sundher is back on a consecutive point’s streak, which has reached four games. Sundher has three goals and five assists over that span to run his team lead in scoring to 21 goals and 52 points. Logan Nelson has a three game point streak, with two goals and three assists over that time. He and defenceman Jesse Pauls both have three game assist streaks, as well.
________________________________________________
Mike Winther of the Prince Albert Raiders is the WHL’s Player of the Week after he posted eight goals and 10 points in four games. Winther, a sixth overall selection by the Raiders in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft, had his first WHL hat-trick Tuesday in a 6-3 victory over the Regina Pats, part of a five point night for Winther. Winther currently holds a five game goal scoring streak, with nine goals.


The WHL’s nominee for the CHL Goalie of the Week honors is Ty Rimmer of the Tri-City Americans, who went 2-0-0-0 and blocked 59 of 61 shots. Rimmer was in goal for the Americans 6-2 victory over the Royals Tuesday, and then shut-out the Portland Winterhawks on Sunday.
_________________________________________________
Interesting stat posted on twitter by WHL Facts: Over the past 178 games, the Portland Winterhawks have been shut-out nine times. Five of those have come against the Americans, including two this season, both by Rimmer.
__________________________________________________
With the NHL’s realignment of four conferences and playoff structure to next season, a few of us with the WHL on Shaw crew talked about whether it was worth it for the WHL to look into a playoff structure change, most likely back to divisional match-ups. The WHL is committed to the current “Top 8 Get In” look for the next few seasons, so there’s no need to worry about a change if you like the way it is right now.


But there are certainly compelling and hard to argue debate topics for both sides. The biggest one for keeping the current playoff format in tact is the fact that the top 8 will get in and there will be no worry about teams getting in that should not be there. On the other side of the ledger, to have a bitter rival or any division opponent in the first two rounds is more of a draw for fans than a BC division team squaring off with a US division team in the first round, or East vs. Central. It’s funny that the first round of the playoffs is watched by fewer fans in most cities than in the regular season and there is a feeling that fans aren’t interested in going to first round games, especially when you have the non-division showdowns. In the eight first round series’ in the 2011 playoffs, half were played between division opponents and they were the 1-8, 2-7 matchups in both conferences. In Prince George last year, the prospect of playing the Kelowna Rockets was far more appealing to watch than going up against Portland or Tri-City. Not to mention travel can get long early for some teams, like if Brandon and Kootenay were to meet in round 1.


However, the current playoff structure works well and the teams that deserve to be in get in. But, it’s an interesting debate and one that draws plenty of people to the argument.

[CdnSailor]

Happy New Year and I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. It’s been a while since I’ve been down at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Although the last WHL on Shaw broadcast was on December 16 in Saskatoon, I’ve been filling quite a bit of time at CHEK-TV, which has been great. But I have missed the rink and actually leave Thursday for Lethbridge and the first 2012 edition of the WHL on Shaw, when the Hurricanes face the Medicine Hat Tigers Friday night.

The Royals are coming off a wild 9-4 loss to the Calgary Hitmen Tuesday. Logan Nelson picked up the second hat-trick in as many games for the Royals, after Jamie Crooks pulled it off in Portland on Friday. Zane Jones had a goal and an assist and was plus-1, giving the 17-year-old three goals and four points in the last two games and he’s +3. Kevin Sundher kept his scoring streak alive with an assist on Nelson’s hat-trick goal, which puts Sundher on a 10-game point streak. Sundher’s streak is tied with Brendan Shinnimin of the Tri-City Americans for longest current streak in the league. Shinnimin has 11 goals and 23 points in that stretch and Sundher has 13 assists and 17 points over his streak. Brandon Wheat Kings forward Mark Stone still holds the longest streak of the season of 18 games, which were the first 18 of the season for him.

But once again, keeping the puck out of the net kept the Royals from ending their losing streak, which has hit seven games. Since the start of November, Victoria has won just four of 23 games and has been out-scored 125-77. That’s an average of 5.4 goals allowed since November 4. In only four of the 23 games, the Royals have allowed three or fewer goals in a game, in either regulation or overtime. They won three of those and lost the other in a shoot-out, which gave Seattle a 4-3 win on December 10. The Royals are averaging over three goals a game over that span, but it just hasn’t been enough most nights.

I watched an interview Head Coach Marc Habscheid did with Paul Haysem of CHEK Sports and one thing really stood out to me. Marc talked about the fact that, yes, the Royals are a young team, but you just can’t be a young team. They have to show improvement. The team is working hard at doing that, but a bounce here and a breakdown there has just added up after the team started the season 10-7-0-1. The team did some battle drills at the end of practice today which got quite spirited. Steven Hodges took a stick to the face, but was okay, and both goaltenders got bumped and not just small taps, either. It was very quiet on the ice after practice and you can’t help but feel bad for these guys because the passion to win is there, just the W’s have been tough to come by.
__________________________________________________ _______

The Royals will get 16-year-old defenceman Keegan Kanzig back in the line-up Friday for their tilt against the Kelowna Rockets. Kanzig has been with Team Pacific in Windsor, ON, for the World Under-17 Challenge, which started in late December. Kanzig had two penalty minutes in five games played and Pacific finished fifth overall. The tournament ends tonight with the US to face Russia in the gold medal game.
_____________________________________________

Just wanted to make a quick comment on the Canada/Russia semi-final game last night in Calgary. Even in a loss, how can we not be proud of those young men? I was thinking of how that may have gone down as one of the worst Canadian losses in World Junior history when it was 6-1 early in the third period. How Canada seems to pull off the impossible at this tournament is simply amazing. Not only that, Canada really deserved a lot better last night. They out-shot Russia 56-24, but for the first 50 minutes, it was like Canada had to work so hard just to get one goal, while the Russian squad seemed to get rewarded just for hitting the Canadian blue-line. Canada had a few goal posts and remember the slam dunk Jonathan Huberdeau had in the first period at the lip of the goal crease that somehow didn’t go in. Ryan Murray, a potential top-5 pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft of the Everett Silvertips, couldn’t have had worse luck around his own goal. The first three Russian goals went off him in some way before going in the net. On Russia’s fifth goal, the puck went through his skates on a pass from behind the goal that he went to block. Great player who had a tough night, not for his play but for the lousy puck-luck he had. It was one of those nights, but they almost pulled off a miracle.

Keep in mind, while this is the first time since 2001 that Canada has not been in the gold medal game, Canada has won a World Junior medal at every tournament since 1999. Finland, who seem to always be in the bronze medal game, hasn’t won a medal since 2006.

Forward Brett Connolly was in my opinion Canada’s top forward last night. He could have had four or five goals on the evening and really lived up the leadership role that I’m sure was expected from him as one of the four returning players. It’s been great for me to see Brett do so well this year, with a goal in each of Canada’s five games played. I got to know him while working for the Prince George Cougars before moving to Victoria and in his interview with TSN’s Farhan Lalji after the game, he showed how much he cares about winning, but was very composed given the circumstance. Brandon’s Mark Stone and Vancouver’s Brendan Gallagher have been terrific and the latter of those two had a great game last night as well. Best of luck to those players Thursday against Finland.
__________________________________________________ _

Less than a week to go before the WHL trade deadline, which is on Tuesday, January 10. Four moves have been made and I really like the trade the Kamloops Blazers put-together with the Prince Albert Raiders in acquiring 20-year-old Brandon Herrod. The 20-year-old from Meadow Lake, SK, is a tough player who can make a significant contribution in the offensive zone, with 19 goals and 37 points in 41 games this season. Herrod scored in his first game with the Blazers on New Year’s Day against the Cougars. Probably the most interesting move so far is the deal swung between the Raiders and Spokane Chiefs on December 28. The Raiders, 12 points out of a playoff spot, got Chiefs’ leading scorer Anthony Bardaro. So the 11th place team in the Eastern Conference gets the top scorer from the fifth place team in the Western Conference. Don’t see that happen very often. However, Bardaro is a guy that will likely be back as a 20-year-old next season that can lead a Raiders team that got younger in the deal with the Blazers by getting 17-year-old forward Logan McVeigh, a second round bantam pick in 2009. The Raiders also got 18-year-old goalie Luke Lee-Knight and a fifth-round pick, while the Chiefs received 18-year-old goalie Eric Williams, who had been the Raiders’ number-1 goalie this season. Todd Fiddler, an 18-year-old forward, also went to Spokane. Fiddler had 23 goals in his rookie season last year, but has only five this season. Hopefully a fresh start can get him going.

Now, what are the Royals going to do? General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid may have a decision to make on Kevin Sundher. Now that Sundher has a contract with the Buffalo Sabres, his chances of playing next season in the WHL as a 20-year-old now seem out the window. He’s among the top 5 in scoring in the WHL and could certainly make the same impact for a team that a player like Tyler Maxwell has made with the Edmonton Oil Kings after he was traded there by Everett. Last year, the price for a high-end player was through the roof for players like Cody Eakin, who went from Swift Current to Kootenay. Brayden Schenn brought the Brandon Wheat Kings a huge haul of future players when he was dealt to the Saskatoon Blades. Will the price tag be as high this season? We’ll find out in the next week.

The Royals will likely be going for youth in a deal, but perhaps an established young defenceman will be part of the asking price from Victoria in the ’93 or ’94 birth year range. This is one of the most exciting times of the WHL season and there’s already been some movement. Can’t wait to see what’s in store before the 2:00pm Pacific Time trade deadline next Tuesday.

[CdnSailor]

Well, no one is surprised what the Victoria Royals did Monday. The only question in the BC capital leading up to Tuesday’s 2:00pm WHL trade deadline was where the club was going to trade Kevin Sundher and when. The answer came close to 6:00pm Pacific Time. The first tweet came from the Brandon Wheat Kings, announcing they had acquired Sundher for 18-year-old defenceman Jordan Fransoo, 17-year-old forward Dakota Conroy and a the Wheat Kings first round pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft.


Kevin told Paul Haysem from CHEK Sports in Victoria he is “sad to be leaving, but excited for the new experience. Very bittersweet day.” He added, “I have a little piece of the Island that will stay with me forever. It was a lot of fun.” Kevin leaves Victoria as the all-time Chilliwack Bruins/Victoria Royals’ leader in assists (151) and points (241). Sundher also finished just two games shy of Jeff Einhorn’s club record for games played, which is 257. If not for an injury in mid-November, Sundher would have tied Einhorn’s mark.


It’s hard to believe that the Wheat Kings go into Tuesday as the number-8 seed in the Eastern Conference with the amount of offence they possess. Sundher, who is seventh in league scoring with 64 points, joins the WHL’s third highest scorer and Team Canada World Junior standout Mark Stone, who has 68 points. The Wheat Kings have four 20-goal scorers already (Sundher, Stone, Michael Ferland and Darian Dziurzynski), Allesio Bertaggia’s at 18 tallies on the year and Brenden Walker has 15. So there’s no questions about their top two lines. Makes you wonder if Kelly McCrimmon will be looking for some added depth on the blue line before the deadline arrives. The Wheat Kings may be sitting eighth, but they’re only six points out of third in the Eastern Conference.


For the Royals, they got younger while adding a pair of players that can step in right now. I got a chance to see Jordan Fransoo play in November for a game in Brandon for the WHL on Shaw and I thought he played pretty well. Fransoo comes to Victoria after being selected by the Ottawa Senators in the seventh round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. The North Battleford, SK, product has two goals and 11 points in 41 games and is a +2 on the season with 33 penalty minutes. Fransoo also brings size to the Royals’ back end, measuring 6’3”, 190 pounds. With Jesse Pauls announcing his retirement last week, an added body on the blue line will be a welcome sight.


In Conroy, the Royals’ pick up a third round pick from the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft. Conroy is 6’1”, 190 pounds and has four goals and eight points in 37 games in his rookie season. The native of Edmonton played with Royals’ forward Brandon Magee when the two grew up in the Alberta capital. Conroy becomes the ninth player on the Royals’ current roster born in 1994, a core group of Royals’ for a couple years.
The part that gets everyone excited is a first round pick. The Wheat Kings had two to work with thanks to the Brayden Schenn deal with the Saskatoon Blades at last season’s trade deadline. That trade included the Blades 2012 first round bantam selection.


It won’t be long until the Royals face Sundher for the first and likely only time when the Royals clash with the Wheat Kings Saturday in Brandon.
__________________________________________________ ____
The Royals set out on a six game East division road trip that opens Friday in Regina. They will see former Assistant General Manager and Head Coach Pat Conacher, who has done a stellar job with the Pats this season. Regina is 6-2-2-0 in their past 10 games and they picked up defenceman Luke Fenske from the Vancouver Giants Friday in exchange for a third round bantam pick in 2013.


The Royals will be without 17-year-old forward Zane Jones, who will sit out this weekend’s games because of a two game suspension that was handed down today. Jones was called for a boarding major in Saturday’s 4-3 shoot-out loss to the Kelowna Rockets. Jones, who has 11 goals and 20 points in 42 games this season, will get back into action on January 17 in Swift Current.
__________________________________________________ _______
With Sundher now out of the fold, that means fellow ’92 born forward Jamie Crooks takes over the team lead in points. Crooks has been on a roll of late, with four goals and six assists for 10 points during his five game point streak. On the season, Crooks has 21 goals and 43 points in 42 games. Hayden Rintoul will carry a three game point streak on the road, with two goals and four points in that span.
__________________________________________________ _______
The Sundher deal came on the heels of another eyebrow raising trade. Cam Braes, the heart and soul of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, was dealt to the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for a first round pick in 2012 and a second-rounder in ’13. Braes has been very strong in his fifth and final year in the league, with 24 goals and 45 points in 44 games. The Hurricanes had announced a 1:00pm Mountain Time media conference and I had a feeling Braes would be at the centre of it. Braes was the Hurricanes Captain and led by example and he will bring an added touch of offence to a Warriors line-up that could use another quality threat up front. It is a win-win for the Hurricanes, who give Braes a true shot at contending in his final season in the WHL, while getting some meat in the next two bantam drafts with high picks.


The Vancouver Giants added some offence to their blue line with the pick-up of Tyler Vanscourt from the Warriors. Vancourt, who had been acquired by Prince Albert from Spokane before the season began, has 21 points in 40 games this season, with 12 of those points on the power play. The Giants surrendered a fifth round bantam pick in 2012.
__________________________________________________ ________
Lots of talk about Edmonton Oilers prospect Martin Marincin being dealt by the Prince George Cougars. The Pipeline show in Edmonton reports five teams hope to get the big Slovak defenceman: Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, Vancouver, Portland and Saskatoon. Marincin is a power play threat and with his long reach, is effective in the defensive zone. The Cougars and Giants square off in the only game Tuesday.


There are also rumours swirling in Medicine Hat that Emerson Etem could be on the move. Seems hard to believe, especially with the Tigers tied with Kootenay for third in the Eastern Conference and have a chance to make a run at it all again this season.
__________________________________________________ __________
Giants’ forward Brendan Gallagher is the WHL’s Player of the Week with seven points. All of those came in one game. Gallagher, who was tremendous for Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Alberta, had three goals and four assists in the Giants 8-4 victory over Portland Saturday. Ty Rimmer of the ridiculously hot Tri-City Americans is the WHL nominee for CHL Goalie of the Week. Rimmer posted back-to-back shut-outs in wins over Moose Jaw and Everett. The Americans have won 13 in a row and are the number-1 team in the CHL Top 10.
__________________________________________________ __________
Two games this week on the WHL on Shaw. Wednesday will see our first look at the reigning WHL Champions, the Kootenay Ice, when they face the Rebels in Red Deer. It is the Rebels’ first game on Shaw this season. Then on Friday, I’ll be at Pacific Coliseum for what should be a great clash between the Americans and Giants. A potential Western Conference playoff preview. The Americans sit first overall and the Giants are fourth in the Western Conference.

[CdnSailor]

Wednesday night was the first night for a few players to get acquainted to playing with their new teammates. However, it was a low scoring night in the WHL, with Portland and Spokane the only teams out of the 12 that played on Wednesday to post more than two goals.

Former Royal Kevin Sundher made what had to have been a highly anticipated debut for the Brandon Wheat Kings at home against the Saskatoon Blades. However, Kevin, along with the rest of the Wheat Kings, were blanked by 16-year-old Alex Moodie, who posted his first WHL shut-out by blocking 37 shots. Marcel Noebels, who yielded two first round picks from the Winterhawks to the Seattle Thunderbirds, was held off the scoresheet in a 4-2 win over the Kelowna Rockets, but Cam Reid notched a goal for Portland. He was acquired from Edmonton for an 8th round bantam pick. Jesse Mychan, acquired by Tri-City from Everett for a draft pick, also scored for his new team, although the Americans saw their 13-game win streak come to a close in Kamloops.

The Victoria Royals will get to see two-thirds of their pieces in the Sundher trade in action for the first time tomorrow night when they square off with the Regina Pats to kick off a six-game East division road trip. The more I think about that trade, the more I like it for the Royals because, and this may sound odd, it may have helped them for a playoff push. Yes they lose their leading scorer, but they have offensive weapons. Jamie Crooks has taken off, currently on a five game point streak and his 21 goals is just one behind Sundher. Logan Nelson, who is one of three rookies in the WHL with 40 points right now and one off the lead, has 17 goals along with Robin Soudek. Brandon Magee and Steven Hodges are both capable offensive threats in their sophomore seasons. Although the team’s biggest weapon isn’t there anymore, the Royals still have the ability to score some goals. But where the deal helps the Royals is on the back-end, where 18-year-old Jordan Fransoo is a much needed addition. The Royals have allowed 212 goals this season, exactly 100 less than what Regina allowed a season ago; and there’s still 30 games left to play. Fransoo, a seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators, at least gives the Royals more strength at the top of their defensive depth chart.

We won’t see in Victoria for a couple weeks what impact 17-year-old forward Dakota Conroy brings, but size is one asset, as he’s at 6’1”, 185 pounds.

Fransoo and Conroy will face their former mates Saturday in Brandon.

The Royals sit three points ahead of the Cougars for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and the Cougars dealt defenceman Martin Marincin to the Regina Pats and Tuesday against Vancouver dressed eight 16-year-olds. Swedish defenceman Ricard Blidstrand came back in the deal from Regina and played well Tuesday, considering he just got off a plane.

Time will tell if the Royals can keep the Cougars, or even the Everett Silvertips who are nine points back, at bay.

__________________________________________________ ___________

The amount of draft picks that were dealt leading up to the deadline was staggering, and hearing from many people who have been around the league for some time, the price for these draft picks seems low. When Prince Albert and Spokane dropped the first chip in the draft deadline pool, it was the first of 22 trades since December 28. There were a total of 31 draft picks that changed hands. The following outlines how many in which rounds:
1st – 6*
2nd – 5*
3rd – 4
4th – 3
5th – 6
6th – 2
7th – 3
8th – 2
* - Includes conditional picks.

17 of the 31 draft picks traded are for the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft, 11 are for 2013 and three more are for 2014. The Prince George Cougars acquired a first, second and third round pick in the ’12 draft between their trades for forward Charles Inglis to Red Deer and Martin Marincin to Regina. With the rights of Brett Connolly sent to Tri-City, the Cougars also have two fifth round picks in 2013 and if Connolly, and it doesn’t seem likely, gets sent back to junior by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Cougars would also get a first round pick next year and a second round choice in 2014.
__________________________________________________ ____

The WHL’s three longest current point streaks all came to an end last night. With Kevin Sundher and the Wheat Kings shut-out by the Blades, Sundher’s 12 game streak came to a halt. Brendan Shinnimin had a 13-game streak come to an end with Tri-City’s 3-2 loss to the Kamloops Blazers. Prince Albert’s Justin Maylan had an 11-game point streak snapped by Matt Hewitt and the Regina Pats. Hewitt posted a 26-save shut-out in the Pats’ victory.

Patrick Holland of the Americans and the WHL’s leading point man, Ty Rattie, now own the longest current point streak at eight games. Holland has seven goals and 21 points over that span and Rattie has picked up six goals and 17 points for the Portland Winterhawks during his streak.

The season high is 18 games set by Brandon’s Mark Stone at the beginning of the year.

__________________________________________________ ______

NHL Central Scouting came out with its mid-term rankings for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, with two Victoria Royals making the list. Steven Hodges, with 13 goals and 26 points on the season, ranked 55th overall among North American skaters. Logan Nelson, who has 17 goals and 40 points in his rookie campaign, ranked 108th.

Nail Yakupov of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sarnia Sting is the top ranked North American skater. The top skater from the WHL in the mid-term rankings is Everett Silvertips defenceman Ryan Murray, who is seeded third. Five WHL goalies made the list among North American ‘tenders, led by Saskatoon Blade and Team Russia standout Andrey Makarov, who is ranked 10th.

__________________________________________________ _______

Congratulations are in order for Spokane Chiefs Head Coach Don Nachbaur, who became the sixth member of the 500 wins club among WHL coaches. The Chiefs hammered Everett 6-1 Wednesday. Nachbaur, originally from the Prince George area, was drafted by the Hartford Whalers in 1979 and played 223 games in the NHL for the Whalers, Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers.

Nachbaur has won the WHL’s Coach of the Year award for three different teams: Seattle (1995), Tri-City (2008) and Spokane (2011). Nachbaur joins Ken Hodge, Ernie McLean, Don Hay, Lorne Molleken and Pat Ginnell to reach the 500 wins plateau behind a WHL bench. I interviewed Tyler Johnson last season during his 53 goal campaign and asked about playing for Nachbaur, who was in his first season as Head Coach for the Chiefs. Johnson said you definitely don’t want to do something wrong to get on Nachbaur’s bad side, but the players loved playing for him because he respected them like he would want to be and is a very fair coach.

He’s also been a very successful one.

Prince George Cougars Head Coach Dean Clark appears to be the next active coach to have the best shot at 500, as he entered the season with 427.

[CdnSailor]

The Victoria Royals have a date set with the Kamloops Blazers this weekend for Friday and Saturday at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. When talking with some of the players after they arrived home from a 2-and-4 East division road trip, there was certainly a sense of going in the right direction for the stretch run of the season. They were encouraged by the fact they were in every game of the trip, except lapses over a few minutes or an off period cost them a few games.

No doubt one of the most exciting aspects of the Royals’ first home game since January 7 for fans is the first look at defenceman Jordan Fransoo and forward Dakota Conroy on the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre ice. Royals’ General Manager and Head Coach Marc Habscheid spoke about the trade with Brandon last month that saw Kevin Sundher head east and said it filled a couple holes in Victoria while allowing the team to get better in the future.

“We got Fransoo, which was an important part of it. The date of birth was right for us since we’ll have him again next year and possibly as an overage player. Conroy fits with our 94’s and gives us more depth at our forward position. Especially the first round pick, as well, that adds to it too. So we just felt where we are as an organization, we don’t feel we are that far away. Half our team is 16 or 17-years-old, so we’re a young group. We want to nurture that group along and reinforce that group and fill some holes where we thought we have and not build for 10 years down the road but for next year and the year after where we think we can make a push.”

Fransoo, a draft pick of the Ottawa Senators in the seventh round of the 2011 NHL Draft, has had a nice start to his Royals’ career. Fransoo, a 6’3”, 190-pound product of North Battleford, SK, has four assists in six games and is even in plus/minus. Fransoo talked about expectations the Royals’ have of him.

“I think they just want me to be a consistent player and keep things simple. We want to keep the puck out of our net. I see Victoria has the most goals against and as a defenceman, you take pride in being a plus player every night. That’s going to be a big goal of mine.”

17-year-old Dakota Conroy brings size up front at 6’1”, 190 pounds. The native of Edmonton is the eighth player on the Royals’ roster born in 1994, which will be a core group for this team and its plans to make a run over the next few years. Conroy talks about the emotions he had when he found out he was a Royal.

“I had friends on this team, and now I even have more. I was excited. I was shocked, but excited. It was nice to be on the road with the guys to start out on the road trip because I was always with them.”

Both said it was weird to have to face the Wheat Kings just a few days after being dealt to the Royals, but Conroy scored, Fransoo had an assist and the Royals defeated Brandon 4-3 in a shoot-out.
__________________________________________________ __________________
Now it’s the number-1 team in the WHL showing up to Victoria on the weekend, as the Blazers finally lost in the month of January with a 3-2 setback in Kelowna Wednesday. These two games will open a four-game home-stand for the Royals, who entertain the Prince George Cougars for critical games next Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Blazers and Rockets were the feature game on the WHL on Shaw Wednesday and there aren’t many holes on that Blazers team. Biggest difference for them this year compared to last is the solid goaltending they have had from 18-year-old Cole Cheveldave. The rookie from Calgary is third in the WHL in goals against average (2.32), fourth in wins (25) and save percentage (.918). WHL on Shaw Color Analyst Bill Wilms had a great stat last night on the broadcast as he mentioned the last time the Blazers had a goalie with a save percentage over 91% was current Edmonton Oiler netminder Devan Dubnyk in the 2005-06 campaign, at .912. That wasn’t even in the top 10 among WHL goalies that season, with Dubnyk 12th.

Balanced scoring certainly helps. For a non-playoff team last season, I thought they were a dangerous team offensively and it’s even more so this season. Philadelphia Flyers prospect Brendan Ranford leads the team with 25 goals and 59 points in 45 games. The Blazers have five 20-goals scorers and likely will have two more added to that total by the end of the year. It’s a shame Jordan DePape has had trouble staying healthy, because he’s another weapon for the Blazers. DePape is out with an upper body injury.

Puck drop is 7:05pm at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre both nights. Friday will be the sixth meeting of the season between the two teams and the Royals are after their first win against the Blazers this season.
__________________________________________________ _____________________
Back to that trade with Brandon, hopefully for the last time. Kevin Sundher scored just his second goal for Brandon last night in a lopsided loss to Calgary. Sundher has scored in each of the last two games, but has two goals and six points in nine games since joining the Wheat Kings and the Wheaties have just two wins since the trade deadline. Scoring shouldn’t be an issue, but giving up goals is. Brandon has allowed 40 goals in the nine games since the deadline, and that includes a shut-out win over Kootenay on Tuesday. Red Deer is just four points behind Brandon for the eighth and final playoff spot and hold three games in hand. That will be very interesting to see how it turns out over the next month and a half. The Wheat Kings face the Rebels in Red Deer Saturday. That would be a huge surprise if the Wheat Kings miss the playoffs and if this was “The Biggest Loser”, they are getting dangerously close to that yellow line.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
The WHL’s weekly report came out yesterday and two Royals’ are listed as out indefinitely with upper body injuries; Jesse Zgraggen and Tyler Stahl. Both were on the receiving end of wicked checks to the head. Stahl just got back on the ice for the first time Tuesday since he was hit by Charles Inglis in Prince George on October 1. Zgraggen’s hit happened last Wednesday in Moose Jaw from Dylan McIlrath late in the second period of a 2-0 Warriors’ win. McIlrath received a 8-game suspension and after seeing the hit a couple days after it happened, the punishment handed out fit the crime. The league explained the ruling on its website: Primary contact was the head, the hit resulted in an injury and it was McIlrath’s second suspension this season.
__________________________________________________ ______________________
Two teams in the middle of the pack in each conference are clubs that you might not think of as contenders right away, but are playing great right now. The Spokane Chiefs are only one point back of the Vancouver Giants for fourth and home ice advantage in the Western Conference. The Chiefs, who lost big-time players from last year such as forwards Tyler Johnson and Levko Koper and defenceman Jared Cowan, have won four straight and nine of 11. In the east, it seems like Calgary can’t lose. Mike Williamson deserves a ton of credit for guiding the Hitmen from a slow start to the season to sixth in the conference with victories in 11 of 12 games. The Hitmen, who were a last place team just a season ago, are three points out of third in the conference. The worry for Calgary might be, and that’s a big “might” with the way they’re going, is 15 of their final 24 games are against Central division teams and the Hitmen have the worst record among the six teams against Central division foes. Calgary is 6-10-1-0 and they will play eight of those 15 division games on the road.

[CdnSailor]

The Victoria Royals held firm against the WHL’s top team through 40 minutes last night, leading 2-1 and 3-2 during the game and were tied at three after the second period. But again, another three goals allowed in one period, this time the third, did the Royals in. That’s now 29 of the Royals’ 60 games played that they have allowed three goals in a frame. Tough enough to win when you only get 15 shots, too, but they held a 3-2 lead at 4:19 of the second and Cam Lanigan, who started the game in goal for Kamloops, left the game with an injury. Cole Cheveldave came in to replace Lanigan and blocked all eight shots he faced the rest of the way.

The Royals’ power play went 2-for-3, but gave up four Blazers’ power play goals on just six times short-handed. Until last night, the Royals had fared well against the Blazers’ power play all season, allowing just four goals on 31 short-handed situations.

So once again, nothing changes in the race for the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference. Since Saturday, when the Cougars defeated the Royals 3-1 and the Silvertips knocked off Vancouver in a shoot-out, five games have taken place involving the four teams in the pack, which includes Seattle. The playoff structure hasn’t budged for 7th and 8th, with Seattle and Victoria holding those spots at 42 points. Everett is at 41 and Prince George is at 40.

The Royals and Cougars finish their season series Friday and Saturday at CN Centre in Prince George, which kicks off an 8-game home stand for the Cougars. The Royals picked up two wins in Prince George at the start of the year and could really do themselves a huge favor by doing the same thing this weekend. Although we thought that last weekend and look what happened, a split of the two games at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The Royals will meet a Cougars team with the weakest home record in the WHL, going 8-18-0-1 on home ice this season. Although, only the Prince Albert Raiders have had a tougher time on the road than the Royals, who are 7-20-1-2 away from home this year.
__________________________________________________ _______________
As I mentioned before, it’s been almost a week and there has been no movement for those last two spots in the Western Conference. Now with Kamloops out of the way, the Royals have, by win percentage, the best schedule left of the four teams. Their opponents .529 win percentage is lower than Everett’s .536, Seattle’s .540 and Prince George’s .558. What helps the Royals is the fact they only have two games left with any of the top three teams in the conference and league: Kamloops, Portland and Tri-City. Those teams are separated by three points for home ice advantage throughout at least the first three rounds. The Royals finish the season, at home, to the Winterhawks March 14 and 16. Everett has six games to go (3 vs. TC, 2 vs. Por, 1 vs. Kam), Seattle has five left (3 vs. TC & 2 vs. Por) and the Cougars finish the season with four games against the Americans and Blazers.

Talk about a shot at revenge for the Blazers. It was the Cougars who knocked them out of playoff contention last season in a home and home series on the final weekend of the year. They will do it again this season and the Blazers may get a shot at returning the favour, while also in a hunt for tops overall.
__________________________________________________ _________________
We have been in awe all season of the scoring pace set by Medicine Hat’s Emerson Etem, but he might not finish with the most goals in the league this year. Ty Rattie of the Portland Winterhawks has been on fire of late and trails Etem’s 52 goals by just one. Rattie, who is also second in overall points to Brandon’s Mark Stone, had gone through a six game goalless drought before missing a Winterhawks game against Vancouver on February 6, the start of the team’s eight game win streak. Since then, Rattie has nine goals in the last seven games, with 15 total points and is a +11 in that span. The Winterhawks have played two fewer games than the Tigers this season, so while Etem has, for the most part, been the pace setter in goals in the WHL, Rattie has a good chance to be the league’s top sniper when all is said and done.

In fact, Etem has one goal in the last five games since he hit the 50-goal plateau in his 50th game of the year. Meanwhile, Tri-City Americans forward Brendan Shinnimin is on a seven game goal streak to get him to 44 markers on the season. Shinnimin has 13 goals over that span and has 13 games to reach the 50-goal mark. Hard to believe, but the last time an Americans’ player scored 50 goals was Dylan Gyori and his 53 in the 1998-99 season. In fact, the Americans haven’t had a 40-goal scorer since Colton Yellowhorn led the league with 48 in 2007-08. This year, they could have two, with Shinnimin likely hitting 50 and Adam Hughesman at 35 right now.

Brandon’s Michael Ferland might get there, with 40 at the moment. He had nine goals in four games last week to earn the CHL Player of the week honors, but was shut-out by Kootenay Tuesday.
__________________________________________________ ____________________
No division can claim to be as strong as the Central, with Eastern Conference leading Edmonton at 85 points and Medicine Hat, Calgary and Kootenay sitting third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Four teams with at least 74 points and Red Deer out of the playoff picture at 60, same as sixth place Kelowna. Lethbridge’s 49 would have them comfortably in the playoff picture in the West, but now they hope to move up in the bantam draft lottery. Bet Calgary wishes they were on the other side of the Rockies, though. The Hitmen have fared the worst of the Central division teams against their own division, with a 9-14-1-0 record and a .396 win percentage. Their last seven games are against division foes, including three with the Ice, who sit a point behind the Hitmen right now for fourth. The Hitmen will host the Kelowna Rockets on Sunday and will try to make it 10 straight wins over a BC division team. After they fell 3-1 at Prince George on December 28 to open a BC division trip, the Hitmen have won their last nine encounters with Kamloops, Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria and Prince George, and all of those in regulation.

Time is the biggest enemy for the Rebels right now. They have points in five of their last seven games and wins in four of those. The Wheat Kings, who occupy the eighth seed, are eight points ahead and have played well of late, with victories in seven of their last nine and a shoot-out point against Kootenay Tuesday. The Rebels are 10 behind Regina and the Pats have won five of their last six games, so Red Deer is getting no help.

Red Deer is 18 points ahead of the Royals, but they could get a higher first round pick than Victoria if the Royals get in and the Rebels do not. The six non-playoff teams are put into the WHL Bantam Draft lottery and will comprise the first six spots in the first round of the draft. Starting in round 2, draft positions are determined by regular season points. So instead of the eighth or ninth overall pick, the Rebels could get, for instance, the fourth pick, if things stay the way they are now and if they win the lottery. Interesting stuff.

[CdnSailor]

Back from Calgary today after a WHL on Shaw broadcast last night which saw the host Hitmen defeat Swift Current 5-4. That’s wins in six of the last seven games for the Hitmen, who move three points ahead of Kootenay for fourth in the Eastern Conference and stay four behind Medicine Hat for third. Give the Broncos credit, though. They are a team that know they won’t make the playoffs and fought back from two one-goal deficits in the first and early in the second, and nearly erased a three-goal third period Calgary lead.

Had a chance to talk with WHL Commissioner Ron Robison in the first intermission and the first thing we discussed was the debate on fighting, which grabbed headlines earlier this week. The New York Times reported Monday that Hockey Canada and USA Hockey are seriously considering rules to end fighting in non-professional leagues as soon as next season. Canadian Hockey League President David Branch is also on board with that course of action. We asked Mr. Robison for his take on the issue and it’s clear the WHL is not in favour of the idea. Firstly, the Commissioner said the WHL is preparing kids for the NHL and as long as fighting is allowed in the pro game, it will be a part of the WHL game as well. I quoted Branch’s statement in the story that “an appetite is there” to eliminate fighting, or severely crack down on it, and asked Robison if he has noticed that appetite in Western Canada. His response was that he has not had that impression among WHL fans and the league is not on side with the notion to remove fighting from the junior game.

Earlier today, The Province newspaper reported that Boston Bruins’ forward, and former Vancouver Giant star, Milan Lucic is “totally against it,” and that he thinks more injuries will occur because there would be no fear of fighting. That story is here.

Gregg Drinnan, Sports Editor for the Daily News in Kamloops, has a number of different articles on a few sides of the debate posted on his blog.

And Chris Epp reports on the story for CTV Calgary, which you can see here.
__________________________________________________ _____________

Well, the bad news for the Victoria Royals is they got swept in a mid-week double-header with the Spokane Chiefs. The good news is they’re essentially closer to clinching a playoff spot thanks to no movement in the hunt for the seventh and eighth positions in the Western Conference and the season a little closer to being over. The Royals were dumped 6-1 last night by the Chiefs, after a 4-2 setback on Tuesday night. Jared Rathjen made his fifth consecutive start in goal for the Royals last night, but I would think the reigns will be handed back to Keith Hamilton between the pipes for Vancouver this weekend. But while the Royals fell to the Chiefs, Everett couldn’t recover from a 3-0 deficit at home to the Kamloops Blazers and lost 3-2 and the Prince George Cougars dropped a 4-1 decision to Medicine Hat. The Tigers took two from PG. That loss to Kamloops by the Silvertips was their first game with 20-year-old Brennan Yadlowski back in the line-up after he served a 10-game suspension for unacceptable off-ice actions in a game that he was ejected from in Portland on February 3.

So the Royals still sit in seventh in the West with 46 points, two ahead of Seattle and three clear of Everett. The Cougars, who are 0-and-4 on their eight-game home stand, remain four points behind the Thunderbirds. Seattle has a game in hand on PG and Everett and two on the Royals. Seattle is at Everett tomorrow while the Cougars will host the Chiefs, in what must be quite a road trip for Spokane. Four games in five nights between the two furthest teams away from each other in the BC division.
__________________________________________________ ______________
One thing is for certain, the Giants bring out the best of the Royals at home. The Royals’ have won two of their three meetings with the Giants in Victoria and very easily could be 3-for-3. The Royals won their home opener on September 24, 5-3, and then got by the Giants 2-1 on November 4. The next night, it was 3-2 Victoria headed for the third, but the Giants cashed in with three goals for a 5-3 victory. Hard to believe these teams haven’t squared off since November 18, but they played seven games within the first two months of the year.

As much as the Royals need these four points up for grabs, this weekend is big for the Giants, considering they lead Spokane by a point for fourth in the West and both teams have nine games to go. The Giants are better at home than they are on the road, but not to the severity of the Chiefs in that regard. Spokane is 21-8-1-1 on home ice this season for a .710 win percentage, ahead of Vancouver’s .694 mark at the Pacific Coliseum. But while the Giants are a game over .500 on the road, Spokane is a game below the .500 mark away from home. Getting home-ice in that first round series, which looks like it’s inevitable that they will meet in the opening best-of-7, will be huge.

The Royals host the Giants Saturday, starting at 7:05pm, and then they have a 1:05pm showdown at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Sunday.
__________________________________________________ _______________

It was pretty easy to predict the winner of the WHL’s Player of the Month award. 20-year-old Brendan Shinnimin of the Tri-City Americans was the easy choice after a month of pure offensive dominance. A month ago, or even three weeks ago, I don’t think Shinnimin would have been considered a serious threat to win the Bob Clarke Trophy as the league’s leading point producer. It was, for the most part, between Brandon’s Mark Stone, Medicine Hat’s Emerson Etem, Edmonton’s Michael St. Croix and Portland’s Ty Rattie. But now, Shinnimin is running away with the league scoring title. During a 14-game point streak, which started February 3 at home to Seattle, Shinnimin has posted 23 goals and 43 points over that span. I was looking up how other top scorers have produced over the last 14-game stretch, and the closest that I came across was 30 points by Ams’ teammate Patrick Holland and Sven Bartschi of Portland. Stone has 29 points, Rattie has had 23 and Etem with 20. Shinnimin, who had 96 points last year and 82 in 2009-10, has 117 on the season, with 52 goals, 11 points ahead of Stone and all of a sudden he’s tied with Rattie, one behind Etem, in goals scored. In fact his last game was an off night, and he still had two assists against Seattle on Tuesday. In the previous four games, Shinnimin had at least four points, including a six point game on February 21 against Everett.

Shinnimin and Adam Hughesman are already past 100 points for the Americans and Holland is on the verge of hitting that mark as well with 97. The last time a team had three players to hit the century mark in points was back in 1995-96, when Saskatoon (Mark Deyell 159, Frank Banham 152 & Clarke Wilm 110) and Kamloops (Hnat Domenichelli 148, Jarome Iginla 136 & Bob Maudie 101) could boast that. A total of 15 players hit 100 points that season. Should Holland get to 100, which seems ridiculous to question after his terrific month of February, it would be on the 20th anniversary of the last time three Ams’ players pulled off the feat: Terry Degner 139, Brian Sakic 128 and Vladimir Vujtek 102 in 1991-92.

[the Royal Flush]

we can only pray to God that Hamilton stays on the bench...he is totally hopeless as a starter...we would be better off going with the Grizzlies backupman...Rathjen plays the remainder of the season...he gives us a chance...

[fatshad]

we can only pray to God that Hamilton stays on the bench...he is totally hopeless as a starter...we would be better off going with the Grizzlies backupman...Rathjen plays the remainder of the season...he gives us a chance...

I agree completely !! The team has no confidence with Hamilton between the pipes !! Hopefully we can make some adjustments on the PP and have some success there !! Way too much dumping it in and coming up dry on puck possession . Need to find a way to gain the blueline in control of the puck !! Need a big effort from everyone against the Giants tonight !! Go Royals Go !!:clap::clap::clap:

[CdnSailor]

As I sit here at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre typing this blog, U2’s “Beautiful Day” is playing over the loud speakers, which couldn’t be any further from the truth in Victoria. Rainy, gusty winds are the order of the day here.

Anyhow, the Victoria Royals are down to their final two games of the regular season and they get the Portland Winterhawks into town Wednesday and Friday. The Royals are back in eighth spot in the Western Conference thanks to their loss to the Everett Silvertips Saturday and the fact both teams lost in overtime yesterday. Hard to believe that three goals were enough for the Silvertips in all four meetings with the Royals this season, with a quartet of regulation losses, no less. The 3-0 set-back for Victoria Saturday was first loss that wasn’t 3-2 to the Silvertips and that Ryan Harrison didn’t score the game winning goal. Everett goalie Kent Simpson stopped 119 of 125 shots he faced from the Royals in the season series, posting a .952 save percentage and 1.50 goals against average.

The Royals have Seattle in their rear-view mirror, who sits three points out with two games in hand. But that win by the Royals Friday in Kelowna, broadcast on Shaw, was a solid team win and then earning a hard-fought point in Vancouver yesterday should be enough to get them into the playoffs. As difficult as it is for the Royals to knock off Portland in either of these two games coming up this week, Seattle has a home-and-home with Spokane and dates with Everett and Portland. The Chiefs have won five of six in the season series with the Thunderbirds and the Winterhawks are 10-1 against Seattle this season. Keep in mind Spokane is battling for home-ice advantage in the first round against Vancouver and enter this week two points back with a pair of games in hand. Portland will likely still be going at with Tri-City for first overall, or at least the division title. It’s hard to imagine Seattle can pick up four points in their final four games. Since the start of 2012, the Thunderbirds are 7-25-1-0 and are going to need to get points like they haven’t before to get into the post-season. Seattle has only two points in extra time this season, compared to 10 for Everett and seven for Victoria.

Prince George, after surrendering a 3-1 lead in a 5-3 loss to the Tri-City Americans yesterday, has little hope of getting in now. The Cougars can still mathematically catch Everett and Victoria for a playoff spot, but their final three games are in Tri-City and a home-and-home with Kamloops. That’s why they play the games in sports, but it looks like the Cougars will be entering the Bantam Lottery this season.
__________________________________________________ ________
The Royals have had two prior meetings with Portland on December 28 and 30. The Royals have scored nine goals in the two games, but lost 6-3 and 7-6. What may help the Royals is the fact Sven Bartschi may still be up with the Calgary Flames on an emergency call-up because of injuries. The Swiss born forward, a 13th overall pick of the Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, scored his first NHL goal yesterday against the Minnesota Wild. He will return to the Winterhawks as soon as two of the Flames’ injured forwards get back into the line-up. The Royals could avoid having to play against Bartschi all season, since he missed the late December games attending the World Junior’s in Alberta.

Robin Soudek did not play yesterday with an undisclosed injury and his status is day-to-day right now. That’s 27 goals in the line-up that could be out of action this week, although Robin is a guy you know will play if there’s any way that he can, especially since this could be it for his WHL career. The other 20-year-old, Captain Hayden Rintoul, continues to get the job done, with a goal and an assist yesterday. Rintoul tied the game with 22 seconds left in regulation time to secure the one point for the Royals, which could be a huge point as this week unfolds. His 13 power play goals are still tops among WHL defencemen.
__________________________________________________ _________
Two final regular season games on Shaw TV this week. The Prince Albert Raiders are in Saskatoon to face the Blades tomorrow, starting at 6:00pm PT. I was in PA, my hometown, for last week’s game between the two and did it ever live up to the rivalry. Two teams that purely don’t like each other and it had a good pace to it and stellar goaltending. That was defenceman Duncan Siemens first game back for the Blades after he sat out 13 with a concussion. Siemens was back to his usual, hard to play against self. I handled rinkside host duties along with my usual WHL Central host job, so I was going back and forth between the two benches, which I could access easily around the old rink. On the Raiders side, a couple of players were sitting on a side bench, just blasting Siemens and really hated the 11th overall pick of Colorado in the 2011 NHL Draft. I went over the Blades side and right after Siemens had knocked a Raiders’ player down along the boards, a Blades’ defenceman on the bench made a comment to Assistant Coach Dave Struch about Duncan. Struch responded, “Yah, that guy is a $&*@ing man!” Just some funny things you can hear in that role of reporting from the rink.

Finally, the Vancouver Giants will host Kelowna Friday night at Pacific Coliseum, which starts at 7:30pm. That game could have big meaning for the Giants, who will look to get home ice against Spokane in the first round.
__________________________________________________ ____________

Brendan Shinnimin of the Tri-City Americans continues to run away with the WHL scoring title, with 129 points on the season, 13 more than Portland’s Ty Rattie. Shinnimin has a 20-game point streak, the longest in the WHL this season, with 26 goals and 55 points over that span. Patrick Holland has been very impressive, but has been overshadowed by his Americans’ teammate. Holland, who had 30 points in February, tied with the Winterhawks’ Sven Bartshi for second to Shinnimin’s 43, is on a 17-game point streak, with an assist in all 17. Holland has four goals and 31 helpers during his run and leads the WHL with 81 assists, the first player to 80 assists since Todd Robinson 15 years ago for Portland.

There are eight WHL players with 100 points right now, with Bartschi at 94 and Michael Ferland of Brandon at 93 with outside chances. Of course Bartschi has to come back from the Flames, but Ferland has three games to get seven points. That’s the first time since 2000-01 that eight players have hit 100 points. The WHL had four, 100-point men last year. Another question is can anyone else get to 50. Tri-City’s Adam Hughesman and Hunter Shinkaruk of Medicine Hat both sit at 46 with three games to go. Hughesman has seven goals in a four game goal scoring streak and Shinkaruk has six goals in the last six games, but just one in four

[CdnSailor]

26 Mar 12

It’s been too long in between blogs, so I was glad to see Andy Kemper in Portland give himself a hard time about not posting one for a while too. Between getting ready for games for Shaw and trying to be a family man, I’ve been busier than expected.

Back in Victoria for games 3 and 4 of this KAL-Tire Western Conference Quarter-Final series between the Royals and Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers, the #2 seed in the West for the opening round thanks to their first BC Division title since 2002, have a 2-0 series lead with wins in the opening two games by scores of 4-1 and 7-4. In one of those stats that are impossible to put a finger on why it happened, the Blazers have scored eight of their 11 goals in the series in the second period. I’ve asked coaches, and many others have, why a period is so much more trouble than the other two if stats indicate they are. Now looking back on it, what’s the point in asking cause if they knew the answer to it, then there would likely be something done about it.

Royals’ Head Coach and General Manager Marc Habscheid said after game 1 that his top players needed to be top players in game two to have success. Good news is Robin Soudek has scored in back-to-back games to open the series, Jamie Crooks, who led the team in scoring with 37 goals and 67 points on the season, scored again in game 2, and Logan Nelson found the back of the net in the second game as well. But the Royals had too much of a mountain to climb in the third period of Saturday’s game, after surrendering five in the second period and trailing 6-1 through two periods. Of course, with a goaltending change in game 2, the question has been asked about a starter in game 3 for the Royals. The goaltending question comes into focus after Jared Rathjen took the ball for eight straight games near the end of the season. Who knows if that has been answered in the locker room yet, or if the coaching staff will sleep on it and make their decision tomorrow.

The Royals started the series very well, with an excellent first period in game 1 Friday. Very physical, won many races to loose pucks and really set a tempo for that first frame. But it’s got to be difficult to play that way for 60 minutes against such a talented team, but Crooks says that’s how they have to play. “It’s tough to play like that the whole way, but that’s what we have to do to win the series. That’s what we’ve talked about and that’s our goal is to maintain that and play that way for a full 60.”
They came out of that opening 20 minutes tied at one and as they faced a team that hadn’t won a playoff game, let alone a series, in seven years with a streak of 19 consecutive losses, there was absolutely a nervous energy at the Interior Savings Centre.

But the Blazers adjusted well in the second period and picked up their pace, they were winning races and their overall talent took over. Tim Bozon, the Western Conference nominee for WHL Rookie of the Year, was very strong with three goals in two games and JC Lipon, who went undrafted in the 2008 WHL Bantam Draft, was terrific, with two assists in each game. The Blazers really answered the bell physically, too, and out-shot the Royals 53-28 in game 2. The Blazers are full value for the 2-0 lead.

But the Royals are a team that feed off the energy of a loud and energetic crowd. Take the two games against Portland in the final week as a prime example. Two sell-outs, two wins, in critical games and the physical play was a big part of it. The Blazers have to expect a frantic opening period, certainly the first 10 minutes and the Royals could get themselves back in the series if they dictate the pace early.

“That’s where we need to set the tone for the rest of the game and what we need to do is play our game and keep it going,” added Crooks. “Everybody likes to play in front of a big crowd and a crowd that’s this exciting, so it’ll be fun to get out on the ice and start a game here at home.”

The Blazers have strong team speed and are very quick in transition. Their puck movement was flawless in game 2. Again, the banging of bodies to disrupt that timing will be a key for the Royals. It would also be interesting to see how both teams react if the Royals get a lead for the first time in the series. Puck drop is at 7:08pm both nights because of the Shaw broadcasts. Those of you coming to the game are encouraged to wear blue at the rink.
__________________________________________________ __________
Well, all the talk in Kamloops prior to game 1, and I mean all the talk, surrounded the appearance of Royals’ President and Alternate Governor Dave Dakers at the WHL Playoff Launch media conference in Kamloops on Thursday. I’ll be quick cause it’s old news, but I couldn’t help but laugh when Mr. Dakers, after everyone prior had given more politically correct speeches, just walked up to the podium and gave a blast to the media for not giving the team respect heading into the series, saying “I don’t even know why we’re here.” Then called out a writer at a Kamloops newspaper for naming the Royals “Grizzlies” in a story. It was one of those “did you see” topics of discussion that lasted well into Friday. I feel bad for the writer, who doesn’t need to be named by me. Those things happen once in a while and unfortunately in this case, just before a media conference. Hey, I forgot who was playing one night on the air, which is probably worse. Dave and I had a good chat about it during the second intermission of game 1 on Shaw. All day prior to the interview, I was going over in my head how I was going to bring it up during our piece and still didn’t know how to best handle it when the time came.
__________________________________________________ ____________
I want to give a big congrats to the Royals for a fantastic job they did for the team awards day on Saturday, March 17. Many teams, not all but many, do their awards just prior to puck-drop in the last game of the year. The Royals turned the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre ice surface into a banquet hall and took advantage of the new video screens for videos throughout the day. Jamie Crooks was named the team MVP.

“It was a great honor,” said Crooks. “Lots of guys could have won it that are in that locker room. But it’s in the past now and I just have to focus on the playoffs.”

The Royals’ Awards Ceremony press release has all the winners. The Kelowna Rockets and the Prince Albert Raiders are other teams that I can think of that do an actual awards banquet at the end of the season. There might be more, but those are the only ones that I know do.
__________________________________________________ _____________
For the most part, higher seeds have held serve on home ice through the first two games of each Conference Quarter-Final series. Only Regina and Brandon took home-ice advantage away from their opponents. The Wheat Kings, who play their first round home games at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, are up 2-1 on the Calgary Hitmen. Regina, who played the Moose Jaw Warriors tough all season, took game 1 on the road, 3-2.

Jordan Martinook has the early playoff scoring lead with three goals and eight points in the first two games of the Vancouver Giants’ series with the Spokane Chiefs, which were both won by the Giants. Martinook has been named the WHL’s Player of the Week for his performance. He scored 40 goals this season after he posted 11 last year.

The Edmonton Oil Kings, who have nobody on their roster that has won a WHL playoff series, have the reigning champion Kootenay Ice down 2-0 in their Husky Eastern Conference Quarter-Final series. The Oil Kings were the top team overall and have kept it going against last year’s WHL Champions with wins of 3-0 and 4-3, respectively.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Bruce Vance, the Business Manager and Director of Marketing for the Prince Albert Raiders, summed up the WHL Bantam Draft lottery results the best that day on twitter. Bruce, one of my favourites in the league, posted, “Haven’t won much all year. #notsurprised” The Raiders, who had the best chance of winning the first overall pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft on May 3 in Calgary, were bumped out of the number-1 spot by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the lottery on March 21. Only two teams could have done that, the T-Birds and the Prince George Cougars, since the winner moves up two spots. Lethbridge, Swift Current and Red Deer would have been fine for the Raiders, but it turned out to be Seattle. This is the second straight year and fourth time out of six since 2007 that a team that did not finish last overall had their ball drawn first in the lottery. The Kamloops Blazers, a team that had the least chance to win in 2011, moved from sixth to fourth last year. Only the Cougars in 2010 and the Portland Winterhawks in 2007 won the lottery with the best chance to win it.

Can you imagine Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the Portland Winterhawks last season? That could have happened in 2008 when the Winterhawks had the best chance of winning the lottery, but it was taken by the Red Deer Rebels, who had finished 21st in the league, but were 18 points ahead of Portland during the 2007-08 season. Mind you, Portland would not have had Ty Rattie if they got RNH, but it’s fun to think about what ifs. In fact, Portland traded the first overall pick to the Moose Jaw Warriors in 2007, which allowed the Warriors to take Quinton Howden. The Winterhawks drafted fifth overall and took Brad Ross, but that trade also gave Portland defenceman Joe Morrow in the second round, 28th overall, who is a first round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins last year.

Seattle is the first team to go from the third pick to first, compliments of the lottery, since 2007.

[CdnSailor]

There’s no question the better team won the KAL-Tire Western Conference Quarter Final series between the Victoria Royals and the Kamloops Blazers. The Blazers finished things off Wednesday night with a 4-1 victory, the same score they opened the series with last Friday. With the sweep, the Blazers are finally through a playoff series for the first time since Royals’ Head Coach and General Manager Marc Habscheid took them to the WHL final in 1999. The Blazers’ transition game is very strong, with overall high end speed. The Blazers’ depth showed in the series, despite being without Captain Chase Schaber for most of game3 and then 4 with a cut to the back of one of his legs from a Zane Jones’ skate. We have since found out that Schaber is gone for the season, a huge blow for the Blazers. Kamloops also played the final two games of the series without 50-point defenceman Austin Madaisky, who served a suspension for a check to the head penalty called against him on Jones early in game 2. Dylan Willick, a hard-working, honest player, led all goal scorers in the series with five tallies and JC Lipon’s seven points was the most in the series. Jamie Crooks led all Royals’ skaters with four goals and five points in four games, which included the first hat-trick in Royals/Chilliwack Bruins playoff history in game 3. Surprising stat was that the Blazers’ leading scorer during the regular season, Brendan Ranford, had three points in the series. However, he was the most dangerous Blazers’ player in the two games at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and could have had far more stats than he had.

For whatever reason, the second period did the Royals in against Kamloops. The Blazers out-scored the Royals 22-11 in the series and notched 16 second period goals to just three for Victoria. In fact, the Royals out-scored Kamloops 4-3 in both the first and third periods of the series. The goaltending and overall defensive play for the Royals had gone through tough knocks throughout the season and it continued into the playoffs. Poor Jared Rathjen, who stopped all seven shots he faced in the first period Tuesday in game 3, allowed five goals on 14 shots in the second frame and was given the hook. The turn of events that happened in that period, which saw Victoria go from a 2-0 lead to trailing 3-2 just 4:36 into the frame, had to be crushing in the minds of the hosts. But Habscheid said after the game that he was pleased with his team’s resolve to fight back, and take the lead back. But it was short lived, as Victoria surrendered the lead for the second time when the Blazers scored three times in a four-minute span late in the second, which included the second short-handed goal allowed by the Royals in the game.

Then in game 4, when the Royals scored first for the second straight night, Matt Needham beat Keith Hamilton glove side from the left wing on a shot that just can’t go in. Looking back on the highlights of that game and seeing that goal, Hamilton’s reaction tells you he’d be the first to admit that. But it wasn’t just goaltending. Bill Wilms, Shaw’s color analyst, said after game 3 that the Royals were just too soft in front of their own goal, which allowed for too many point blank chances for a talented Blazers’ forward corps. Cole Cheveldave at the other end made enough saves to win each night. He allowed four and five goals in games 2 and 3, but his team had already scored six times. Then when it was tighter in games 1 and 4, he made the big saves, a number of them in the finale.
__________________________________________________ _______

Being the host of WHL on Shaw, I’ve had the privilege to work with Peter Loubardias, a long-time broadcaster, first with the Reginal Pats a number of years ago and the voice of major junior hockey in Canada on Sportsnet until this year. His presence on the air for Shaw this season has added so much to the show and I am lucky to be able to learn from a true pro. For Games 1 and 2 in Kamloops, Peter was with me as an analyst and WHL Insider, while Dan Russell and Bill Wilms had the call from upstairs. When Peter isn’t doing a Shaw broadcast, he’s also a scout for the Red Deer Rebels. I don’t know how much he saw of the Royals during the regular season, but he saw enough in the first two games of the series to conclude that this was a team that would be challenging for far more than a playoff spot in the coming years. This was also my first chance to really watch Ben Walker play and the Edina, Minnesota, product can be an electrifying player in this league. It would stand to reason that a full summer of a WHL workout program and training camp in Victoria prior to the start of the 2012-13 season will add to his already impressive skill set. But you think about what this year will do for players like Logan Nelson, Zane Jones, Austin Carroll and Taylor Crunk and add the fact that Steven Hodges and Brandon Magee will be going into year three of their WHL careers, this team has a lot to look forward to. Jamie Crooks could easily be a 40-goal man next year as a 20-year old and one would figure that scoring won’t be a problem.

The question for this team lies in its back end and between the pipes. Sure, first round pick Joe Hicketts will likely be on the team next year, but will only be 16 and everyone takes their lumps in their first year. I was really impressed with Brett Cote this season and can he, along with Kade Pilton and Keegan Kanzig take big jumps next year and be influential players on the back end? Huge if Stahl comes back as a 20 and Fransoo will be a key in his 19-year-old year.

Then there’s the goaltending. Speaking with other media around the league, a few are convinced that the Royals will have two completely different goaltenders next season. Age is the biggest enemy for Keith Hamilton, who enters his 20-year-old season. That and his .880 save percentage and 4.10 goals against average during the season. It’s not out of the question to think that Ty Rimmer, the Western Conference nominee for WHL’s top goaltender, will be playing somewhere other than Tri-City next year, with it being his 20-year-old season and 17-year-old Eric Comrie ready to take over. Jared Rathjen had a .837 save percentage and a g.a.a. close to five, not numbers that have “heir apparent” written all over them. Cole Vollrath, a third round pick in the 2010 WHL Bantam Draft, had a solid season in the Alberta Major Midget League for the Calgary Buffaloes, so there is a hope he may be ready to go, even as a 17-year-old. With the success Saskatoon had with Andrey Markarov and Patrik Bartosak in Red Deer, perhaps the import draft might be where the Royals look to improve in goal. The Royals needed more timely saves and watching as close as we did in their first round set with Kamloops; there were just too many deflating and momentum changing goals that found the back of the net.
__________________________________________________ _________

Not sure yet which second round series Shaw will pick up in round 2, but almost guaranteed to be an Eastern Semi-Final. During game 4 between the Royals and Blazers, I had a chance to speak with Blazers General Manager Craig Bonner, the Western Conference nominee for Executive of the Year. This was during the first intermission. The interview was going fine until all of a sudden, the big spotlights on the WHL Central set went out and we were in the dark, literally and figuratively. Neither of us knew if we were still on, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in broadcasting is that you just keep going until someone tells you otherwise. So I asked another question to Craig, who looked like he truly believed no-one was hearing what he was saying. I did get word in my ear to wrap it up, I think, but with the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre so loud during the intermission, I couldn’t make out completely what he said. What didn’t help is that a TV monitor that I have went black, too, which I use for the out-of-town scoreboards and really a cue for when I’m on. Turns out we were on the air no problem and that a fuse blew upstairs where we were parked, which caused the black-out. Fortunately, with a three and a half minute highlight package from games the night before about to show after the break, everything was restored to normal during commercials.
__________________________________________________ __________
As I write this, seven of the eight first round series are already done. Only the Vancouver Giants and Spokane Chiefs will see their series go past five games. The Chiefs, without leading scorer and Western Conference Defenceman of the Year nominee Brenden Kichton due to a broken jaw, took a 3-2 series lead home for game 6 Sunday with a 5-1 win in Vancouver Friday night. The Giants were leading that series 2-0 and the Chiefs’ game 5 win was the first for a road team in the series. Along with the Blazers in the first round, Tri-City, Portland, Edmonton and Medicine Hat all earned sweeps, while Moose Jaw and Brandon got their series’ over with in five games. The four conference semi-finals will begin next Friday. We know Portland will face Kamloops, while in the East, Edmonton gets Brandon and Moose Jaw faces Medicine Hat.
Ty Rattie had 10 goals in four games against the Rockets, with two hat-tricks and a four-goal game Thursday in the series clincher for the Winterhawks. He had an amazing series and leads the playoffs in scoring with 13 points. Not far behind is teammate Sven Bartschi, who had 11 points, nine of which assists. Seven of Rattie’s 10 goals saw Bartschi pick up an assist, with six of those first assists. Going through highlights of that series, Bartschi just looked like a man among boys. I certainly don’t mean to take anything away from what Rattie has done in four games, but he had some easy finishes on plays that Bartschi set up. The highlight goal of the series was Bartschi sauntering through three waiting Kelowna defenders before dishing to Rattie at the lip of the crease for a tap-in in game 1.

I’m also curious to know if Emerson Etem’s fantastic first round for Medicine Hat against Saskatoon has earned him some votes for Eastern Conference Player of the Year. Although it’s based on regular season play, voting may still be going on. There is a points system among five votes for three players in each conference which are picked from each WHL market’s GM, Head Coach (Assistant if team has the same GM and Coach, like Victoria), the play-by-play announcer and two other members of the local media. For my money, Etem should get the nomination, but Mark Stone in Brandon could get serious consideration. I’m wondering if there is anyone on the fence between the two or anyone else in the conversation who may have taken his seven goals and 12 points in four games against the Blades into consideration to tip the scales. We will know who is up for WHL Player of the Year on Wednesday, April 18.

[CdnSailor]

Arrived in Moose Jaw Thursday afternoon for the start of the Husky Eastern Conference Semi-Final series between the Warriors and Medicine Hat Tigers on Shaw TV. Games 1 and 2 will be played at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw Friday and Saturday, and then heads to Southern Alberta for games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Wednesday. I will be on location for the first four games of the series, which means I will fly home to Victoria Sunday and then hit the air again Monday.

This should be an outstanding series between the Warriors and Tigers, who have both won four straight. The Tigers swept the Saskatoon Blades in round 1 in a series dominated by 61-goal man Emerson Etem, who had seven goals and 12 points in four games and was just too much for the Blades. In fact, Etem factored in 11 straight Tigers’ goals that stretched all four games. The other super sniper for the Tigers is Hunter Shinkaruk, who had a goal and six helpers in the series. One would think the Tigers have the edge in goal with 20-year-old and Edmonton Oilers prospect Tyler Bunz. Bunz is the Eastern Conference nominee for Goaltender of the Year. In front of him on defence to watch are James Bettauer, who had 21 goals and 58 points on the season, and Matt Konan, who recently signed an entry level deal with the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Warriors won the East division for the first time since 2006, a year that saw them reach the WHL final before they lost to a powerhouse Vancouver Giants’ team. The Warriors are a deep team up front and on the blueline. Quinton Howden is the most recognizable name among Warriors’ forwards after he played the last two years for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship. Howden had nine points, with three goals, in a five game victory in round 1 against the Regina Pats. But Howden has an impressive group around him, which includes two key trade deadline pick-ups. James Henry was acquired from the Vancouver Giants and leads the Warriors in playoff scoring with 10 points, and Cam Braes led the Warriors in scoring with 82 points and was picked up from Lethbridge. In fact, Braes and Henry finished 1-2 in Warriors’ scoring during the regular season. Now the Warriors have added 2011 first round Bantam pick Brayden Point, who hardly looks out of place with three goals and four points in five games.

Dylan McIlrath, a first round pick of the New York Rangers, leads a big, physical Warriors’ defence corps. There was a hope that Morgan Reilly, the highly touted defensive prospect for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, would return to the line-up as early as round 1 for the Warriors after he suffered an ACL injury in early November. However, we found out at the Warriors’ skate Thursday that Reilly would not play at all in the second round. Although Reilly is in full practices with the Warriors and in a regular practice jersey, not the ones injured players wear, he and the Warriors need a doctor’s clearance for him to get into game action and he has to get that done in Vancouver.

Dan Russell and Bill Wilms have the call and Peter Loubardias is on the broadcast for analysis and rinkside hosting, while I’ll continue in the WHL Central position. Can’t wait to get this series started, should be a dandy. The Warriors tied Portland for the best home record in the league and the Tigers shared the best mark away from home with Kamloops.
__________________________________________________ ______
In the other series in the conference semi-final round, the Edmonton Oil Kings face the Brandon Wheat Kings. Edmonton had no-one on their roster with second round experience in the WHL playoffs. But they just took out the champs, the Kootenay Ice, in four straight, so if things go wrong against the Wheat Kings, experience can’t really be an excuse now. It wouldn’t shock me to see the Wheat Kings give Edmonton a run in this round. Brandon has big-time weapons up front and Ryan Pulock and Eric Roy are a pair of ’94-born defencemen who have been great this season and neither is eligible for the NHL draft until 2013. Now that the Edmonton Oilers have played their final home game for the 2011-12 season, what an opportunity that lies ahead for the Oil Kings to make their mark on the City of Champions. It’s great to see crowds that reached 8400-8900 in Edmonton for their first round series with Kootenay, now will they get over 10K? We’ll find out this weekend. After playing their three home games against Calgary in Winnipeg in round 1, the Wheat Kings are back in Brandon for their home games against the Oil Kings.

The Tri-City Americans open at home against the Spokane Chiefs in what is going to be a heated showdown between two bitter US division rivals. Despite losing their top scorer during the season, defenceman Brendan Kichton, the Chiefs turned an 0-2 hole against the Vancouver Giants into a six-game series win. Mitch Holmberg had six goals in six games against the Giants and will be a key for the Chiefs, along with Mike Aviani, who has a team high 11 points in the post-season. Tri-City, the top seed in the West, is banged up right now. Defenceman Drydn Dow suffered a broken arm early in their first round sweep of the Everett Silvertips. Up front, Jesse Mychan suffered a torn Achilles tendon in game 3, so he’s also gone for the playoffs. Marcus Messier left game 4 with a concussion. Former Victoria Royal Mitch Topping will be a key on the Americans’ blue-line with Dow out of the line-up. Topping had a goal and three points in four games, and was a +4 in the series.

Portland gets Kamloops and with the shake-up in seeds in the second round, the Blazers have to try and earn home-ice advantage away from the Winterhawks. Both teams had sweeps in the first round; the Royals were victimized by the Blazers and Portland breezed by Kelowna. Huge loss for the Blazers in round 1 when Captain Chase Schaber was taken out of the playoffs by an errant skate of Royals’ forward Zane Jones in game 3. But the Blazers do get defenceman Austin Madaisky back for game 1, which is huge for them. Massive challenge lies ahead with Ty Rattie and Sven Bartschi playing out of this world right now for the Winterhawks. Rattie leads the playoffs with 10 goals and 13 points, while Bartschi has nine assists and 11 points.
__________________________________________________ ______
No doubt Kamloops and Edmonton is swarming with WHL team’s personnel this weekend as the prestigious Kamloops International Bantam Ice Hockey tournament is underway. Meanwhile, the Western Canadian Bantam AAA Championship has started in Stony Plain, AB, which ends Sunday. This is big draft coming for the Royals with the eighth and 13th overall selections, respectively. It takes time to develop a championship contender, and this draft is going to be a key in a few years if the Royals can nab a pair of impact players out of it. The Royals are a team that is very confident the pieces are coming into place to put them into a position where they will still be playing at this time of the year in a couple of years. But it takes time and the franchise was set back, prior to Marc Habscheid’s arrival in Chilliwack in 2009, when they did not deal assets on the roster for future prospects and draft picks a few years ago, specifically Mark Santorelli and Oscar Moller. Great players, but the Bruins missed a chance to help boost a contending team while stocking their own cupboards in the process.

Look at the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Kamloops Blazers as prime examples of a five year plan. The teams were patient and stuck to their guns of building a contender, while fans may have been getting restless in Kamloops and not overly interested in Edmonton. Now, those teams are seeing the fruits of their labour. Both teams’ General Managers are up for executive of the year: Bob Green from the Oil Kings and Craig Bonner for Kamloops. 16 players on the Oil Kings roster were bantam draft picks and they were the top team in the WHL with 107 points. The Blazers earned their first BC division title, in a runaway, since 2002.

[CdnSailor]

Into Medicine Hat Monday night for games 3 and 4 of the Husky Eastern Conference Semi-Final series between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Tigers on Shaw. Although the Warriors have a 2-0 series lead, it’s game on with Emerson Etem back in the line-up for Game 3 tonight. Etem served a one game suspension for a knee-on-knee collision with Torrin White in game 1. The hit happened just three and a half minutes into the game, so Etem essentially missed the first two games of the series. There was some surprise with the suspension when it looked like Etem was going for a clean, open ice hit. But knee-on-knee collisions are not something the league wants to tolerate, whether it’s by accident or not. Richard Doerkson, Vice President of Hockey for the Western Hockey League, told me that the right call was absolutely made on the ice for a five minute major and game misconduct, shortly after two minutes was posted on the scoreboard. This is Etem’s first suspension, so that was put into consideration on the final ruling, which came down on Monday. What was also put into consideration is White’s injury, so we may see him back in the Warriors’ line-up over the next two nights.

So now the series hits the Medicine Hat Arena Tuesday and Wednesday, one of my favourite stops in the WHL. It’s an older barn with a very good crowd, which has supported the Tigers like no other team in the league over the last number of years. Now with Etem back and with the Tigers holding the last change, it’s going to be difficult for the Warriors to keep their win streak going, which sits at six games. However, the Warriors defence has been fantastic, especially in game 2. Dylan McIlrath was matched up against Tigers’ sniper Hunter Shinkaruk in Moose Jaw and did a terrific job, although credit goes to Shinkaruk for his battles with the much bigger McIlrath. Shinkaruk scored a short-handed goal and almost made it 2-0 in the second period in game 2, but hit the goal post. In both cases, McIlrath wasn’t on the ice. Funny trend so far is the fact the Tigers’ best offensive chances have come while short-handed. Now with Etem, and his league high 10-short-handed goals back in the fold, it’s an area that has to be a confidence boost for the Tigers. The Warriors have one goal in eight power play tries, which includes a pair of five minute man advantages in game 1. One thing the Warriors have done a great job of is discipline and not taking penalties, and that’s got to continue against a top 5 power play unit in the league.

Games 3 and 4 are tonight and tomorrow in Medicine Hat, starting at 6:00pm Pacific Time on Shaw.
__________________________________________________ _____

Along with Etem’s suspension, the league also has handed Portland Winterhawks’ forward Oliver Gabriel a four game suspension for supplemental discipline after he ran into Kamloops Blazers’ goalie Cole Cheveldave in the final two minutes of game 1. Cheveldave did not play game 2 and won't play in game 3. The Winterhawks enjoy a 2-0 series lead, after they swept the Kelowna Rockets in four straight in the opening round. Sven Bartschi is the WHL’s Player of the Week after six points (3G, 3A) in the opening two games against the Blazers for the Winterhawks. All I can go on are highlights, but from what I’ve seen, Bartschi has made it look real easy to dominate. I had to wonder how the Blazers’ 5-3 loss in Portland in game 1, which saw Kamloops with a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes, was going to affect them in game 2. Can’t say for sure it did, but the Winterhawks won 4-1.
__________________________________________________ ______

The Edmonton Oil Kings take a 17-game win streak into game 3 of their series with the Brandon Wheat Kings. Did some number crunching on the Oil Kings’ win streak and found some interesting stats. As they kept on winning, I kept on thinking that they seem to be having to come from behind a lot. Sure enough, the Oil Kings have trailed at some point in nine of their 17 wins and gave up the first goal seven times. Only twice have the Oil Kings trailed by two goals and never more than that. However, the Oil Kings were usually in good shape in the third period. First off, they have out-scored their opposition 29-6 in the final frame and only trailed in the third period three times. The fact they have not scored a third period goal yet against the Wheat Kings in two games is going well against the grain for Edmonton. For the Wheat Kings, it’s their first game at Westman Place in Brandon since March 17, the final regular season game against Regina. They played their three first round series’ games at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, and won all three, because of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.
Tri-City and Spokane, who are tied at one in the series, play game 3 in Spokane Wednesday.
__________________________________________________ _____

Logan Nelson is the highest ranked Victoria Royals’ player on NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings. Nelson is ranked 73rd among all North American skaters eligible for the draft, while Steven Hodges, who was ranked 55th in the mid-season rankings, came in at 85. For Nelson, his place is a jump of 35 spots, after being ranked 108th in the mid-season rankings. Nelson finished tied for 4th in WHL rookie scoring with 62 points, with 23 goals. Hodges had 21 goals and 46 points on the year.

Everett Silvertips defenceman Ryan Murray has moved up to second in the rankings, behind Nail Yakupov of the Sarnia Sting. Yakupov is widely regarded as the player who will go first overall. Murray, the smooth skating product of White City, Saskatchewan, played a large role in getting the Everett Silvertips to the post-season, when it looked like there was no hope of that mid-way through the year. Murray took over the second spot from Russian Mikhail Grigorenko of the Quebec Remparts. Defenceman Morgan Reilly of the Moose Jaw Warriors, who hasn’t played because of a knee injury since November 6, is still ranked fifth, while fellow blueliners Griffin Reinhart (Edm), Matt Dumba (RD) and Derek Pouliot (Por) are ranked 10th, 11th and 12th, respectively. Kelowna forward Colton Sissons, who also had a long injury to deal with late in the year, is ranked 14th overall, which makes him the highest ranked WHL forward.
The rankings came out just in time for the NHL Draft lottery, which goes today. Columbus has the best chance for the first overall pick, while the Edmonton Oilers, who have picked first the last two years, have the second best chance.
__________________________________________________ _____

Nice to see WHL players having a strong impact at the World Under-18 Championship that is underway in the Czech Republic. Canada finished its exhibition schedule with a 5-4 win over the hosts yesterday, with Prince George Cougars forward Troy Bourke notching the game winner in overtime. Matt Dumba of the Red Deer Rebels also scored, while Sam Reinhart of the Kootenay Ice had two assists and Mike Winther of the Prince Albert Raiders also had a helper. Dominik Volek of the Regina Pats scored the tying goal for the Czech’s with one second left in regulation time.

Canada starts the round robin portion of the tournament against Denmark Thursday. The tournament ends with the gold medal game on Sunday, April 22.

[CdnSailor]

13 April 12

Well it’s another long break for me and the WHL on Shaw. After we watched the Kamloops Blazers get through the Victoria Royals in four straight, there was plenty of hype for our second round series between the East champion Moose Jaw Warriors and the fourth seeded Medicine Hat Tigers. At least game four was a classic, but the Warriors took out the Tigers in four, with a 4-3 overtime win in the clincher. Brayden Point, the 14th overall selection in the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft, scored the goal to send the Warriors to round three for the first time since 2006. The kid, who turned 16 just a month ago, has been an outstanding story in these playoffs and leads the post-season in game winning goals with three, and two of those are in overtime. He’s part of a Warriors team that just gets better as a game goes on, and although they got away from disciplined hockey in the first period Wednesday, they got back to what got them there and were able to survive a 3-1 first period deficit. The news gets even better for Moose Jaw, who will have Morgan Reilly back on the blue line. Reilly, who is ranked fifth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting for the upcoming NHL Draft, will be ready for the Edmonton Oil Kings when the Eastern Conference Final starts at Rexall Place in Edmonton April 20. For a defence that played fantastic against the Tigers to add Reilly, what a big boost for the Warriors.

It’s a shame the talk after game 4 was about the penalty Tigers’ Captain Cole Grbavac took that led to Point’s winner. Grbavac ripped the stick out of the hands of a Warriors defender and watched from the penalty box as his WHL career came to an end. It was a tough way to finish a tough season for Grbavac, who had no goals in the playoffs in eight games, after he had 10 in 13 outings last year.

Moose Jaw has been my pick to get out of the Eastern Conference since before the playoffs began, but the Oil Kings are going to be a new level of opponent for them. Edmonton has not only been perfect in eight playoff games, they have won 19 straight games. Not only that, but they are doing this with some stress involved, too. The Oil Kings have trailed in 10 of those 19 consecutive victories, and have allowed the first goal in eight of them. But they trailed by two goals only twice during the streak and only three times in the third period. In fact, Edmonton has out-scored the opposition 33-6 in third periods. They are the deepest team and well deserving of the Scotty Munro Trophy as the league’s top regular season team. It’s going to take quite an effort to stop them from being the best in the playoffs as well. With all the depth they have up front, it’s a 17-year-old rookie who leads the way in scoring. Curtis Lazar, a 1995-born product of Vernon, BC, leads the Oil Kings with four goals and 10 points.

I would hope this series lasts longer than four games, but we’re coming off a series where many figured it would go at least six games. That’s why they play the games.
__________________________________________________ __

Although the Kamloops Blazers are facing a steep challenge to erase a 3-0 series deficit to the very talented Portland Winterhawks, they pulled off a comeback of a lifetime Wednesday night in game 4 in Kamloops. In front of what has be a very discouraging crowd of 3587 at the Interior Savings Centre, the Blazers found themselves down 4-0 to the Winterhawks just two seconds short of the 11 minute mark of the first period. But the Blazers stormed back and won the game with five unanswered goals, capped off with Dylan Willick’s sixth of the post-season at 7:37 of the third on the power play for the eventual winner. That’s a gutsy win for a team facing not only elimination, but a long bus ride to Portland to try and do the same in a hostile environment. Game 5 of the series is Saturday night.
__________________________________________________ ___

Well it looks like the Spokane Chiefs are involved in the best series of this round again. After going a first round high six games against Vancouver, they will go at least six with the Tri-City Americans after their second overtime victory of the series Friday, 3-2. Dominik Uher scored the winning goal for the Chiefs, who are 3-0 in this season’s playoffs in overtime. Not only is that series tied at two, but all four games have been decided by a goal and if the puck had crossed the line a split second sooner for the Chiefs at the end of game 2, they could have played three of the first four in extra time. The Chiefs have really battened down the hatches in their own zone since the first two games of the opening round against the Giants. Eric Williams, who was acquired from the Prince Albert Raiders earlier in the year, took over for Mac Engel in net after the Giants had scored 14 goals in the first two games, both Chiefs’ losses. Williams and the Chiefs have not allowed more than two goals in eight consecutive games. They also just handed Americans’ forward, and league scoring champion, Brendan Shinnimin his first game off the scoresheet since January 29 in Calgary, which was also a loss. Until game 4 against the Chiefs, Shinnimin had a point streak that lasted 30 games, with an astonishing 34 goals and 38 assists for 72 points in that span, an average of 2.4 points/game. The Americans took 8 of 12 during the season series with the Chiefs, but it may take all seven games just to get four.
__________________________________________________ ____

It is great to see WHL players making a collective impact at the World Under-18 championship in the Czech Republic. That group got stronger with the additions of forward Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Brandon Wheat Kings` defenceman Ryan Pulock. Matt Dumba of the Red Deer Rebels is Canada`s Captain and had a goal and an assist in a 6-1 tournament opening win over Denmark Thursday. Troy Bourke of the Prince George Cougars had a goal and assist and Mike Winther of the Prince Albert Raiders also scored. Winther`s Raiders` teammate Josh Morrissey had an assist, along with Kelowna Rocket Damon Severson and Seattle Thunderbird Branden Troock. Canada will face Finland Saturday. The tournament ends April 22.