Tuesday Notes

Courtesy Alan Caldwell:

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tuesday notes
A change has been made to the Team Pacific roster for the World U-17s. Vancouver Giants defenceman Neil Manning will not be able to play in the tournament due to injury, so he has been replaced on the team by Calgary Hitmen defenceman Matt McKenzie. I have made that change on the "who's away this month" rosters below.

Speaking of that, the first of the two B-pool World Junior tournaments is underway in Germany. This one features Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine - including Spokane's Stefan Ulmer (Austria) and Prince Albert's Max Brandl (Germany). The winner of the tournament gets promoted to the A-pool with the big powers for next year. After two games for Austria, Ulmer has one goal and a +4. Brandl also has one goal and a +2 after two games for Germany.

Same goes for the other B-pool tournament which starts tomorrow in Latvia and features Belarus, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia, and Slovenia. The only WHLer in this one (as far as I know) will be Calgary's Bostjan Golicic playing for the Slovenians.

Still with tournaments, one of the biggest tournaments on the annual midget hockey calendar (and many WHL scouts' calendars) is the annual Macs AAA Midget tournament in Calgary from December 26 - Jan 1. 25 top AAA midget teams from across Western Canada, plus a few from the USA and Europe - and there will be literally dozens of top WHL prospects in the tournament. The Macs will announce their team lineup tomorrow and I'll break down which team's prospects are playing in the tournament after the announcement. I always try to catch at least a few games in this tournament every year, and you should too if you live anywhere in the area. This tournament is a big deal to the kids who play in it and that never fails to make for great hockey. The tournament can also be followed at their website.