Tag: Bogdans Hodass

Pats waste Bedard’s four-pointer . . . KIJHL coach waves white towel . . . Americans complete three-win weekend

BEDARD
CONNOR BEDARD

THE BEDARD REPORT — F Connor Bedard scored three times and added an assist on Sunday afternoon but it wasn’t enough as his Regina Pats dropped a 6-4 decision to the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . Bedard gave his guys a 2-0 lead in the first period and a 4-1 edge at 13:47 of the second period. But it all went for naught. . . . The 17-year-old leads the WHL in goals (42) and points (85). . . . Bedard and teammate Stanislav Svozil are tied for the lead in assists (43). . . . Bedard has 20 goals in a nine-game scoring streak; the WHL has a total of 40 20-goal scorers at this point. . . . This was Bedard’s fifth hat trick this season. . . . He is riding a 33-game point streak, having picked up at least one point in all but the first game he played in this season. . . . In 111 regular-season games, he has 213 points, including 105 goals. . . . In six games since returning from the World Junior Championship, Bedard has 21 points, including 15 goals. . . . The Pats now head into Alberta for four games in six days — Red Deer on Tuesday, Calgary on Wednesday, Lethbridge on Friday and Medicine Hat on Sunday. . . . The Pats and Hitmen drew 3,279 fans in Calgary on Oct. 2. This time they’re talking about perhaps 17,000.

Hockey fans in the state of Washington were out in full force on Saturday night . . .

Former NHLer Jan Ludvig now is the head coach of the junior B Kamloops kijhlStorm of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. He also will be soon to hear from Jeff Dubois, the KIJHL commissioner, if he hasn’t already.

That’s because Ludvig is on the other end of the stick in the below tweet, the one with the white flag on the end of it.

Ludvig was given a gross misconduct at 12:01 of the third period as his Storm was dropping a 4-2 decision to the Posse in Princeton.

The Storm next is scheduled to play Friday against the Grizzlies in Revelstoke with a return match the following night in Kamloops.

——

D Zach Peitsch of the KIJHL’s Kelowna Chiefs is in Kelowna General Hospital after being injured during a Friday night game against the host Grand Forks Border Bruins. . . . Peitsch, a 17-year-old from Kelowna, was hit in the throat by an opponent’s stick, suffering damage to his windpipe. He was taken by ambulance to KGH where he underwent surgery. . . . On Saturday night, the Chiefs tweeted: “Zach’s surgery was successful, although the damage was worse than the doctors initially believed. He is awake and will remain in ICU for tonight at least.” . . . The Chiefs added: “On behalf of Zach and the Peitsch family, we thank everyone for their comments wishing him well.”

Demons

SUNDAY’S WHL HIGHLIGHTS:

The Medicine Hat Tigers overcame a 4-1 deficit and beat the Pats, 6-4, in front of a sellout crowd (6,499) in Regina. . . . What did John Paddock, the Pats’ general manager and head coach, think about the outcome? “I’ll call it stupidity,” he said, according to the Regina Leader-Post’s Rob Vanstone. . . . The victory lifted the Tigers (19-21-8) into an eighth-place tie with the Pats (22-21-2) in the Eastern Conference. That is the conference’s final playoff spot. They are one point behind the Swift Current Broncos. . . . Medicine Hat is 5-1-2 in its past eight games as it makes a run for a playoff spot. . . . Regina led 4-2 after the second period; it went into the game with a 19-0-0 record when leading after 40 minutes. . . . The Tigers scored the last five goals, four of them in the third period, with D Bogdans Hodass (9) getting two of them. . . . F Tomas Music (7) broke the 4-4 tie at 16:41 of the third period and F Brayden Boehm (18) added the empty-netter. . . . Regina D Stanislav Svozil had two assists. He has five goals and 43 assists in 33 games, after putting up 41 points, including 31 assists, in 59 games last season. . . . Vanstone’s game story is right here. . . .

G Dante Giannuzzi stoned the Spokane Chiefs on a 3-on-0 break in OT that allowed the Portland Winterhawks to scored a 4-3 victory on home ice. . . . Shortly after Giannuzzi’s save, F Marek Alscher (7) won it at 3:09 of extra time. . . . F Chaz Lucius had pulled Portland into a 3-3 tie at 19:43 of the third period. He also had an assist. . . . Lucius has at least two points in each of the six games he has played since joining Portland. All told, he has five goals and 10 assists. . . . The Chiefs held a 3-1 lead before D Ryan McCleary (11) got Portland to within one at 14:31 of the third. . . . F James Stefan added his 18th goal and two assists for the winners. . . . The Chiefs got 41 saves from Cooper Michaluk. . . . Portland (34-8-3) leads the Western Conference by three points over the Seattle Thunderbirds (33-8-2), who hold two games in hand. . . . The Chiefs (9-32-4) are 11 points from a playoff spot. . . . The Winterhawks were 3-0-0 in a three-game weekend, while the Chiefs were 0-2-1. . . .

F Owen Pederson scored at 2:42 of OT as the Winnipeg Ice beat the Hitmen, 5-4. . . . That was his 21st goal of the season. . . . The Hitmen had forced OT on late third-period PP goals from F Oliver Tulk (19), at 14:25, and F Sean Tschigerl (15), at 15:45. . . . Pederson and Tschigerl each scored twice. Tulk also had two assists. . . . The Ice (35-6-1) now leads the Eastern Conference by three point over the Red Deer Rebels (32-10-4). Winnipeg has four games in hand. . . . The Hitmen (23-17-6) are sixth in the conference. . . . Winnipeg went 2-1-0 in playing three games in fewer than 48 hours in Alberta. . . . Calgary also played three times in fewer than 48 hours, that last two at home. It finished 0-1-2 in those games. . . .

F Hayden Smith scored three times and added an assist as the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oil Kings, 10-2. . . . Smith, 18, went into the game with eight goals in 119 career regular-season games. This season, he has nine goals and four assists in 47 games. He has four goals and two assists in his past two games. . . . F Anton Astashevich (5) and F Jett Jones (17) each had a goal and two assists. . . . Lethbridge had a 51-24 edge in shots. . . . The Oil Kings took 72 of the 104 penalty minutes that were doled out. . . . The Hurricanes (26-16-5) are fifth in the Eastern Conference. . . . The Oil Kings (7-36-3), the WHL’s defending champions, won’t be in the playoffs this time around. . . .

The Tri-City Americans erased a 1-0 deficit with three straight goals and went on to beat the Silvertips, 3-2, in Everett. . . . F Jalen Luypen’s seventh goal, at 15:41 of the second period, proved to be the winner. . . . F Ethan Ernst got No. 25 for the Americans. . . . F Jackson Berezowski (30) scored his 112th career regular-season goal for Everett. That ties him with F Patrick Bajkov (2013-18) for the franchise record for most career goals. . . . Berezowski, who also had an assist, has 207 points in 251 games. . . . Bajkov, who is from Nanaimo, is playing professionally in Sweden. He put up 288 points in 342 games with Everett. . . . The Americans (23-16-5) went 3-0-0 on the weekend, beating Everett twice and Spokane once. G Tomas Suchanek went the distance in all three games. . . . Tri-City, fourth in the Western Conference, now is four points ahead of Everett (23-22-1). The Silvertips had a 1-2-0 weekend.

Idiots

Jack Todd, in the Montreal Gazette: “Not buying Novak Djokovic’s claim that his father was ambushed into a Down Under photo op by a bunch of pro-Putin Serbs. Everyone in Eastern Europe knows what the ‘Z’ T-shirts are about. Ditto the Wagner Group gear. Srdjan Djokovic knew what he was doing.”

——

Todd, again: “So the dysfunctional Vancouver Canucks organization has followed the awkward mess of the Bruce Boudreau firing by hiring Rick ‘Toxic’ Tocchet, who pleaded guilty in New Jersey in 2007 to charges of promoting gambling and conspiring to promote gambling. What could possibly go wrong?”

Treadmill

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Planets

Advertisement

A look back at Sobchuk’s 10-point night . . . Broncos put up sold-out sign for Bedard visit . . . Lucius set for Portland debut

Here are the first two paragraphs of something I wrote more than 36 years ago . . .

“It was Friday, Jan. 19, 1973. Across the pond in jolly old England, Prince Charles narrowly escaped a head-on crash while driving his Aston Martin through the fog-enshrouded countryside southwest of London.

“Meanwhile, at Regina’s Exhibition Stadium, a nautical mile or two from the old country, a prince of a hockey player was having a jolly good night.”

Thanks to a tweet from Kevin Shaw (@theblueliner), the go-to guy for all things Regina Pats, the memories came flashing back on Thursday night.

DennisSobchukYes, it was 50 years ago — Jan. 19, 1973 — when F Dennis Sobchuk had one of the greatest offensive nights in WHL history. That night, Sobchuk struck for 10 points, six of them goals, in an 11-3 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings before 2,284 fans at Regina’s Exhibition Stadium.

It’s worth noting that the Wheat Kings were without F Ron Chipperfield (throat infection), who was leading the league with 53 goals.

Sobchuk’s line finished with 20 points — Mike Wanchuk had a goal and five assists; Clarke Gillies had a goal and three assists. Gillies also spent some time in the penalty box, thanks to a pair of fights with Brandon D Rick Piche.

The 18-year-old Sobchuk was in his second season with the Pats. That night, his fourth goal was his 100th regular-season score. Yes, he had 100 goals in fewer than two full seasons.

“Some nights they go in easy. Other nights they don’t go in at all. Tonight, well, it was one of those real good nights,” Sobchuk told Mal Isaac of the Regina Leader-Post. “And I should have had a couple of more, especially in the third period. But I guess a guy can’t be greedy.”

The outburst came just two days after head coach Bob Turner had talked with his three top forwards, telling them “to shoot more, that’s all. Each of them has a great shot but they just don’t shoot enough. Tonight, they were really rifling them and look what happened.”

The six goals allowed Sobchuk to tie the WCHL record — the WHL then was the Western Canada Hockey League — for goals in a game that had been set two seasons previous by F Danny Spring of the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Sobchuk’s 10-point night also got him a piece of the single-game record for points, one that had been established by F Gerry Pinder of the Saskatoon Blades on March 12, 1967, and tied by F Tom Lysiak of the Medicine Hat Tigers on Dec. 30, 1971. While Pinder also had six goals and four assists in his big game, Lysiak did it with four goals and six helpers.

Sobchuk also tied the WCHL record for goals in one period — he scored five times in the second period.

Sobchuk’s night also pushed him into the WCHL scoring lead with 92 points, including 46 goals. At that point, he had two more points than Lysiak, who would go on to win his second straight scoring title, with 154 points, seven more than Sobchuk.

In his freshman season (1971-72), Sobchuk totalled 123 points, including 56 goals, in 68 games, and was named the WCHL’s rookie of the year.

He would play one more season with the Pats (1973-74), putting up 146 points, including 68 goals, in 66 game and helping Regina to a Memorial Cup title.

In three seasons with the Pats, he finished with 416 points, 191 of them goals, in 190 regular-season games. He placed fifth, second and second in the scoring race.

Sobchuk had won the Saskatchewan Amateur Junior Hockey League’s scoring title in 1970-71 when he finished with 96 points, including 56 goals, in 36 games with the Weyburn Red Wings. At that time, his WCHL rights belonged to the Estevan Bruins, who were about to move to New Westminster.

On July 7, 1971, Del Wilson, the Pats’ president and general manager, acquired Sobchuk from New Westminster, sending F Emile DeMoissac, F Wayne Dye, D Bob Hess, F Doug Lindskog and F Vic Mercredi the other way.

DeMoissac, Hess and Mercredi would be key performers for the Bruins, although all had moved on before their four-season run (1974-78) as WHL champions.

By November 1986, Sobchuk was the Pats’ assistant GM and assistant coach. One night, he and I chatted about his 10-point outing.

“Funny thing,” he recalled. “I didn’t realize it but they had a guy shadowing me that night. When the people clapped for me at the end of the game, Brandon — I talked to a few of the players in later years — they were going to push the guy who was supposed to be the shadow out there to take a bow with me.

“But it was just one of those nights. Whenever you shot the puck it went in. It was a crazy night.”

I asked Sobchuk just how big a thrill it was.

“I still have the stick,” he replied.

Two nights later, the Pats and Wheat Kings met in Brandon, with Regina skating away with a 5-4 victory. F Rick Uhrich had three goals. Sobchuk had one assist.

Number

JUNIOR JOTTINGS:

The Swift Current Broncos announced on Thursday that tonight’s game against the visiting Regina Pats, aka the Travelling Bedards, is sold out. . . .

F Chaz Lucius, 19, has joined the Portland Winterhawks and is expected to make his WHL debut tonight against the visiting Victoria Royals. Lucius, who starred with Team USA at the recent World Junior Championship, had been with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. The NHL’s Winnipeg Jets assigned him to Portland after the WJC. . . .

F Gabriel Szturc, a 19-year-old from Cesky Tesin, Czechia, was named the 28th captain of the Kelowna Rockets on Thursday, replacing Colton Dach, who was traded to the Seattle Thunderbirds earlier this month. Szturc is the first European-born captain in the Rockets’ franchise history. Four of Szturc’s first five games as captain will be against the Vancouver Giants, starting tonight in Langley, B.C., and Saturday in Kelowna. . . .

F Ben King of the Red Deer Rebels, who led the WHL with 52 goals last season, has 10 points, five of them goals, in five games this season. But he hasn’t played since suffering an undisclosed injury on Oct. 22. It seems that he may return tonight against the visiting Prince George Cougars or Saturday with the Brandon Wheat Kings in town.

WEDNESDAY’S WHL HIGHLIGHTS:

D Max Wanner’s eighth goal at 0:45 of OT gave the Moose Jaw Warriors a 5-4 victory over the Blades in Saskatoon and a sweep of their home-and-home series. The Warriors had won, 3-1, at home on Tuesday. . . . The victory allowed the Warriors (28-14-2) to move into a third-place tie with the Blades (27-9-4) in the Eastern Conference. The Blades hold four games in hand. . . . F Atley Calvert led the Warriors with two goals and two assists. He has 25 goals and 25 assists in 44 games after finishing last season with 15 and 25 in 65. He went into last night’s game with 98 career points and came out with 102, all in 146 games. . . . Last night, the Blades outshot the visitors, 43-17, including 16-2 in the third period. . . . The Warriors trail Eastern Conference-leading Winnipeg (31-5-1) by five points and visit the Ice tonight and Saturday. However, the Ice holds seven — count ’em, SEVEN — games in hand. . . .

F Connor McClennon and F Zach Benson each had a goal and three assists as the Winnipeg Ice lit up the Raiders, 8-1, in Prince Albert. . . . Benson has 24 goals; McClennon has 21. . . . Ice F Connor Geekie scored his 20th goal of the season. . . . The Ice held a 39-16 edge in shots. . . .

The Medicine Hat Tigers scored three times in a six-round shootout and beat the Broncos, 5-4, in Swift Current. . . . Three second-period goals had given the Tigers a 4-2 lead, but the Broncos pulled even on third-period scores from F Josh Filmon (28) and F Connor Hvidston (9). . . . Hvidston also had two assists, and Filmon finished with two goals and a helper. . . . Latvian D Bogdans Hodass scored twice for the Tigers, giving him seven this season. . . . The Tigers (17-21-6) closed to within two points of the Broncos (20-17-2), who hold down the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot. Those two teams are to play in Medicine Hat on Sunday. That will be the Broncos’ third game in fewer than 48 hours. . . .

The Prince George Cougars came from behind four times before finally beating the host Calgary Hitmen, 6-5. . . . With the NHL’s Flames playing host to the Colorado Avalanche in the Saddledome, the WHL game was played at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex. . . . Prince George scored the game’s last three goals, all in the third period. F Jaxsen Wiebe (7) got the winner at 14:42, his second of the game. F Koehn Ziemmer (22) also scored twice for the winners. . . . The Cougars, who fired 21 shots in each of the last two periods, outshot the Hitmen, 51-35. . . .

F Ben Hemmerling scored twice, including in OT, and added two assists as the host Everett Silvertips beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes, 4-3. . . . Hemmerling’s 14th goal came at 3:36 of extra time. . . . Hemmerling, who now has had two four-point games in his WHL career, has three goals and six assists in his past four games. . . . The Tri-City Americans erased a 4-0 first-period deficit and beat the Victoria Royals, 5-4, in Kennewick, Wash. . . . F Ethan Ernst (21) scored twice for the Americans, his second goal, at 13:54 of the third period, breaking a 4-4 tie. . . . F Matthew Hodson (13) scored twice for Victoria. . . . The Americans (19-16-4) are fifth in the Western Conference, one point behind the Everett Silverips (21-19-1).

Electrician

THINKING OUT LOUD: I yearn for the days when I could look at NHL highlights and recognize teams by their uniforms. . . . David Adelman is the acting head coach of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets these days. That’s because head coach Michael Malone is away because of health and safety protocols. Yes, COVID-19 has reared its ugly head, again. Three Denver players — Bones Hyland, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray — have spent time in protocol this season, too. And you thought the pandemic was over, didn’t you? Mask up!

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Test

Some B.C. teams cleared for 100 per cent capacity . . . Not Blazers, Cougars, Rockets . . . Want a drink at Kraken game? Bring money. Lots of money

B.C.’s NDP government and the Provincial Health Office have been guilty of mixed messaging and poor communications on more than one occasion over the last 18 or 19 months or however long we have been in this pandemic-induced mess.

That appears to have been the case again on Tuesday.

Of course, no one should have been surprised when it was announced that (some) facilities, including the home of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, would be allowed to go to 100 per cent capacity — up from 50 — on Oct. 25. Uhh, the Canucks’ home-opener is scheduled for Oct. 26. I know. I know. Surely, a coincidence. Right?

But there are a lot of junior hockey teams in B.C., and many of them believed that they were included in the change to 100 per cent capacity. Except it turns out they weren’t.

While the Vancouver Giants and Victoria Royals are among the 100 Club, the Kamloops Blazers, Kelowna Rockets and Prince George Cougars aren’t. Neither are the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs, Cranbrook Bucks, Merritt Centennials, Penticton Vees, Prince George Spruce Kings, Salmon Arm Silverbacks, Trail Smoke Eaters, Vernon Vipers and West Kelowna Warriors. Oh, and the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks aren’t in the 100 Club either. At least, not yet.

It took Richard Zussman of Global BC to unmuddy the waters.

If you missed it over the weekend, the family of the late Jimmy Hayes, a former nhl2NHLer, revealed that he had fentanyl and cocaine in his system when he died in August. That came after he had ended up addicted to painkillers while rehabbing an injury. . . . Rick Westhead of TSN spoke with Len Boogaard, whose son Derek, a former NHL/WHL player, died of an accidental overdose in May 2011. . . . “How many players have to die before the NHL acknowledges that there’s a problem?” Len Boogaard said. “Ten years ago, with Derek, I maintained that it was a learning experience for everybody, so that Derek didn’t die in vain. Well, we continue to just go through the same thing. After me it was Steve Montador’s dad. And now it’s Jimmy’s dad saying he wants to bring this to everyone’s attention, so it doesn’t happen to everyone else. I guess it’s going to take more players dying, maybe three or four back-to-back again, or maybe more, for the NHL to do something. Maybe it has to happen again, God forbid. I know it sounds so callous . . .” . . . Westhead’s complete story is right here. . . . And if you haven’t read the book Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard, written by John Branch of The New York Times, it’s well worth your time.

You should know that there aren’t any “overage” players in the WHL.

Merriam-Webster defines “overage” as being “too old to be useful.”

There was a time, prior to April 2, 1985, when the WHL and its teams referred to 20-year-old players as “overagers.” However, that came to an end at a board of governors’ meeting in Calgary on that sunny April day in 1985.

At that same meeting, governors voted to allow each team to dress three 20-year-olds, up from two, a rule that remains in existence today.

“I’m pleased about the move to three 20-year-olds,” WHL president Ed Chynoweth said at the time. “We also decided to eliminate the word ‘overage.’ From now on, those players will be referred to as 20-year-olds.”

——

There were 20-year-olds in action on Tuesday night as the WHL featured two games. Some highlights . . .

In Medicine Hat, F Lukas Svejkovsky, a 20-year-old, scored his league-leading seventh goal of the season at 2:17 of OT to give the Tigers a 5-4 victory over the Swift Current Broncos. . . . F Teague Patton (1) of the Tigers (3-3-1) had tied the game at 8:24 of the third period. . . . Svejkovsky also had three assists, with D Bogdans Hodass also finishing with a goal, his second, and three assists. . . . D Mathew Ward (4) had a goal and two assists for the visitors. . . . The Broncos (2-5-1) had opened the season with a home-and-home sweep of the Tigers. Swift Current now has lost six straight (0-4-2). . . .

In Kent, Wash., the Seattle Thunderbirds scored the game’s first three goals and went on to a 5-3 victory over the Spokane Chiefs. . . . F Mekai Sanders (2) scored once and added an assist for Seattle (3-2-1) which had lost it previous three games (0-2-1). . . . Seattle lost F Matthew Rempe with a charging major and game misconduct at 7:06 of the third period. . . . The Chiefs (2-4-1) got to within a goal, at 4-3, when F Blake Swetlikoff (1) scored on a PP at 9:18 but they weren’t able to equalize.

Medical

The Foo Fighters were on stage at Climate Pledge in Arena, the home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, on Tuesday night. . . . If you’re thinking of catching an NHL game there once the U.S. opens up its border, well, you may want to visit your banker first. . . .

If you enjoy reading hockey-related notebooks, I’ve got one for you. Ken Campbell, who spent so many years writing for The Hockey News, now is on his own and writes at Hockey Unfiltered. . . . His weekly notebook is right here, and there is an especially interesting piece on a whole lot of scouts testing positive after attending a recent event.

JUST NOTES: F Nathan MacKinnon was back in the Colorado Avalanche’s lineup on Tuesday night, his stint with COVID-19 over after a couple of negative tests. He had been asymptomatic as he missed his team’s first two games of the NHL’s regular season. MacKinnon is fully vaccinated so, under the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols, he won’t lose any pay. . . . D Jack Johnson also is back with Colorado after missing one game following a positive test. He since has had two negatives. . . . The Winnipeg Jets were without F Blake Wheeler, their captain, on Tuesday night when they visited the Minnesota Wild. He has tested positive for COVID-19 and has symptoms; the remainder of the team also tested negative on Tuesday morning. Wheeler will be in isolation for at least 10 days, so won’t play in the Jets’ home-opener on Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks.

So . . . you’re the general manager of a hockey team and you’re thinking that you had a bad day or a bad weekend. Well, let’s take a look at Derek Stuart, the GM/head coach of the junior B Kimberley Dynamiters of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, and what he and his squad went through last weekend. . . . Leading up to a pair of weekend games, the Dynamiters had two of their top four defencemen leave the team, one of them retiring to go into firefighting at the age of 20. . . . Then, before the weekend games arrived, three players were suspended, two of them for “participating in a multiple-fight altercation.” That mean Stuart also was suspended for a game. . . . Then, on the first shift of Saturday’s game, the Dynamiters lost their captain to a broken collarbone. Later, another forward also left with an injury. . . . When he woke up on Monday and after he had his first cuppa, he told Paul Rodgers of the Kimberley Bulletin: “I’m doing better today than I was Saturday night.” . . . There’s got to be a good country song in there somewhere. Right? . . . Rodgers’s story is right here.

The junior B Summerland Steam of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and general manager/head coach Nick Deschenes “have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately,” according to a three-sentence news release from the team. . . . The really interesting part of this is that the Steam is 4-1-0 to start the season. . . . Gus Cave, the associate coach, now is the interim GM/head coach. . . . Deschenes, 42, had been with the Steam since April 2020.

Oil

So . . . Washington State University’s head football coach, Nick Rolovich, who had US$10 million left on his contract, got punted from his job on Monday because he wouldn’t get vaccinated. WSU is a state school and the state mandated that all employees get vaccinated. Oh, and four assistant coaches wouldn’t comply either, and, yes, they’re gone, too. As freelancer Henry Schulman, once of the San Francisco Chronicle, tweeted: “Don’t let the door hit your anti-science Palouse cabooses on your way out.”

Here’s Kendra Woodland, the pride of Kamloops, getting things done . . .

If you are interested in being a living kidney donor, more information is available here:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

——

Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney 

Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street

Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9

604-875-5182 or 1-855-875-5182

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

——

Or, for more information, visit right here.

Bears

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