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 
Storm 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.
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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.”
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.
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.”
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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?”
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6A Providence Building
1081 Burrard Street
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Tel: 604-806-9027
Toll free: 1-877-922-9822
Fax: 604-806-9873
Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca
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Vancouver General Hospital Living Donor Program – Kidney
Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre
Level 5, 2775 Laurel Street
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
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kidneydonornurse@vch.ca
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Or, for more information, visit right here.
having paused activities because of COVID-19, three of the 10 games scheduled for that night have been postponed. So far . . .
Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. The game originally was scheduled as a Thunderbirds’ home game to be played in the accesso ShoWare Centre in Kent, Wash. . . . Before being gutted and rebuilt as the home of the Kraken, what now is Climate Pledge Arena was KeyArena and was home to the Thunderbirds. They played their final game there on Dec. 30, 2008, beating the Chilliwack Bruins (hey, remember them?), 2-0. . . . The Feb. 26 game will be the ninth meeting of the season between the teams; the Silvertips hold a 5-1-0 edge at the moment.
after all players and staff members returned negative tests. The organization had been on pause since Nov. 10 when two players tested positive. That resulted in the postponement of three games.
already used four goaltenders. That might help explain the announcement on Monday that they have hired Eli Wilson as goaltender coach. . . . It should be noted that Wilson, a veteran goaltender coach, also fills that position with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. In the past, he has worked with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, along with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and Vancouver Giants. . . . He apparently is replacing Adam Brown, who had been with the team since 2016. Brown’s name doesn’t appear in the news release announcing Wilson’s signing, and he no longer is listed on the team’s website. . . . The Rockets went into the season with four options in goal — veterans Roman Basran and Cole Schwebius, a pair of 20-year-olds, freshman Nicholas Cristiano, 17, and Cole Tisdale, 19, who made 12 appearances over three seasons. Basran and Schwebius were released, Cristian was returned to the U18 Fraser Valley Thunderbirds, and Tisdale went to the Americans in the deal for Boyko. . . . The Rockets also acquired Colby Knight, 18, from the Edmonton Oil Kings on Oct. 12. . . . So now the Rockets will ride the 6-foot-7.5 Boyko, who was selected by the New York Rangers in the fourth round of the NHL’s 2021 draft, and Knight, with Wilson charged with getting them on the right track and keeping them there.
victory over the host Portland Winterhawks. . . . With Portland having lost in regulation time, it means the idle Everett Silvertips will finish atop the U.S. Division. . . . The Americans (6-8-0) had lost their previous three games. . . . The Winterhawks now are 9-7-3. . . . Tri-City grabbed that lead on first-period goals from F Nick Bowman (2), at 0:30, F Tyson Greenway (2), at 11:13, and F Sasha Mutala (6), at 12:50. . . . F Reece Newkirk, playing in his 200th regular-season game with Portland, got his eighth goal, on a PP, at 8:32, and F Jaydon Dureau (5) cut the deficit to one at 10:12 of the third. . . . Tri-City G Talyn Boyko stopped 37 shots to earn the victory. . . . The Winterhawks had F Cross Hanas, D Clay Hanus and F James Stefan in the lineup for the first time. They spent most of this season with the USHL’s Lincoln Stars. . . . F Jack O’Brien, the fourth Portland player to have skated with Lincoln, played in his second game back with the Winterhawks. . . . 
host Spokane Chiefs to an 8-3 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Spokane (6-7-3) has won two in a row. . . . Seattle (7-11-0) has lost six straight. . . . Beckman, who led the WHL with 48 goals in 63 games last season, now has scored 15 times in 16 outings this season. . . . Beckman scored two second-period goals — on a PP at 2:28 for a 3-1 lead and at 16:50 for a 6-2 lead. He completed the hat trick with a shorthanded goal at 13:24 of the third period. That gave the Chiefs a 7-3 lead. . . . Spokane’s other goals came from F Eli Zummack (8), F Copeland Fricker (2), F Blake Swetlikoff (4), D Matt Leduc (1) and F Ben Thornton (1). Thornton was the 15th overall pick in the WHL’s 2019 bantam draft. . . . Spokane D Bobby Russell had three assists. . . . F Jared Davidson (6), D Cade McNelly (1) and F Keltie Jeri-Leon (12) replied for Seattle. . . . Seattle F Payton Mount played in his second game after being injured on April 13 when he struck on the head by a puck that glanced off the wall behind the team’s bench. . . . F Luke Toporowski was back with the Chiefs for the first time, after playing 32 games with the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede. He had 33 points, including 14 goals. . . . G Scott Ratzlaff made his WHL debut by playing the third period for Seattle. A second-round pick in the 2020 bantam draft, he stopped eight of 10 shots. . . . 
victory over the host Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . The Hurricanes improved to 9-11-2, while the Tigers slipped to 13-7-1. . . . F Logan Barlage (8), on a PP, and F Cole Miller (1) got Lethbridge into a first-period lead, and F Alex Thacker (3) made it 3-0 at 8:49 of the second. . . . Miller, the 16th overall pick in the 2020 bantam draft, scored his first WHL goal in his 10th game. . . . F Teague Patton (2) scored for the Tigers at 9:15, but the Hurricanes opened the third period with goals from F Dino Kambeitz (6), at 4:00, and F Chase Wheatcroft, on a PP, at 6:34, to take a 5-1 lead. . . . F Corson Hopwo (14) and F Carlin Dezainde (1) scored for the Tigers before game’s end, with Wheatcroft (7) getting the empty-netter. . . . Dezainde, an undrafted skater from Calgary, got his first WHL goal in his 11th game. . . . 
visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . Red Deer (3-15-3) had been 0-12-1 in its previous 13 outings. . . . The Oil Kings had won the past 17 meetings between these teams. . . . Edmonton (18-2-1) had points in each of its previous 10 games (9-0-1). . . . F Ben King (10) gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead with goals at 0:40 and 4:07 of the first period, the second one coming via a PP. . . . F Logan Dowhaniuk got Edmonton on the scoreboard at 15:52. . . . Red Deer got that one back when F Chris Douglas (7) scored, shorthanded, at 7:56 of the second period. . . . Dowhaniuk got his fourth of the season, on a PP, at 15:57. . . . F Ethan Rowland (6) of the Rebels got the empty-netter. . . . Edmonton F Jake Neighbours, who is on a 19-game point streak, sat out with an undisclosed injury. . . . Chase Coward, an undrafted goaltender from Swift Current, earned his first WHL victory in his second start with 24 saves. . . . F Josh Tarzwell was back in Red Deer’s lineup after being out since April 9 with an undisclosed injury. . . . Edmonton head coach Brad Lauer was fined $500 after taking a game misconduct at the end of Friday’s game, an 8-3 victory over the host Calgary Hitmen. . . .
Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. . . . Kamloops (13-4-0, .765) had lost its previous two games. . . . Kelowna (8-2-1, .773) had won five in a row. . . . Bankier, a sophomore from Surrey, B.C., had 20 points, including seven goals, in 55 games last season. His OT goal gave him his first career hat trick. He has 17 points, including eight goals, in 17 games this season. . . . Bankier, on a PP at 3:45 of the second period, and F Josh Pillar (9), shorthanded at 9:23, gave Kamloops a 2-0 lead. . . . The Rockets tied it on second-period PP goals by F David Kope and F Alex Swetlikoff (4), at 11:09 and 17:43. . . . Bankier scored on a PP at 2:38 of the third period for a 3-2 lead, only to have Kope (5) tie it at 8:59. . . . Kope also had an assist for a three-point night. . . . Kamloops got 35 stops from G Dylan Garand. . . . The Rockets had beaten him and the Blazers 6-1 in Kelowna on Friday night. . . . Kamloops F Connor Zary missed his second straight game after absorbing a high hit from F Jonny Hooker of the Prince George Cougars on Wednesday night. Hooker has been suspended, although the length of the suspension has yet to be announced. . . . The Cougars are scheduled to play the Vancouver Giants in Kamloops tonight. . . . 
Vancouver Giants a 5-4 victory over the Victoria Royals in Kelowna. . . . Vancouver (10-7-0) had lost four in a row. . . . The Royals now are 2-13-2. . . . The Giants held a 42-19 edge in shots, including 15-3 in the third period. . . . F Carter Dereniwsky (1) gave Victoria a 1-0 lead at 1:46 of the first period. . . . A second-round pick in the 2019 bantam draft, he was playing in his 16th game. . . . D Connor Horning (1) and F Adam Hall (6), on a PP, gave the Giants the lead before the period ended. . . . Victoria went back out front with second-period PP goals from F Keanu Derungs (3), at 2:39, and F Brandon Cutler (7), at 3:00. . . . D Alex Kannok Leipert (6) and F Kaden Kohle (1), at 4:29 and 5:02, got Vancouver back into the lead. . . . F Taren Fizer (4) scored, shorthanded, at 13:29 of the second to get Victoria into a 4-4 tie. . . . Vancouver G Drew Sim stopped 15 shots, while Victoria’s Connor Martin turned aside 38.
Championship in Frisco and Plano, Texas. . . . Canada ran its record atop Group A to 4-0 with a 5-2 victory over Belarus (2-2). Team Canada will play Czech Republic (1-2-1) in a quarterfinal game on Monday (TSN4, 1 p.m. PT) in Frisco. . . . Team USA (3-0-1) beat Finland 5-4 in OT to finish third, behind Finland (3-0-1) and Russia (3-0-1) in Group B, and now will meet Sweden (3-1-0) in a Monday quarterfinal game (TSN1, 6 p.m.PT). . . . The other quarterfinals on Monday will have Russia (3-0-1) against Belarus (10:30 a.m. PT) and Finland against Switzerland (1-3) (3:30 p.m. CT). . . . Latvia (0-4 in Group A) and Germany (0-4 in Group B) didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
Brøndberg, 18. . . . Just last week I wrote this about the two of them: Knak has played in the EHC Kloten organization. Last season, he had 14 goals and 11 assists in 37 games with the U-20 team. He also had five goals and eight assists in five games with the U-17 side, and had one assist in three games with the Kloten team in the NLB. Knak also played 26 games with the U-18 national team. He was the captain, and put up 10 goals and six assists. . . . Brondberg played in Sweden last season, splitting 28 games between two U-18 teams (Växjö Lakers), totalling three goals and six assists. He also had one assist in 21 games with a U-20 team. In 14 international games, he had four assists. Brondberg captained Denmark’s U-18 team at the U-18 IIHF World championship tournament.
shop in Cranbrook, at least not in time for the 2019-20 season. . . . Taking Note was told on Thursday that a group of 10 investors had reached a deal in principle to purchase the junior B Kelowna Chiefs and move the franchise to Cranbrook. . . . The team would have played out of Western Financial Place, which had been home to the WHL’s Kootenay Ice until that franchise moved to Winnipeg after its 2018-19 season ended. . . . The Ice’s lease with the City of Cranbrook runs through the 2022-23 season and a settlement hasn’t yet been negotiated. So the group had cut a deal with the Ice to sublease and, according to a source, the deal “guaranteed the city WHL rent for the next four years.” . . . However, the city rejected the sublease proposal late Thursday night, meaning the arena is one step close to not having a primary tenant for the 2019-20 season. . . .
they had parted company with Shaun Clouston. . . . Clouston, 51, had been with the Tigers since 2003-04, working as an assistant coach and associate coach before succeeding Desjardins as head coach prior to the 2010-11 season. Clouston had been GM and head coach since 2012-13. . . . Desjardins’ contract terms weren’t revealed but you get the feeling that he has the job for as long as he wants. . . .
after working for two seasons as the Swift Current Broncos director of player personnel and head coach. He helped lead the Broncos the WHL championship a year ago. Viveiros played four seasons (1982-86) with the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Trent Yawney, a veteran coach, also spent just one season with the Oilers, after working as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks for four seasons. There is speculation that he could be joining the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach. Todd McLellan, who was fired by the Oilers early this season, is the Kings’ new head coach. . . . Yawney played three seasons (1982-85) with the Saskatoon Blades. . . . Glen Gulutzan will be staying with the Oilers as an assistant under new head coach Dave Tippett. Gulutzan has completed one season with the Oilers and working as the Calgary Flames’ head coach for two seasons. As a player, he skated for two seasons (1989-91) with the Brandon Wheat Kings and one (1991-92) with the Saskatoon Blades. . . . There is speculation that Jim Playfair will be joining the Oilers’ staff as an assistant coach. Playfair worked with Tippett for six seasons (2011-17) when the latter was the head coach of the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes.
comprised of 10 local investors has an agreement in principle to purchase the Kelowna Chiefs of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League from owner Grant Sheridan, who also is the team’s president and general manager.
Conference final is 2-2 and on its way back to Swift Current for Game 5 on Saturday night. They’ll return to Lethbridge for Game 6 on Monday. . . . Last night, the Hurricanes took a 3-1 lead into the second period and went from there. They got two goals from D Calen Addison and two assists from each of F Brad Morrison and F Jordy Bellerive. . . . Morrison leads all playoff skaters with 21 assists and 36 points. . . . Lethbridge got 25 stops from G Logan Flodell, while Stuart Skinner made 23 saves for the Broncos. . . . The Hurricanes were 4-10 on the PP; the Broncos were 0-7. . . . The Broncos played a second straight game without D Artyom Minulin and F Glenn Gawdin, their captain. Minulin left in Game 1 with an undisclosed injury; Gawdin was hurt in Game 2. . . . “We’ve got to remember how we looked tonight,” Broncos head coach Manny Viveiros told Shawn Mullin, their radio voice. “As a team I thought we embarrassed ourselves tonight. That’s not who we are. . . . It’s still 2-2. But tonight I’m not happy with how we presented ourselves.”
TAKING NOTE 