Tag: Neepawa Titans

Oil Kings wrap up WHL title . . . Cossa pitches Game 6 shutout . . . Paddock: Pats plan to build around Bedard, not trade him

The Edmonton Oil Kings won their third WHL championship on Monday night, beating the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds, 2-0, to win the best-of-seven series EdCupfor the Ed Chynoweth Cup, 4-2.

The Oil Kings last won the title in 2014 when they needed seven games to get past the Portland Winterhawks in the final. They also took seven games to sideline Portland in the 2012 final. Those teams also met in the 2013 final, with Portland winning in six games.

The Oil Kings went on to win the Memorial Cup in 2014, the last time a WHL team has won the national title.

Edmonton, the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed, skated through these playoffs in 19 games, going 16-3. The Oil Kings swept the No. 7 Lethbridge Hurricanes and No. 4 Red Deer Rebels before taking out the No. 1 Winnipeg Ice, 4-1.

The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, were the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed. They got past the No. 5 Kelowna Rockets, 4-1, then went seven games against both the No. 3 Portland Winterhawks and No. 2 Kamloops Blazers. In the process, Seattle became the first team in WHL history to win two Game 7s in the same playoff season on the road. The Thunderbirds trailed Portland, 3-1, in that series, then fell behind Kamloops, 3-2.

Last night, the Oil Kings came out determined to get more pucks and bodies to Edmontonthe Seattle net. . . . F Jakub Demek (5) opened the scoring, on a PP at 7:15 of the first period, corralling a loose puck in the Seattle crease off a shot by F Josh Williams and tucking it home. . . . Edmonton went ahead 2-0 at 3:44 of the second period as D Kaiden Guhle set a franchise record with his eighth goal of these playoffs. The previous Oil Kings record belonged to Martin GernĂĄt, who scored seven times in 2012. One year later, he scored six more. . . . Guhle was named the playoff MVP. . . . Guhle also played for the Prince Albert Raiders, who won the Ed Chynoweth Cup in 2019. That was the last time the WHL completed a playoff season as COVID-19 resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 postseason. . . . F Jake Neighbours drew two assists. . . . After getting ahead 2-0, the Oil Kings went into a 1-2-2 defence that oftentimes looked more like 1-4. . . . Edmonton G Sebastian Cossa stopped 27 shots. He finished the playoffs at 16-3, 1.93, .919, with five shutouts. . . . Seattle got 34 saves from G Thomas Milic, including 20 in the first period when his guys were outshot, 21-4. . . . Edmonton was 1-for-4 on the PP; Seattle was 0-for-6. . . . Seattle was without D Tyrel Bauer, who served the second of a two-game suspension. . . . Edmonton played again without F Dylan Guenther. . . . The Oil Kings will join the host Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL and the QMJHL-champion Shawinigan Cataractes at the four-team Memorial Cup tournament that opens on June 20 in New Brunswick.

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Meanwhile, the OHL championship for the J. Robertson Cup is going to a seventh game. The host Windsor Spitfires beat the Hamilton Bulldogs, 5-2, on Monday night to tie the series, 3-3. . . . They’ll decide the whole thing in Hamilton on Wednesday night. . . . F Daniel D’Amico led the Spitfires with two goals as they erased a 2-1 second-period deficit with the game’s last four goals. . . . F Logan Morrison had both Hamilton goals.

The Regina Pats held a spring camp on the weekend and Rob Vanstone of the ReginaRegina Leader-Post was there. No, he wasn’t competing for a spot on the Pats’ protected list; he was there in search of a story, and he found two. . . . For starters, John Paddock, the Pats’ general manager and head coach, told Vanstone that the plan is to build around F Connor Bedard, meaning that the organization is more likely to acquire players than to trade away their star. . . . That story is right here.

Vanstone also chatted with Paddock about a health scare with which the latter dealt during this hockey season. Paddock left the coaching game in early February and didn’t return as he dealt with COVID-19 and lymphoma. Everything seems under control now, though, and Paddock is planning on being behind the Pats bench when a new season arrives. That story is right here.

GasPrice

Before arriving in Toronto for a four-game series with the Blue Jays, the Baltimore Orioles placed OF Anthony Santander, one of their best hitters, and COVIDsouthpaw reliever Keegan Akin on the restricted list. From Sportsnet: “The moves suggest Santander and Akin could not cross the border due to an insufficient COVID-19 vaccine status. Unvaccinated people cannot enter Canada or the United States without a quarantine period.” . . .

From the San Francisco Chronicle: The Golden State Warriors are going to their broadcaster bench for Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night against the Boston Celtics. Tim Roye, the Warriors’ radio play-by-play announcer on radio station 95.7 The Game, tested positive for the coronavirus and was knocked out of action for the broadcast. Roye will also miss Game 6 Thursday in Boston. . . .

From The New York Times: The Rolling Stones postponed a stadium concert in Amsterdam on Monday, after Mick Jagger tested positive for the coronavirus. The announcement came shortly before the show was to begin and after some fans had already entered the stadium, the AP reported. . . .

From Entertainment Weekly: One day after performing on the Tony Awards, Hugh Jackman has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time and will miss performances of ‘The Music Man.’ . . .

From ESPN News Services: NBA commissioner Adam Silver canceled plans to attend Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics on Monday night in San Francisco because of the league’s health and safety protocols. Silver typically attends all Finals games. The league did not say if Silver had tested positive for COVID-19 or been deemed a close contact of someone who had, nor did it release any details about his health.

Snowman

JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The MJHL’s Neepawa Titans have added Zak Hicks and Landon Cameron as assistant coaches. Hicks played in the MJHL with the Winkler Flyers under then-head coach Ken Pearson, who now is the Titans’ head coach. Cameron is a familiar face in Neepawa, having been involved with various levels of hockey in the community.

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

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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

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

kidneydonornurse@vch.ca

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Or, for more information, visit right here.

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Scattershooting on a Sunday night after an entertaining Super Bowl — it was great to see Meadow and A.J. again, too . . .

Scattershooting2

Rick Brodsky spent somewhere around 40 years involved in the WHL. His family owned the Saskatoon Blades and he later purchased the Victoria Cougars, operating the franchise in the B.C. capital for two seasons before moving it to Prince George. He even did a stint as chairman of the WHL’s board of directors. . . . Brodsky recently appeared on Hartley’s Cat Scan — a podcast that is owned and operated by Hartley Miller, a longtime Prince George radio voice and analyst on Cougars’ home broadcasts. . . . Brodsky’s visit was so good that Miller split it into two parts. . . . And it is really good stuff. . . . Part 1 is right here. . . . Part 2 is right here.

When Nanaimo beat the host Powell River Kings 7-3 in a Saturday night BCHL game, the Clippers had assistant coaches Ken McPhalen and Bob Foglietta running the bench for a second straight game. That’s because Darren Naylor, the general manager and head coach, and Colin Birkas, the associate GM and associate coach, were placed on administrative league by the BCHL, a move later endorsed by Clippers’ owner Wes Mussio, pending the outcome of an investigation. The BCHL has appointed what it says is an independent investigator to look into allegations of breaches of a Code of Conduct. . . . The Clippers are next scheduled to play on Friday against the visiting Chilliwack Chiefs.

WR Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams finally got his MVP award after his side beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, in Sunday’s Super Bowl. The easy thing, it seems, is to give the NFL’s regular-season MVP award to a quarterback, but Kupp won a Triple Crown of sorts, leading all receivers in receptions, touchdowns and yardage. Kupp was saluted as the NFL’s offensive player of the year after what was one of the greatest offensive seasons in the league’s history, but he deserved to be the MVP. Instead, the award went to QB Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.

Put it on your calendar: The next Super Bowl is scheduled for State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 12, 2023. . . . After that, it’s on to Las Vegas for 2024 and New Orleans in 2025. . . . The game on Sunday was quite entertaining, but, yes, the 2021 Grey Cup game was more exciting.

Hose

“Five female competitors were disqualified from the Olympic mixed team ski-jump final near Beijing because officials said their jumpsuits didn’t comply with the rules,” reported Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “The NFL, simply out of habit, piled on with a $10,000 fine.”

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Perry, again: “SiriusXM fired PGA Tour Radio analyst Mark Lye after he said on-air ‘I’ll shoot myself’ rather than watch a WNBA game. Now they call him Unplayable Lye.”

Back in the day when Kevin Kaminski was known as Killer and was putting up points and penalty minutes with the Saskatoon Blades (1986-89), I don’t know how many people saw him as a coach. But here we are. He’s now the general manager and head coach of the SJHL’s La Ronge Ice Wolves and they are saluting him for putting up the 600th career coaching victory on Saturday night. . . . Kaminski has been the head coach of the Long Beach Ice Dogs (WCHL and ECHL), Missouri River Otters (UHL), Youngstown Steelhounds (CHL), Mississippi River Kings (CHL), Louisiana IceGators (SPHL), Portland Jr. Pirates (USPHL Elite), Louisiana Drillers (NA3HL), Fresno Monsters (WSHL) and now the Ice Wolves. . . . All that and he’s still on 52 years of age. . . . The Ice Wolves beat the host Melfort Mustangs, 5-4, on Saturday night for No. 600.

Two sporting figures were guilty of really telling it like it is last week. . . . Here’s Mike McDaniel after signing on as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach, when asked how he feels when someone points out his lack of head-coaching experience: “The thing that trips me up is every single head coach in the history of football has never been a head coach until he’s been a head coach. Everyone has to have their first time.” . . . And then there’s legendary surfer Kelly Slater, who is retiring at the age of 50 but told The Associated Press that he’s not worried about future plans: “Everyone who retires from surfing just goes surfing more.”

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THINKING OUT LOUD:

It was in the wee hours of Friday when Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa put a big bow on an 8-5 victory over Canada’s Jennifer Jones in a women’s curling match at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. I watched a lot of it and must say I don’t know that I have ever seen a team in any sport have as much fun and do as much smiling as the Fujisawa foursome. . . .

When Pittsburgh played the host Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, Penguins star Sidney Crosby was gunning for his 500th regular-season goal. If you live in Canada, the game was only available via TV in the Ottawa zone. The rest of us got to listen to the bizarre Jack Edwards cheering his Boston Bruins on to a 6-0 loss at the hands of the visiting Carolina Hurricanes. . . . On Friday night, with Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson making their debuts behind the bench as the Oilers played the New York Islanders, the game was blacked out everywhere but in the Edmonton zone. . . . The NHL really makes it easy to become less and less of a fan. . . . BTW, the Penguins are home to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night and you know that the hockey gods will see to it that Crosby gets No. 500 in that one. . . .

So . . . F Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins punched Pittsburgh Penguins G Tristan Jarry in the head, albeit with a gloved hand, and then poked him in the facemark with his stick. That resulted in a six-game suspension for Marchand, who later told Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic: “Of course it was stupid. I’m not denying that. I absolutely should not have done it. But suspension-worthy? I don’t think so.” . . . Marchand is appealing the suspension. Perhaps the NHL should overturn it and then give him 10 games for stupidity. . . . BTW, this is the NHL-record eighth time Marchand has been suspended. That’s one more time than the retired and nasty Chris Pronger. . . .

It’s just about time for Elon Musk or Richard Branson or one of those other guys who don’t pay taxes to put the guy who is in the ice bath in the garbage can and the gal on the forklift platform into one of their rocket ships and send them to the sun. Please! . . .

The best of the Super Bowl commercials? I would vote for the Chevy ad that featured Meadow and A.J. . . . E.J. Schultz of Ad Age has an excellent story right here on the commercial and its ties to the original opening to The Sopranos. Good stuff.

Moray

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.

Bob

Winterhawks land rights to high-end goaltender . . . Cougars, Broncos swap goalies . . . MJHL’s Neepawa franchise rebrands

Jesper Wallstedt of Sweden is NHL Central Scouting’s No. 1-ranked PortlandAlternateinternational goaltender going into the 2021 NHL draft. The Portland Winterhawks acquired his WHL rights on Monday, giving the Moose Jaw Warriors a sixth-round selection in the 2023 WHL draft. . . . Joshua Critzer of pnwhockeytalk.com reported that the Winterhawks also sent “several conditional selections” to the Warriors. . . . Critzer’s piece is right here. . . .

The Winterhawks have two other import players on their roster — D Jonas Brøndberg and Swiss F Simon Knak, 19. However, Brøndberg, a Dane, is 20 and the Winterhawks may not want to make room for a two-spotter — a 20-year-old import — on their roster. . . . Knak, who captained Switzerland’s team at the 2021 World junior tournament in Edmonton, began the 2020-21 season on loan to HC Davos of the Swiss National League, so might be thinking of staying home, although that may depend on whether he gets selected in the NHL’s 2021 draft, something that didn’t happen in 2020. . . . Brøndberg opened the 2020-21 season on loan to the Aalborg Pirates of Metal Ligaen, Denmark’s top league. . . .

Wallstedt, who won’t turn 19 until Nov. 14, is from Vasteras, Sweden. In 2020-21, he played in 22 regular-season games with Lulea in the SHL, Sweden’s highest pro league, putting up 11 victories and going 2.23, .908, with two shutouts. . . . The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Wallstedt also played for Sweden at the 2021 World junior championship in Edmonton. He got into two games (2.40, .923). . . The Warriors had selected him in the 2019 CHL import draft. . . . The Winterhawks have two other goaltenders on their roster — Dante Giannuzzi, the starter in 2020-21, who turns 19 on Sept. 3, and backup Brock Gould, who will turn 20 on Dec. 11. They also have signed G Lochlan Gordon, 18, who was a third-round pick in the 2018 bantam draft.

JFK

The WHL rights to two other goaltenders also were swapped on Monday, as the Prince George Cougars dealt Jacob Herman, 18, to the Swift Current Broncos for Jordan Fairlie, also 18. The deal is a homecoming of sorts for both players, both of whom actually are late-2002s. . . . Fairlie is from Fort St. John, B.C., while Herman is from Swift Current. . . . Fairlie, who will turn 19 on Nov. 5, got into one game with the Broncos in 2019-20 (0-1-0, 13.50, .700). In 2020-21, he played seven games (5-2-0, 2.16, .907) with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings. . . . Herman will turn 19 on Oct. 23. He played two games (0-2-0, 6.00, .831) with the Cougars in 2019-20. In 2020-21, he went 1-0-1, 4.20, .874 in three appearances with the SJHL’s Yorkton Terriers.

I’m a bit late with the above tweet, but if you hustle over to the Prince Albert Daily Herald’s website, who should be able to find the already-published stories in this series.

The MJHL’s Neepawa franchise, which had been known as the Natives, NeepawaTitansannounced on Monday that it has changed its nickname to Titans. . . . Ken Pearson, the Titans’ general manager and head coach, played for the Natives in the 1990s and said the previous nickname had been around since the 1960s. The franchise has been part of the MJHL since 1989. . . . In a news release, Pearson explained the new nickname: “A Titan is known as one that stands out for greatness of achievement and we feel our community is full of Titans in every facet of life. Neepawa is known as the ‘Land of Plenty’ and we feel Neepawa is a Titan in the agriculture, lumber, pork production and brewing industries. . . . The colours chosen reflect a field of canola on the horizon, the silver and black pay tribute to the classic look of junior hockey clubs of the ’90s.”

Marlin Vanrobaeys, a forward who was a key contributor to the MJHL’s Selkirk Steelers when they won the 1974 Centennial Cup, has died. He was 66. . . . Vanrobaeys, who was a fun-lover with a great sense of humour, also was known for his hair. I was with the Winnipeg Tribune and covered the Steelers when they were a dominant MJHL franchise in the mid-1970s. One spring day, Gordie Howe and the WHA’s Houston Aeros were in Winnipeg for a game with the Jets and found themselves in the Winnipeg Arena at the same time as the Steelers. Spotting Vanrobaeys, Howe took one look at him and asked: “Hey, did you get your finger stuck in a light socket?” . . . Well, Vanrobaeys and Co. thought that was just the greatest thing ever. . . . The Steelers won the national junior A championship with a 1-0 victory over the Smiths Falls Bears in the seventh game of the final. . . . In the photo in the above tweet, Vanrobaeys is in the front row, second from right, quite identifiable from the hair-do.

The BCHL announced on Monday that it plans to open its 2021-22 regular season on Oct. 8, which is about a month later than what used to be normal. . . . The league played games in a pod format in its 2020-21 season. Prior to that, it had a four-division format, something that now has been changed to two conferences, each with nine teams. . . . The Interior Conference will include the Cranbrook Bucks, an expansion franchise for 2020-21 that took part in the pod season but has yet to play a home game. . . . The 2021-22 season also calls for the return of the Wenatchee, Wash., Wild, which sat out 2020-21 because of the U.S.-Canada border being closed to non-essential travel.

Garbage

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.

JUST NOTES: William Sadonick-Carriere, the Brandon Wheat Kings’ athletic therapist for the past two seasons, is leaving to join the Manitoba Moose, the Winnipeg Jets’ AHL affiliate. He actually had been working with the Moose before joining the Wheat Kings for the 2019-20 season. . . . Former NHLer Ian Laperriere has been named head coach of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers announced last month that head coach Scott Gordon and assistant coach Kerry Huffman were out. Laperriere has been an assistant coach with the Flyers for the past eight seasons. . . . The Lake Tahoe Lakers, who are preparing for their first season in the USPHL’s Premier level, have signed Dan Bogdan as their first head coach. He was an assistant coach with the NAHL’s Maine Nordiques in 2020-21.

Princess

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