If you are one of those folks who believe that the pandemic is over, you should know a few things:
As of Saturday, 9 p.m. PT, the Coronavirus Resource Centre at Johns Hopkins University reports that 3,894 people died from COVID-19 in the U.S. in the past week, including 629 in the past day. . . . The total number of deaths in the U.S. is 1,111,485. . . .
In Canada, there were 201 deaths from COVID-19 in the past week, with 15 of those in the past day. That brought the total number of deaths in Canada to 50,704.
Over? Uhh, maybe not.
Rick Westhead of TSN reported on Saturday:
“Rather than approving a request from several former Canadian Hockey League 
players to certify a hazing, bullying and abuse lawsuit filed three years ago against the CHL, its three major junior hockey leagues, and its teams as a class action, an Ontario judge has proposed an alternate potential path to justice.
“In a 103-page decision released late Friday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell applauded the bravery of former CHL players, including Dan Carcillo, Garrett Taylor and Stephen Quirk, for sharing their stories in a public forum but said the case was not suitable to proceed as a class-action lawsuit. . . .
“An abused hockey player has only individual causes of action against his own team and his own leagues . . .”
According to Westhead, Perell also wrote that “bullying, harassment, hazing, and criminal conduct is pervasive amongst the teams of the WHL, the teams of the OHL, the teams of the QMJHL, and the teams of the CHL. . . . Discrete wrongdoing by the defendants was pervasive, and to the shame of the perpetrators and their enablers discrete wrongdoing has been pervasive for decades.”
The judge also wrote: “The evidence establishes that some unknown number of . . . players in the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL were hazed, bullied, assaulted, threatened, stigmatized, mocked, demeaned, derided, ridiculed, slandered, and humiliated by their teammates team staff, agents, employees, and servants of the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL.”
Westhead’s complete story is right here.
There is more on the late Don (Smokey) McLeod, the WHA/NHLer from Trail, B.C., who was among the first goaltenders to use a curved stick. . . . Back in the day, Doug Soetaert, the former general manager of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, was tending goal for the Edmonton Oil Kings, At the same time, he recalls, the WHA’s Edmonton Oilers were playing out of the Edmonton Gardens. . . . McLeod would have been playing with the Houston Aeros or Vancouver Blazers at the time. . . . “I would go over after practice and help WHA visitors as stick boy,” Soetaert tells Taking Note. “He gave me one for helping him out.” . . . Soetaert sent me photos of that particular stick. You have to admit that’s some kind of curve. . . . Soetaert played four seasons (1971-75) with the Oil Kings before going on to a pro career that included 284 regular-season NHL games.
Headline from The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) — Financial advisors recommend buying grocery stock instead of groceries.
SATURDAY’S WHL HIGHLIGHTS:
F Luca Hauf scored twice and added two assists to lead the Edmonton Oil Kings to a 5-1 victory over the Hitmen in Calgary. . . . The Oil Kings (8-37-3) had lost their previous two games. . . . Calgary (23-18-7) has lost five in a row (0-2-3). . . . Hauf, from Krefeld, Germany, turned 19 on Jan. 11. A freshman, he has 21 points, including five goals, in 40 games. This was his first four-point game and first multi-goal outing. . . . D Jacob Hoffrogge, who went into the game with two goals and two assists, all with the Everett Silvertips, this season, had three assists for Edmonton. It was his ninth game with the Oil Kings. . . . Attendance at the afternoon game in the Saddledome was announced at 9,843, meaning the Hitmen has played in front of 27,066 in its past two home games. . . . Calgary is sixth in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Regina Pats. . . .
G Tyler Palmer stopped 35 shots and F Beau Courtney scored the only goal as the host Everett Silvertips got past the Seattle Thunderbirds, 1-0. . . . It was Palmer’s fourth career shutout; the first three came with the Victoria Royals. This was his 16th appearance since being acquired by Everett. . . . Courtney’s seventh goal of the season came at 18:04 of the first period. . . . Seattle was without D Jordan Gustafson and F Lucas Ciona, both with undisclosed injuries. . . . Seattle had beaten the Silvertips, 6-5 in OT, in Kent, Wash., on Friday. . . . The announced attendance of 8,249 was the Silvertips’ largest this season. . . . Everett (24-22-2) is fifth in the Western Conference, five points behind the Tri-City Americans. . . . Seattle (35-9-2) slipped back to second, one point behind the Portland Winterhawks. . . .
G Talyn Boyko stopped 51 shots to lead the host Kelowna Rockets to a 4-0 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Boyko stopped 17, 13 and 21 shots by period. He has four career shutouts, two this season. . . . D Elias Carmichael scored Kelowna’s last two goals. Carmichael, a 19-year-old from Langley, B.C., has five goals in 40 games this season. He went into the season with seven goals in 130 games. . . . With five players out with undisclosed injuries, the Rockets dressed 10 forwards and five defencemen. . . . The injured Rockets: D John Babcock, F Andrew Cristall, F Max Graham, F Ty Hurley and D Marek Rocak. . . . The Rockets (17-26-3) have won three in a row for the first time this season. They are eighth in the Western Conference, four points ahead of the Victoria Royals. . . . The Raiders (19-27-3) went 3-2-0 on their B.C. Division trek. They go home eight points out of a playoff spot. . . .
The Medicine Hat Tigers erased a 2-0 first-period deficit as they beat the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes, 4-2. . . . F Oasiz Wiesblatt (19) scored twice for theTigers, getting them on the scoreboard at 15:24 of the first period and breaking a 2-2 tie at 2:46 of the second. . . . The teams combined for five goals in the game’s first 22:46, then didn’t score again until F Tyler MacKenzie (13) got an empty-netter at 19:16 of the third. . . . The Tigers got 35 stops from G Evan May, who posted his second WHL victory in his 16th appearance. . . . The announced attendance was 2,276. They are expecting about 7,000 fans today for a visit by F Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats. . . . Medicine Hat (20-21-8) has points in seven straight games (5-0-2) and has closed to within one point of the eighth-place Swift Current Broncos in the Eastern Conference. . . . Lethbridge (27-18-5) is fifth in the conference. . . .
The Portland Winterhawks scored the game’s last three goals to beat the visiting Tri-City Americans, 4-1. . . . It was a bounce-back victory of the Winterhawks, who had been beaten, 6-1, by the Americans in Kennewick, Wash., on Friday night. . . . G Gabe Klassen (28) snapped a 1-1 tie at 13:30 of the second period and F Aidan Litke (12) added insurance at 19:16. . . . G Dante Giannuzzi stopped 25 shots in running his numbers this season to 22-6-2, 2.94, .905. . . . The Winterhawks remain without F Chaz Lucius and also scratched F Robbie Fromm-Delorme, both with undisclosed injuries. . . . Portland (35-10-3), which has clinched a playoff spot, had lost its previous two games. This victory moved it back atop the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . The Americans (25-17-5) hadn’t lost in regulation time since dropping a 2-1 decision to the Chiefs in Spokane on Dec. 30. The Americans went on a 10-0-3 run after that loss. . . . Tri-City is fourth in the Western Conference. . . .
F Koehn Ziemmer scored twice and F Chase Wheatcroft set a club record as the host Prince George Cougars beat the Victoria Royals, 4-2. . . . The Cougars had won 8-1 in the first game of the weekend doubleheader on Friday night. . . . Ziemmer, who has 29 goals, gave his guys a 3-1 lead at 5:14 of the third period, then made it 4-2 at 19:50 with the empty-netter. . . . Wheatcroft scored his 30th goal of the season for a 1-0 lead at 5:13 of the first period. It was his 19th on the PP and that’s a club single-season record. He had shared the record with F Berkeley Buchko (2000-01). . . . Prince George (21-21-4) is sixth in the Western Conference, four points behind the Everett Silvertips. . . . Victoria (14-31-5) is ninth, four points behind the eighth-place Kelowna Rockets. . . . In Friday’s game, the Royals lost F Jamie Poole, their leading scorer, and F Matthew Hodson with undisclosed injuries. They already were without D Gannon Laroque, F Brayden Schuurman and D Austin Zemlak. . . . Things don’t get any easier for the Royals as they are to play their third game in fewer than 48 hours in Kamloops today. . . .
G Ethan Chadwick stopped 34 shots to lead the host Saskatoon Blades to a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Ice. . . . Chadwick, who turned 19 on Jan. 27, is from Saskatoon. He is 14-7-2, 2.67, .898 in his sophomore season. . . . F Jake Chiasson (13) broke a 2-2 tie at 3:21 of the third period. . . . F Connor McClennon scored both Winnipeg goals, giving him 30 this season. He has 250 career points, including 122 goals, in 220 regular-season games. . . . Saskatoon was 2-for-2 on the PP; Winnipeg was 1-for-2. . . . The Blades scratched G Austin Elliott, F Justin Liens, F Tyler Parr, F Josh Pillar, F Conner Roulette and F Jayden Wiens, all with undisclosed injuries, and D Blake Gustafson, who was ill. . . . Saskatoon plays at home today (Brandon) and Tuesday (Edmonton) before heading out on a B.C. Division tour that begins Friday in Kamloops. . . . The Blades (31-12-4) are third in the Eastern Conference, nine points behind Winnipeg (37-7-1), which had won four in a row, and four points behind the Red Deer Rebels. . . .
F Ben King scored the only goal of a shootout to give the Red Deer Rebels a 1-0 victory over the Chiefs in Spokane. . . . It was the first game in the Rebels’ U.S. Division tour. . . . The Rebels got 26 saves from G Kyle Kelsey. . . . G Dawson Cowan stopped 45 shots at the other end. . . . Red Deer (34-10-4) leads the Central Division and is three points behind the Eastern Conference-leading Winnipeg Ice. . . . The Chiefs now are 9-33-5 and have lost six in a row (0-4-2). . . .
F Logan Stankoven had a goal and two assists in running his point streak to 32 games as the Kamloops Blazers skated past the Vancouver Giants, 4-2, in Langley, B.C. . . . Stankoven was late in starting this WHL season because he was in camp with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, and he later missed some games while winning gold with Canada at the World Junior Championship. He has played in 32 games now, and has at least one point in each of them. He has 71 points, including 27 goals, in what now is the WHL’s longest active point streak. . . . F Matthew Seminoff (19) scored twice for the Blazers. . . . F Ryan Hofer got his 31st goal and added an assist for Kamloops, giving him six points in two games. He had three goals and an assist on Friday in a 6-4 victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders. . . . Kamloops (30-10-6) has won three in a row. The Blazers will finish atop the B.C. Division. . . . Vancouver (18-24-6) has lost four in a row. It is seventh in the conference, five points ahead of the Kelowna Rockets.
The U of Calgary Dinos men’s hockey team extended its Canada West-record winning streak to 21 games with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Manitoba Bisons on Saturday. . . . The Dinos had beaten the Bisons, 5-1, on Friday.
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Friday night, with 5,378 fans showing up to watch them post a 3-2 victory over the Hurricanes. . . . According to the Enmax Centre website, it seats 5,479. . . . It was the Hurricanes’ largest crowd this season and came in their 26th home game. The announced attendance on Dec. 9, for a 5-3 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers, was 5,000. . . . On Tuesday, the Travellin’ Bedards had helped Red Deer set a single-game franchise record — 7,287 — as the Rebels won 6-5 in a shootout. . . . On Wednesday night, the Travellin’ Bedards beat the host Calgary Hitmen, 6-5 in a shootout, before 17,223 fans in the Saddledome, which has a capacity of 19,289. . . .
Yes, 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.
tonight (Wednesday) in Iowa City. But . . . guess what? . . . Northwestern tweeted that the game won’t be played “due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols” within its program. . . . There were reports that Northwestern had only six players healthy enough to play. According to Big Ten rules, a school needs one coach and seven scholarship athletes in order to play.
Gibson, 15, six conditional WHL draft picks and a fourth-round pick in the 2004 draft from the Seattle Thunderbirds for the rights to F Dylan Guenther, 19, the rights to F Jordan Ramsay, who will turn 16 on Jan. 24, and a 2023 eighth-round pick. . . . The conditional picks — a second in 2023, sixth in 2024, fourth in 2025, and first, fourth and fifth in 2026 — all hinge on the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes assigning Guenther to Seattle. . . . Guenther, a first-round pick by the Coyotes in the NHL’s 2021 draft, has three goals and eight assists in 22 games with Arizona this season. . . . He scored the OT goal on Thursday as Team Canada beat Czechia, 3-2, in the World Junior Championship final in Halifax. . . . The Oil Kings selected Guenther with the first overall pick of the WHL’s 2018 draft. He helped the Oil Kings to the WHL championship last season as they beat the Thunderbirds in the championship final. . . . 
CHL at the moment, acquired F Jake Chiasson, 19, from the Brandon Wheat Kings for a first-round WHL draft pick in 2023, a second-rounder in 2025 and a conditional second in 2026. . . . Chiasson, from Abbotsford, B.C., was a fourth-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL’s 2021 draft. The Wheat Kings selected him in the first round of the WHL’s 2018 draft. . . . He was in his fourth season with Brandon, having put up 30 goals and 41 assists in 141 regular-season games. . . . This season, he has 10 goals and 18 assists in 37 games. . . . From the Saskatoon news release: “Chiasson made international news earlier this winter as he and three teammates, who were driving over a bridge in Brandon, helped save the life of a distressed man.” . . . The 2023 first-round pick was Saskatoon’s and not the one the Blades acquired from Seattle in the deal that had F Brad Lambert’s rights move to the Thunderbirds. . . .
Wiesblatt, 20, from the Prince Albert Raiders for three conditional draft picks — a first in 2025 and two seconds in 2026. . . . The picks — one of the second-round picks was acquired from Brandon earlier on Tuesday —
acquiring F Zac Funk, 19, from the Calgary Hitmen for F Carter MacAdams, 18, and three WHL draft picks — second-rounders in 2023 and 2024, and a fourth in 2024. . . . Funk, from Coldstream, B.C., had 13 goals and 19 assists in 33 games with the Hitmen this season. In 129 career games, he has 78 points, 39 of them goals. . . . He was a second-round pick by Calgary in the 2018 draft. . . . MacAdams, from South Surrey, B.C., was picked by the Cougars in the fourth round of the 2019 WHL draft. He has 18 goals and 30 assists in 117 regular-season games over three seasons with Prince George. This season, he has six goals and 15 assists in 36 games.
Swift Current Broncos for a ninth-round pick in the WHL’s 2026 draft. Weigel, from Warman, Sask., is with the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos and, according to the Blazers, “will remain with the Broncos for the 2022-23 season and become an affiliate player.” . . . He has six goals and 18 assists in 31 games with Humboldt this season. . . . Weigel has played in 25 WHL games — one with the Regina Pats and 24 with Swift Current. He has six assists in those games. . . . Regina picked him in the sixth round of the WHL’s 2018 draft.
had passed, the Regina Pats acquired F Steel Quiring, 19, from the Everett Silvertips for a fourth-round pick in the WHL’s 2026 draft. Quiring, from Vernon, B.C., had three goals and three assists in 30 games with Everett. He also has played for the Kelowna Rockets and Calgary Hitmen. The Silvertips acquired him from the Hitmen on Sept. 30. . . . The Rockets selected him in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. . . . Alan Caldwell (@smallatlarge) pointed out on Twitter that “the Pats are Quiring’s 4th WHL team in the last
Sunday’s craziness and with the WHL’s deadline now only hours away.
Mason Ward, 20, moving to the Broncos for Kayden Sadhra-Kang, 19. . . . The Wheat Kings acquired Ward from the Red Deer Rebels prior to the 2021-22 season. From Lloydminster, the 6-foot-5 Ward had four goals and six assists in 38 games with Brandon this season. . . . The 6-foot-4 Sakhra-Kang, from Richmond, B.C., was acquired by Swift Current from the Lethbridge Hurricanes early last season. In 90 games with the Broncos, he had four goals and 19 assists. . . . 
got D Ethan Peters, 19, from the Edmonton Oil Kings for a second-round pick in the WHL’s 2025 draft. From Moose Jaw, Peters was in his third season with Edmonton. He recorded 28 points, including 24 assists, in 119 regular-season games. . . . Following last season, he was presented with the Daryl K. (Doc) Seaman Trophy as the WHL’s Scholastic Player of the Year. . . . 
one goal in five games with Finland at the WJC. . . . Seattle acquired his WHL rights from the Saskatoon Blades on June 30 for fourth- and sixth-round picks in the WHL’s 2023 draft, a conditional first-rounder in 2023 and a conditional second-rounder in 2024. . . . With Lambert having been assigned to Saskatoon, the Blades now are in possession of those two conditional draft picks. . . . Might the Blades spend some draft capital today before the trade deadline arrives?
assists in 12 games with the Moose. The Jets selected him with the 18th pick of the NHL’s 2021 draft. Portland grabbed his WHL rights in the fourth round of the 2018 bantam draft. . . . Last season, he played at the U of Minnesota, putting up 19 points, including nine goals, in 24 games. . . . Last week, he helped Team USA to a bronze medal at the WJC. He finished with seven points, five of them goals, in as many games. He had three goals, including the OT winner, as the Americans beat Sweden, 8-7, in the third-place game.
Thursday that they are serious about this season by acquiring F Blake Swetlikoff from the Spokane Chiefs. . . . In the exchange, the rebuilding Chiefs (7-24-3) picked up the rights to F Jack Lackas and two draft picks — a second-rounder in 2026 and a fifth in 2025. . . . Swetlikoff, a 19-year-old from Regina, was a third-round selection in the 2018 WHL draft. He has 19 points, 14 of them assists, in 34 games with Spokane this season. . . . In 128 career regular-season games, he has 22 goals and 39 assists. . . . “We feel that (Swetlikoff) will help our top nine,” Lethbridge general manager Peter Anholt said in a news release. “It was a steep price for us to pay, but our team deserved to be added to with the way we’ve played this season.” . . . Swetlikoff is expected to make his Lethbridge debut on Saturday against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. . . . The Hurricanes (21-15-1) are sixth in the 12-team conference, having won six of their past 10 games. They are one point behind the Calgary Hitmen (20-11-4) and three in arrears of the Moose Jaw Warriors (23-13-0). . . . Lackas, who turned 16 on Dec. 26, is from Las Vegas. Lethbridge selected him in the WHL’s 2021 U.S. draft, but he is unsigned. Lackas is playing with the U16 AAA Phoenix Jr. Coyotes this season.
forwards on Thursday. Ryker Singer is on his way to Red Deer, with Arjun Bawa moving to Prince George. The Cougars also got second- and seventh-round picks in the WHL’s 2023 draft in the exchange. . . . Singer, the 20th player chosen in the WHL’s 2020 draft, has three goals and six assists in 34 games this season. He is from Paradise Hills, Alta. . . . “He’s got speed, skill and good hands, and he’s a smart player,” Brent Sutter, the Rebels’ owner and general manager, told Greg Meachem of reddeerrebels.com. “It’s a trade for both teams (where) we wanted to add more speed to our team with skill, and they wanted a player who has some size.” . . . Bawa, from Richmond, B.C., had two goals and three assists in 34 games this season. Red Deer took him in the 
second round of the 2020 draft. . . . “Arjun . . . is a big physical player (who) will fit well with our forward core,” offered Mark Lamb, the Cougars’ general manager and head coach, in a news release. . . . The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Bawa is the son of Robin Bawa, a former WHLer (Kamloops Jr. Oilers, Kamloops Blazers, New Westminster Bruins, 1982-87) who went on to play 61 NHL games. He was the first player of Indian descent to play in the NHL. . . . The Rebels are scheduled to play the Raiders in Prince Albert tonight, while the Cougars are at home to the Everett Silvertips.
be quick to salute Calder Anderson, Jake Chiasson, Nolan Ritchie and Ben Thornton of the Brandon Wheat Kings as this site’s sportsmen of the year. . . . In case you missed it, in the words of the Brandon Sun’s Perry Bergson, they “successfully interceded to help a distressed man who was contemplating suicide on the First Street Bridge” on the evening of Nov. 29. . . . “We’re very happy that we were able to save him and get him some help,” Thornton told Bergson, who added: “They also learned another lesson when 30 or 40 vehicles drove by without stopping in the short span they were trying to help the man. Yet they never considered leaving until the man was safe.” . . . Gentlemen, I salute you. . . . Bergson’s complete story is 
abysmal record unless being selfish and uncaring is the objective. Really, had you told me four years ago that the time was coming when our children would by dying, when our children would be unable to get much-needed surgical procedures, when our hospital’s emergency rooms would be over-run and that society would refuse to help by doing something as simple as masking up, well, I would have told you that you were crazy. . . . But, well, here we are.
in NHL history. So stop trying to tell me that he is. He’s still 88 behind Wayne Gretzky. Have people already forgotten just how great Gretzky was? . . . Allow me to point out that Gretzky also scored 92 goals in the WHA, which was a better league than many of those same people seem to recall. As for Gordie Howe, well he scored 801 NHL goals and another 174 in the WHA. . . . But when Ovechkin puts in No. 895, then you can call him the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. OK?
Canada beat Sweden, 5-1 — and left the game in obvious discomfort thanks to an injury to his right shoulder area. Dach, who turns 20 on Wednesday, has 17 points, nine of them goals, in 14 games with the Rockets this season. Earlier, he missed some time with a concussion. . . . The Rockets (12-18-3), who have lost five in a row, are eighth in the conference, seven points ahead of the Victoria Royals (8-24-4). . . . 
suffered a skate cut to the back of his left leg on Wednesday as his Slovakian side beat the U.S., 6-3. The 18-year-old Honzek, who is expected to be out as long as six weeks, leads the Giants in assists (26) and points (43) in 31 games. . . . Vancouver (14-16-6) is tied for fourth in the conference with the Tri-City Americans, who hold two games in hand. They are one point ahead of the Everett Silvertips. . . .
personal reasons, was dealt to Everett in exchange for Braden Holt. . . . Palmer, from Fernie, B.C., was in his second season with Victoria. He left the Royals sometime after a 7-4 loss to the visiting Portland Winterhawks on Nov. 12. . . . Holt, from Bozeman, Mont., was in his fourth season with Everett. In his first start with Victoria, he stopped 35 shots in a 3-0 victory over the host Vancouver Giants. . . . Having acquired Holt, the Royals then traded G Logan Cunningham, a 17-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., to the Edmonton Oil Kings for a fifth-round pick in the 2025 WHL draft. . . . After adding Cunningham to their roster, the Oil Kings dropped G Ronin Geraghty, 18. From Burnaby, B.C., he was 0-5-0, 6.48, .819 in seven games with Edmonton. . . .
Kootenay International Junior Hockey League took time out from chasing a puck to exchange Happy New Year greetings as they began the second period on Saturday evening. . . . The Leafs are the team in white in the above video, and the video evidence would seem to indicate that they were first off the mark. . . . The puck now has been passed to Jeff Dubois, the KIJHL commissioner. . . . Happy New Year, Mr. Dubois.
a game against the Prince George Cougars on Friday night.
Monday morning. . . . Marty Murray, who is in his first season as the team’s general manager, has taken over behind the bench. . . . This is the first firing in Brandon since Kelly McCrimmon announced on Sept. 8, 2020, that he had sold the franchise to the J&G Group of Companies, under Jared Jacobson. . . .
point for the Oil Kings in the 2022 playoffs. Only 3 of them are still on the team today after the Golder trade. (Dowhaniuk, Wiebe, Seitz).”
the back end, and a third-round selection in the WHL’s 2023 draft to the Kelowna Rockets for F Riley Kovacevic, 18.
Saskatchewan, Alta., Boyko had five goals and five assists in 23 games with the Cougars. He was a first-round selection by the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2017 bantam draft. In 198 career regular-season games, he has 94 points, including 48 goals. . . . Wiebe, from Moose Jaw, has three goals and one assist in six games with Edmonton this season. He is six games into a seven-game suspension that was handed down after he, a repeat offender, took a checking-from-behind major and game misconduct in Saskatoon on Nov. 12. Earlier, he sat out four games after being suspended following a knee-on-knee hit on Saskatoon F Josh Pillar. . . . In 130 regular-season games, the first 73 with the Red Deer Rebels, Wiebe has 60 points, 22 of them goals. Last season, he finished with 10 goals and 26 assists in 41 games, then added two goals and six assists in 13 playoff games. He also had three goals and one assist in three games at the Memorial Cup. . . . Obviously, he brings more edge to the game than does Boyko, and that would seem to be what the Cougars want. . . . 
Nicholas Cristiano, 18, from the Kelowna Rockets for a fifth-round selection in the 2023 WHL draft. . . . With veteran G Tyler Palmer, 19, not having played since Nov. 12, the Royals needed a goaltender to pair with Logan Cunningham, 17. . . . Cristiano, from Langley, B.C., started this season with the Rockets — he was 0-1-0, 2.61, .879 — before being released and joining the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors. In three games with the Warriors, he was 1-2-0, 4.42, .867. . . . According to Dan Price, the Royals’ general manager and head coach, Palmer is “on personal leave and with his family.” . . . Palmer, who is 3-10-3, 4.22, .876 this season, is from Fernie, B.C. . . . The Royals (3-17-3) are scheduled to entertain the Moose Jaw Warriors (15-9-0) tonight.
TAKING NOTE 