
F Dwight King (Lethbridge, 2004-09) has signed a one-year contract extension with the Graz 99ers (Austria, Erste Bank Liga). This season, he had 10 goals and 32 assists in 54 games.

Well . . . that didn’t take long.
Serge Lajoie wasn’t out of work for two weeks after he and the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers made what both parties contend was a mutual decision to go their separate ways on April 11.
On Tuesday, Lajoie, who spent one season as the Blazers’ head coach, was named head coach of OHA Edmonton’s midget prep team.
Before signing on with the Blazers, Lajoie spent three seasons as the head coach of the U of Alberta Golden Bears and five years with the NAIT Ooks.
With OHA Edmonton, Lajoie will take over from Randall Weber, who spent one season as the midget prep team’s head coach and now is the program’s general manager.
The Blazers, meanwhile, have yet to name a new head coach.
Team Canada completed round-robin play at the IIHF U-18 World Championship on Tuesday, erasing a 2-0 deficit and beating Czech Republic, 6-2, at Umea, Sweden. . . .
Canada (4-0) finished on top of Group A and will meet Latvia, the fourth-place team in Group B, in a quarter-final game on Thursday. . . .
The tournament, which is being played in Ornskoldsvik and Umea, Sweden, concludes on Sunday. . . .
In yesterday’s victory, G Nolan Maier (Saskatoon Blades) stopped 23 shots in his second straight start for Canada. . . . .F Peyton Krebs (Winnipeg Ice) scored once, and F Dylan Cozens (Lethbridge Hurricanes) had an assist. . . . There were three WHLers in Czech Republic’s lineup — D Simon Kubicek (Seattle Thunderbirds), F Martin Lang (Kamloops Blazers) and F Matej Taman (Prince George Cougars). . . .
In other games on Tuesday, Team USA dumped Latvia, 7-1; Finland dropped Switzerland, 12-0; and Sweden blanked Russia, 3-0. . . .
F Cole Caufield scored two goals for the Americans, giving him a tournament-leading 11. That is three shy of the tournament record set by Russian F Alex Ovechkin in 2002. . . . Caufield leads the tournament with 13 points, while teammate Jack Hughes, who had two assists yesterday, has 12. The tournament record is held by Russian F Nikita Kucherov, who put up 21 in 2011. . . .
Where do things go from here?
For starters, Switzerland finished the round-robin at 1-3 — the victory came in OT — and will meet Slovakia (0-4) in the best-of-three relegation round that opens on Thursday. Slovakia is the only one of the 10 teams not have won a round-robin game.
As mentioned, Canada and Latvia will meet in one quarter-final in Umea, with the winner playing the winner of a game between Sweden (3-1) and Czech Republic (2-2) in Ornskoldsvik. Sweden wound up second in Group B, while Czech Republic was third in Group A. . . On the other side of the draw, it’ll be Team USA (4-0), first in Group B, against Finland (1-3), fourth in Group B, in Ornskoldsvik, and Belarus (3-1), second in Group A, versus Russia (2-2), third in Group B, in Umea. . . .
Interestingly, Team USA and Finland met in the tournament’s championship game in 2015, 2017 and 2018 — the Americans won the first two, with Finland winning last year.
The Canadian Hockey League, the umbrella under which the Ontario Hockey League,
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League operate, has never employed a full-time president.
That is about to change.
The CHL, which encompasses 60 teams, announced on Tuesday that it has hired “an outside firm” to search for its first president. David Branch, the OHL commissioner, has been the CHL’s president since 1996, but it’s a part-time gig for him.
The late Ed Chynoweth was the CHL president from 1975-95, while also filling the role of WHL president.
A new president will report to Branch, Gilles Courteau, the president of the QMJHL, and Ron Robison, the WHL’s commissioner.
The CHL hopes to have a new president in place before the start of the 2019-20 season.
The AJHL’s Sherwood Park Crusaders have signed F Ty Mueller, 16, to a letter of intent for 2019-20. Mueller, from Cochrane, Alta., played this season with the midget AAA Airdrie CFR Bisons. As a 15-year-old, he put up 10 goals and 24 assists in 34 games. . . . He has committed to the U of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks for 2022-23. . . . The Prince George Cougars selected Mueller in the third round of the 2018 WHL bantam draft.

NOTES: The WHL’s conference finals both will go at least five games. . . .
The Edmonton Oil Kings won at home on Tuesday night, beating the Prince Albert Raiders, 5-1, to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference final. Game 4 will be played in Edmonton tonight, with Game 5 in Prince Albert on Friday night. . . .
In Spokane, the Chiefs beat the Vancouver Giants, 3-2 in OT, and now trail 2-1 in the Western Conference final. They’ll play again tonight in Spokane. with Game 5 scheduled for Langley, B.C., on Friday night.
——
TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS:
F Vince Loschiavo scored two goals and set up another to lead the Edmonton Oil Kings to
a 5-1 victory over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. . . . The Oil Kings lead the series, 2-1, with Game 4 in Edmonton tonight. . . . This was the Raiders’ worst loss of the season. They suffered 10 regulation-time losses in the regular season — four by one goal, three by two and three by three. . . . Last night, the Oil Kings broke open a scoreless game with four second-period goals. . . . F Vince Loschiavo (6) opened the scoring as he got loose off the left wing and went in alone to score at 1:27. . . . D Conner McDonald (2) made it 2-0 at 9:48, scoring shortly after Raiders F Zack Hayes had hit a post at the other end. . . . Loschiavo (7) wired a shot from the left dot, on a PP, at 14:48 for a 3-0 lead. . . . Loschiavo’s linemates combined for five assists — F Trey Fix-Wolansky drew an assist on each of the first three goals, with F Quinn Benjafield in on two of them. . . . D Matthew Robertson (4) made it 4-0 when he scored through a screen from high in the slot at 18:54. . . . The Raiders’ goal came from F Sean Montgomery (8), on a PP, with 0.3 seconds left in the period. . . . Edmonton F Josh Williams (2) completed the scoring, on a PP, at 16:05 of the third period. . . . Edmonton was 2-5 on the PP; Prince Albert was 1-3. . . . G Dylan Myskiw earned the victory with 28 saves. In these playoffs, he now is 7-3, 1.79, .927. . . . The Raiders got 34 stops from G Ian Scott.
——
F Jake McGrew’s goal in OT gave the Spokane Chiefs a 3-2 victory over the visiting
Vancouver Giants. . . . Vancouver leads the Western Conference final, 2-1, with Game 4 in Spokane tonight. . . . They’ll play Game 5 in Langley, B.C., on Friday night. . . . Last night, F Eli Zummack (4) gave Spokane a 1-0 lead when he scored off a rebound at 17:40 of the second period. . . . Vancouver F Justin Sourdif (1) tied it when he broke in off the right wing and scored at 2:22 of the third period. . . . F Luke Toporowski (6) put Spokane out front 2-1 when he scored off the rush at 10:51. . . . The Giants forced OT when F Jared Dmytriw (7) scored on a PP at 17:01. He actually put the puck off a skate belonging to Chiefs D Filip Kral and into the net. . . . McGrew won it with his second goal of these playoffs, at 8:51 of extra time, taking a centring pass from D Bobby Russell and whacking home the winning goal. . . . Vancouver was 1-2 on the PP; Spokane was 0-1. . . . G Bailey Brkin blocked 27 shots for the Chiefs, while David Tendeck turned aside 35 at the other end. . . . Kral missed some time in the first period and into the second after taking a hit from Sourdif behind the Chiefs’ net. He returned in the second period and finished the game. . . . The Chiefs again were without F Luc Smith, 20, who hasn’t played since leaving Game 1 after suffering an apparent ankle injury early in the first period.

added F Lucas Cullen, 19, to their roster. . . . Cullen spent the season with the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors, putting up 50 points, including 26 goals, in 49 regular-season games, then adding seven goals and three assists in seven playoff games. . . . Cullen is from Kelowna. The Calgary Hitmen selected him in the fifth round of the WHL’s 2014 bantam draft. He played 48 games with them over three seasons, scoring four times and adding five assists.
be renewing Steve Mullin’s contract. Mullin spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Flyers, then took over as head coach prior to this season when Ken Pearson stepped aside to focus on his general manager’s duties. The Flyers and Pearson parted company on Feb. 19, he since has been named GM and head coach of the MJHL’s Neepawa Natives. . . . This season, the Flyers finished 23-32-5 and missed the playoffs for the first time since the spring of 1981. . . . Jeff Jeanson has taken over the general manager’s duties.
over the Wheat Kings in Brandon. . . . Moose Jaw (38-20-8) will finish third in the East Division and meet the Saskatoon Blades in a first-round series. . . . Brandon (30-28-8) has lost four in a row. It is four points from a playoff spot with only two games remaining. . . . Moose Jaw won the season series, 5-3-1; Brandon was 4-4-1. . . . Moose Jaw went ahead 3-0 on first-period goals from F Yegor Buyalski (6), at 3:46; F Brayden Tracey (36), at 12:56; and F Tristin Langan (51), on a PP, at 14:30. . . . The Wheat Kings got to within a goal as F Stelio Mattheos (44) scored, at 14:54 of the first period, and F Caiden Daley (9) counted at 1:41 of the third. . . . The Warriors put it away with the game’s last three goals, the final two into an empty net. . . . F Daemon Hunt (6), who is from Brandon, added insurance at 5:53. . . . D Dalton Hamaliuk and F Cameron Sterling (1) got the empty-netters. . . . Moose Jaw got 29 saves from G Adam Evanoff. . . . G Jiri Patera stopped 25 shots for Brandon. . . . Tracey was unsuccessful on a first-period penalty shot with his guys ahead, 2-0.
7-4 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels. . . . Medicine Hat (34-26-6) has won two in a row and has clinched a wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. . . . Red Deer (33-27-6) has lost two straight. It holds down the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, two points behind Medicine Hat and four ahead of Brandon, which has two games remaining. . . . Medicine Hat won the season series, 6-0-0. . . . F Jeff de Wit (17) gave the visitors a 1-0 lead, on a PP, at 7:48 of the first period, only to have F James Hamblin (33) tie it at 8:04. . . . F Zak Smith (13) put Red Deer back out front 57 seconds into the second period. . . . The Tigers took control with the next three goals, in a span of 3:29, from F Ryan Chyzowski, at 3:19, and two from Kemp, on a PP at 4:20 and at 6:48. . . . F Josh Tarzwell (11) got the Rebels to within a goal at 11:35. . . . Chyzowski (26) restored the two-goal lead, on a PP, at 12:59, and Kemp (31) completed his first career WHL hat trick at 7:26 of the third period. . . . F Brandon Hagel (41), who also had two assists, got Red Deer’s fourth goal, at 9:03. . . . F Logan Christenssen (7) finished Medicine Hat’s scoring at 13:07. . . . Hamblin and Chyzowski added two assists apiece. . . . Medicine Hat F Elijah Brown, who was injured in a Feb. 28 practice, was back in the lineup. . . . Red Deer F Alex Morozov sat out as he completed a two-game suspension. . . . The Rebels, of course, are without D Alex Alexeyev (knee). . . . Medicine Hat scratched F Bryan Lockner (ill).
to an 8-0 victory over the Victoria Royals. . . . Kamloops (27-32-7) has won four in a row. The Blazers are fourth in the B.C. Division, one point behind the Kelowna Rockets, who got a loser point last night. Kamloops will play home-and-home with the fifth-place Prince George Cougars on Friday and Saturday, while the Rockets finish with a home-and-home set with the first-place Vancouver Giants. . . . The third-place finisher will open a first-round series in Victoria on March 22. . . . Victoria (33-29-4) has lost four straight. . . . Victoria won the season series, 5-3-1; Kamloops was 4-5-0. The Blazers won the last three games in the series. . . . Stuart went into the game with 19 goals and 14 assists in 65 games, then enjoyed his first career five-point outing. He now has 20 goals and 18 assists. . . . The Blazers took a 1-0 lead into the second period on Stuart’s goal at 12:51 of the first period. Kamloops then put it away with five second-period goals. . . . F Josh Pillar finished with his seventh goals and three assists, while F Zane Franklin had two goals, giving him 28. . . . F Jermaine Loewen (26), who also had two assists, F Connor Zary (28), F Kyrell Sopotyk (12) and F Ryley Appelt (4) also scored. . . . G Dylan Garand, 16, made his fourth straight start for the Blazers, who have won all four of those games. Garand, a freshman from Victoria, is starting because Dylan Ferguson was injured in a 6-0 loss the visiting Vancouver Giants on March 6. . . . On the season, Garand, who stopped 22 shots, is 10-7-2, 2.89, .904 with one shutout. . . . Victoria dressed 15 skaters, three under the maximum, and that included D Kaden Reinders and D Noah Lamb, both of whom are APs. The Royals scratched nine skaters — D Ralph Jarratt, D Jameson Murray, D Scott Walford, D Matt Smith, F Tyus Gent, F Sean Gulka, F Kody McDonald, D Jake Kustra and F Kaid Oliver.
victory over the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash. . . . Seattle (29-29-8) has clinched the Western Conference’s second wild-card berth, meaning all five U.S. Division teams will be in the playoffs for a second straight season. The Thunderbirds will play the conference’s top seed, either the Vancouver Giants or Everett Silvertips, in the first round. Seattle will open that series on the road on March 22. . . . Tri-City (34-26-6) has lost two in a row (0-1-1). It will finish in the conference’s first wild-card spot. . . . Seattle went 4-2-2 in the season series; Tri-City was 4-3-1. . . . The Thunderbirds held a 4-2 lead eight minutes into the third period, then watched as the Americans scored three times to take the lead. . . . Seattle forced OT at 16:04 when F Nolan Volcan completed a hat trick with his 26th goal. . . . F Nolan Yaremko had given the Americans a 1-0 lead 31 seconds into the second period. . . . Yes, the first period was scoreless. . . . Seattle took a 2-1 lead on goals from Volcan, at 3:53, and F Matthew Wedman, on a PP, at 13:09. . . . Tri-City tied it at 15:02 when F Krystof Hrabik got No. 20. . . . Seattle took the 4-2 lead as Wedman (39) scored, on a PP, at 0:28 of the third period, and Volcan counted at 4:59. . . . Tri-City went ahead 5-4 on goals from F Parker AuCoin (41), on a PP, at 8:18; F Sasha Mutala (20), at 9:15; and Yaremko (27), on a PP, at 15:23. . . . The Thunderbirds got four assists from F Henri Rybinski. He’s got seven goals and 24 assists in 31 games since being acquired from the Medicine Hat Tigers. . . . Wedman added one assist to his two goals. . . . The Americans got two assists from each of Hrabik and AuCoin, with Yaremko getting one.
OT to give the Spokane Chiefs a 6-5 victory over the Rockets in Kelowna. . . . Spokane (38-21-7) is third in the U.S. Division, three points behind the Portland Winterhawks, each with two games remaining. . . . Spokane will finish home-and-home with the Tri-City Americans, while Portland goes home-and-home with the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Kelowna (26-32-8) has lost three in a row (0-1-2) and now is only one point ahead of the fourth-place Kamloops Blazers in the B.C. Division, each with two games remaining. . . . The Chiefs went 3-0-1 in the season series; the Rockets finished 1-2-1. . . . Spokane led this one 5-2 with fewer than 10 minutes left in the third period. . . . F Nolan Foote (36) got Kelowna to within two goals at 10:49. . . . The Rockets tied it on goals from D Kaedan Korczak (4), at 17:31, and F Kyle Topping (23), on a PP, at 19:20. . . . The Chiefs got the game’s first goal at 0:12 of the first period when F Jack Finley, who is from Kelowna, scored his ninth goal. . . . Foote tied it at 3:54. . . . Anderson-Dolan, who has 20 goals, gave Spokane a 2-1 lead at 8:39, and F Luke Toporowski (20) added to the lead at 17:26. . . . F Ethan McIndoe (15) made it 4-1 at 3:11 of the second period. . . . F Michael Farren (3) scored for Kelowna at 1:58 of the third, only to have D Nolan Reid (16) reply for the Chiefs at 10:03. . . . Anderson-Dolan now shares the club record for longest goal-scoring streak with F Adam Helewka (2014-15), F Marian Cesar (1997-98), F Brent Gilchrist (1986-87) and F Terry Perkins (1985-86). . . . Korczak added three assists to his goal, while Foote had an assist so finished with three points. . . . F Luc Smith and D Filip Kral were among Spokane’s scratches. . . . The Rockets are without D Lassi Thomson, who is in concussion protocol. He hasn’t played since taking a hit from Kamloops F Jermaine Loewen in the Blazers’ 2-1 shootout victory on home ice on Friday night. . . . Kelowna also was without F Mark Liwiski, as he completed a three-game suspension.