Giants will have a new voice as broadcasts move to Team Radio

By Greg Douglas, Vancouver Sun

May 5, 2012

SCENE & HEARD: A long line has already formed to the right for the available play-by-play position with the Vancouver Giants after the announcement Thursday they are returning to Team Radio. The Giants were part of the broadcast lineup at Team 1040 during their first year of existence and have since been radio orphans darting around the dial with a stream of play-by-play announcers that has included Rick Dhaliwal, Jim Mullin, Joey Kenward, Dave Sheldon, Morley Scott and Dan Elliott.

Like the B.C. Lions, the Giants gave in to the process of being bumped from powerful Team 1040 to needy sister 1410 when the Canucks are on the air. And like the Leos, the Giants will capitalize on a hearty promotional schedule under the Team Radio umbrella.

While acknowledging there has been a lot of interest from anxious play-by-play prospects, Team Radio program director Mike Whittingham says the station and Ron Toigo's hockey management group will make the decision jointly at some point this summer.

HERE 'N' THERE: A couple of veteran broadcasters were named Friday as the latest inductees to the Vancouver Canadians Baseball & Journalism Hall of Fame. Bill Stephenson, the former voice of the Lions, Canucks and Mounties with CKWX in the 1950s, wound down his illustrious career with CFRB in Toronto before retiring. Brook Ward, who's been part of the Giants broadcast team on 650 AM for the past several years, remains as the longest-serving play-by-play announcer in the C's franchise history when you combine triple-A with single-A. Ward is a regular contributor to the Dan Russell Sportstalk show on CKNW.

Like a couple of ancient gladiators, the volatile combination David Pratt and Neil Macrae were exchanging personal insults on a daily basis this past week on the Classic Rock 101 Bro Jake Show. With Macrae on the way out (his contract expires in June) and Pratt on the way in, they engaged in a no-holds-barred volley of abuse aimed at each other as Bro Jake sat back and urged them on. As far as anyone knows, the bar-rage will continue until management says otherwise.

SHORT HOPS: SFU men's hockey coach Mark Coletta makes the point that the May 16 breakfast at Vancouver Convention Centre with Olympians Hayley Wickenheiser and Daniel Igali is a fund-raiser for the university athletics program. The hockey team stages its scholarship lunch on September 14 at the Waterfront Hotel.

END ZONE: As the world turns: It was on May 5, 1974, when the Vancouver Whitecaps played their first-ever match against the San Jose Earthquakes in the old North American Soccer League with 19-year-old Bobby Lenarduzzi in the Whitecaps' lineup. This afternoon, 38 years to the day, the San Jose Earthquakes are in town with Lenarduzzi still in the Whitecaps FC lineup, corporately now, as team president.

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Laxdal unhappy with referees after bad call in Game 2 loss

By Chris O'Leary, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

A lineman gestures as Portland's Joseph Morrow, right, pushes Oil Kings Keegan Lowe's head back during second period action of game 2 of WHL championship between Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks at Rexall Place, May 4, 2012 in Edmonton.

Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam , edmontonjournal.com

PORTLAND – It wasn’t just the botched call on a video review that cost the Edmonton Oil Kings a goal on Friday night that has Derek Laxdal frustrated with officials.

But the Oil Kings head coach is still plenty frustrated with that botched call, too.

It turns out that forward Travis Ewanyk did in fact beat Portland Winterhawks goalie Mac Carruth on his wraparound attempt in the second period of Game 2 of the Western Hockey League championship series. The back of the net being lifted at the same time convinced officials that the puck slipped in under the net and didn’t cross the goal-line.

After the game, the WHL confirmed that Ewanyk did score on the play. Officials saw an angle on the sequence that they hadn’t asked for when they made their decision on the goal (fans at Rexall Place saw it on the big screen while the play was under review). After play had resumed, the Winterhawks scored again to make it a 4-0 game. They went on to win 5-1.

“When you saw the video it reinforced it,” Laxdal said on Saturday, after he and his team arrived in Portland for Game 3 on Sunday night.

“Even on the first video replay I could tell, just the way the puck went to the front of the net and all of a sudden it came straight back inside the post. You see the net lift up and you see the puck going in straight.”

The play further frustrated Laxdal because he couldn’t communicate with referee Matt Kirk on it.

“Matt Kirk wouldn’t come over,” Laxdal said. “He was adamant that it wasn’t a goal, then all of a sudden they blew the horn and said they needed to look at this.

“If they would have waited five more seconds they would have had the third angle, so it’s tough. With video replay, we’ve talked to the league and they’re going to have a protocol in place where they’re going to have to be patient with the video goal judge down in the Shaw truck saying, ‘Are there any more views we can see before they make the call?’

“It’s unfortunate because it was a 3-1 game and we were pushing a little bit, and that’s a little easier to come back than from 4-1.”

Laxdal’s frustrations with refereeing extend beyond this series. The coach said he’s noticed a lack of consistency from the regular season to the playoffs in what’s being called for his team.

“I was frustrated last night because Matt Kirk would not come over to talk to me. He would go right to (Winterhawks head coach) Mike Johnston every time,” Laxdal said.

“I had the same problem with Don Hay in a Vancouver game and I just spoke to the league about it. Why should they get more respect than another coach? We’re both hockey coaches, we’re all here for the same reason, so we should get treated the same.”

Watching tape of Friday night’s loss, Laxdal said he saw a lot of power-play opportunities lost for his team.

“I’m just watching the video and I’m watching (Portland goalie Mac) Carruth interfere with (Kristians) Pelss,” Laxdal continued. “Pelss is coming on the forecheck and he angles him off, that’s interference. There’s one in front of the net where he has his glove and he puts it in Pelss’ face and the ref is standing right there.

“In the first period, Griffin Reinhart drives wide, he throws it in front of the net and Maxy (Tyler Maxwell) is there to tap it in and he gets hooked. No call, the ref is standing right there.

“I’m a little frustrated with the refereeing. It’s not only this series, it’s the Moose Jaw series, it’s the calls that are being called in the regular season that seem to be slipping by this year.

“If you’re going to go and call a shoddy little roughing call on Keegan Lowe because a player throws his head back, then you better call the hook at the net on the scoring chance. It only makes sense. I’m not whining. It just frustrates our players because it should go both ways.”

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Wruck wishes he could be out there

Oil Kings winger battled through shoulder injury for months

By Chris O'Leary, edmontonjournal.com May 5, 2012

Edmonton Oil Kings centre Dylan Wruck, right and right winger Klarc Wilson celebrate Wruck's goal against the Swift Current Broncos during game action, September 4, 2010.

Photograph by: Jason Franson , edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - As he extends his hand to you, Dylan Wruck has to stop and think about what he’s doing. His right arm nuzzled in a sling, his shoulder freshly operated on, the Edmonton Oil Kings forward is somewhat clumsy in the process of re-learning how to shake hands.

Wruck underwent surgery on Thursday to repair the torn labrum in his right shoulder that sidelined him for the rest of the season. Having sat out the Oil Kings’ third-round, five-game series win over the Moose Jaw Warriors, the 19-year-old saw a successful year come to a premature close. The team announced his departure on Tuesday and he was back at Rexall Place on Friday night, watching from the press box as the Oil Kings dropped a 5-1 decision to the Portland Winterhawks. With the series tied 1-1, Game 3 goes in Portland, Ore., on Sunday at 7 p.m. MT.

“It has been tough, just knowing that I had to get surgery,” Wruck said. “I’m a little bit sore. It’s definitely tough to watch the guys, but just try to be there and support them and hopefully they can get a couple of wins in Portland.”

Wruck had 80 points (21 goals, 59 assists) in 66 games for the Oil Kings this year and added a goal and three assists in eight playoff games. The numbers are doubly impressive knowing that Wruck finished out the regular-season and the playoffs teetering on the brink of severely damaging his shoulder.

“The first time I actually noticed something was wrong was during the Medicine Hat game (on Feb. 20),” Wruck said. “But the original diagnosis is that it would have been torn before that, but it was something that I didn’t know about.”

Wruck’s first bad encounter with the shoulder came on March 17, in the Oil Kings’ regular-season home finale against Red Deer. Caught up in a scrum with the Rebels late in the game, Wruck clutched at his shoulder and bolted from the ice. He sat out the final four games of the regular-season and played in the team’s first eight games of the playoffs.

As the Oil Kings were closing out their series against the Brandon Wheat Kings on April 11, Wruck re-aggravated the injury and left the game in great pain.

The five-foot-nine, 171-pounder said it was just a matter of time before the shoulder gave out.

“It had gotten to the point where I kept playing through it and had got the OK from the doc and that stuff, but it got to the point where there wasn’t much holding it in,” he said. “So I got the bad news from the doc that I couldn’t keep playing through it and now I’ll do the best I can over the summer.”

The rehab process hasn’t been outlined for Wruck at this point, but he’s hoping to be in training camp with the Oil Kings in late August, looking to take part in his final year of junior hockey.

Wruck said that watching from afar — especially with the Oil Kings’ Game 2 loss on Friday — has been difficult.

“You don’t realize how tough it is to watch while you’re playing,” he said. “It’s tough to watch the guys, but they’ve been doing a great job and hopefully they can continue.”

From his press box seat, Wruck sees two very evenly matched teams going after the Ed Chynoweth trophy and a berth in the Memorial Cup.

“I think our teams match up really well,” he said. “They’re a big, skating team just like we are and extremely skilled and high offence. They got great goaltending from Mac Carruth (on Friday) and we got great goaltending all playoffs, so it can go either way.

“Guys have to dig down deep and hopefully we can pull out a win in Portland.”

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Leipsic scores twice, shows Winterhawks have plenty of depth

By Jim Matheson, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

Portland's Brendan Leipsic is on the ice and sliding into Oil Kings goalie Laurent Brossoit during third period action of Game one of the WHL championship between Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks.

Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam , edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - With no Ty, Friday’s Game 2 was all about getting a win for Rattie.

With the Portland Winterhawks’ WHL playoff points-leader out after slamming into the boards headfirst during Thursday’s Game 2, the short-staffed visitors showed early and often on Friday that they have just as much team depth as the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Brendan Leipsic, who’s as big as an apostrophe even though he’s listed as 175 pounds on the lineup sheet, put an exclamation point to the game.

He popped in two goals and was robbed of a third-period hat trick by Oil Kings goalie Laurent Brossoit as the Winterhawks rolled to a 5-1 victory to tie the best-of-seven WHL championship at a game apiece.

Another foot soldier, albeit a much bigger one at six-foot-three, 215-pounds, Taylor Peters added another goal as the opportunistic Winterhawks swooped in to capitalize on a series of shoddy defensive plays by the Oil Kings.

The only big gun to score for the Winterhawks was Calgary Flames prospect Sven Baertschi, who rifled one past Brossoit on a power play and added an empty netter.

The five-foot-nine Leipsic, who was the Winterhawks’ best player when they were blown out in Edmonton 8-4 in the only regular-season meeting between the teams in October, got the first two goals. He deked Brossoit on a quick 2-on-1 in the opening period off a nice head-man pass from Edmonton product Troy Rutkowski, who had a very strong game on the blue-line.

Leipsic took Brad Ross’s relay with defenceman Cody Corbett caught up ice and tucked it past Brossoit. He got his second to make it 2-0 in the middle period when defenceman Ashton Sautner had one of those “what-was-I thinking passes” deep in his end that Leipsic gobbled it up.

Brossoit got part of his glove on it, but it dribbled over the line.

“Ty’s pretty much been our go-to guy this season and other guys had to step up.” said Leipsic.

No Rattie, no problem.

“Our team is used to guys being out this season, not just Ty,” said Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston. “We’ve had to make adjustments. We also lost Baertschi when he got called up to Calgary (March).

“I was proud of my players tonight.”

Leipsic, who doesn’t turn 18 until May 19 and is eligible for the June NHL entry draft in Pittsburgh, doesn’t get the media hype of Rattie or Baertschi or Ross. All three players are high draft picks of the St. Louis Blues, Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But Leipsic was the big gun in Game 2.

“Leiper never gets overshadowed in any game,” laughed Johnston, “because he’s a dangerous guy in a lot of areas. He had more scoring chances than anybody on our team tonight, creating them with his speed.

“And he can hit as hard as anybody on the ice.”

On his first goal, he froze Brossoit and swept it past him.

“I did the same move earlier in the year on him and I made up my mind I was going it again,” said Leipsic, who looks closer to 150 pounds than 175.

Rattie, who has 30 points in the playoffs, two more than Baertschi, was feeling better the day after the fright before when Mitch Moroz belted him and he sailed into the boards. But he was kept out and is 50-50 to play Sunday in Game 3 in Portland.

“We’re taking this day to day and we’ll let our doctors look at him (at home), but we’re happy with his progress,” said Johnston. “We’re just being cautious with this. (Trainer) Rich Campbell made the call.”

It was a golden opportunity for the Oil Kings to jump on the Winterhawks and get them in a deep hole, down 2-0 in the series, but they muffed it. It was a bad pinch on the first Leipsic goal and then he knocked the errant pass down and got it past Brossoit on the second. He made it look easy, like Rattie, who has 17 playoff goals.

“They were missing one of their best scorers ... I’m not sure, maybe they thought it would be easy,” said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal.

Stuff happens.

“They’re kids. You have to focus on who’s on the ice, and not worry about who’s not playing.”

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Oil Kings stunned by Winterhawks

Edmonton squad manhandled in front of home crowd

By Chris O'Leary, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

Take a look at a highlights of the Oil Kings 5-1 loss to the Portland Winterhawks in Game 2 of the WHL championship.

EDMONTON - Two games into the Western Hockey League final, the Edmonton Oil Kings find themselves in an unfamiliar place. Thanks to a 5-1 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Friday night, Edmonton is knotted 1-1 in a series for the first time in its playoff run.

The Winterhawks took advantage of a shaky Edmonton defence, with Brendan Leipsic scoring his team’s first two goals of the night. Sven Baertschi and Taylor Peters chipped in with second-period goals to blow the game open. Portland netminder Mac Carruth made life unpleasant for the Oil Kings on the other end of the ice, stopping all but one of the 39 shots he faced.

Portland evened up the series without their leading scorer. Forward Ty Rattie sat out the game after taking a hard hit into the boards in Game 1 on Thursday. Portland head coach and general manager Mike Johnston was optimistic that Rattie would be back for Game 3 after a two-day layoff.

Kristians Pelss spoiled Carruth’s shutout bid early in the third period, but it was all the offence that the Oil Kings could muster. Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves in net for the Oil Kings, who lost for the first time at home in the playoffs, in front of 10,720 fans.

Despite controlling the play in the early moments of the game with a pair of good scoring chances, the Oil Kings would give up the first goal of the game. Portland forward Brad Ross chased down a dumped puck and waited for a trailing Brendan Leipsic to turn the play into a two-on-one. Leipsic used a pretty deke to lose Brossoit in front of the net and backhanded the puck home to give the Winterhawks their first lead of the series, just 2:37 into play.

The Winterhawks almost doubled their lead on a power-play midway through the first, when defenceman Derrick Pouliot’s point shot hit the inside of the goalpost and popped back out into play. The Oil Kings rebounded quickly, springing their defenceman for a breakaway from centre ice. Sautner had his shot attempt deflected out of play by Carruth to preserve the Portland lead.

Frustration set in for both teams in the final seconds of the period. While all five skaters partnered off and Tyler Maxwell and Leipsic landed punches on one another, Edmonton picked up its first power play of the game. Leipsic and Maxwell both took roughing penalties, but Portland blue-liner (and Edmonton product) Troy Rutkowski was called for cross-checking.

That power play, like the one Edmonton got at 3:21 of the period, went to waste. Portland then went about picking apart the Oil Kings, opening up a 4-0 lead.

First, Portland got a gift from Sautner, in the form of a terrible giveaway to double their lead. Sautner’s pass from the right wing in his own zone ended up on Leipsic’s stick. The centre duplicated his first goal, beating Brossoit on the backhand at 9:20.

Baertschi’s second of the series came on the power play, just 68 seconds later. The Calgary Flames prospect one-timed a shot from the left wing past Brossoit for his ninth of the post-season.

Desperate for a goal, the Oil Kings fans lobbied hard for Travis Ewanyk’s attempt at offence from behind the net late in the second. With the net tilted forward, the puck ended up in behind Carruth without crossing the goal-line. The play was reviewed and rejected, keeping it a 3-0 game.

The lead swelled to four goals with just 1:22 left in the period. Portland centre Taylor Peters took a nice pass in front from linemate Taylor Leier and slipped past Brossoit, tucking the puck home for his first goal of the playoffs.

Edmonton came out the aggressors to start the third and was rewarded for it early. Pelss crashed the net and put Martin Gernat’s rebound home 4:44 into the third period for his fifth playoff marker, but Carruth didn’t give anything else up.

Baertschi added an empty-net goal at 18:34.

The Oil Kings head to the Rose Garden next, another place they’re not very familiar with. Game 3 of the series goes Sunday at 7 p.m. MDT in Portland.

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Oil Kings’ playoff tear fails to draw fans

Junior team’s crowd support at Rexall surprisingly small

By John MacKinnon, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

Oil Kings goalie Laurent Brossoit has Portland Brad Ross in his face during second period action of game 2 of WHL championship between Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks at Rexall Place.

Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam , edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - What game have you been watching?

Whatever it is, some Edmonton observers believe a disappointingly large number of you haven’t been seduced by the Oil Kings’ springtime playoff roll.

At least that’s what many thought until Friday night, when a franchise playoff record crowd of 10,720 showed up to view — wouldn’t you know it — the Oil Kings first home loss of the post-season, 5-1 to the Portland Winterhawks.

On Thursday night, for Game 1

of the Oil Kings’ Western Hockey League final against the Portland Winterhawks, a so-so crowd of 7,466 — the club’s second-lowest of the playoffs — trekked out to Rexall Place to witness the Oil Kings edge Portland 3-2.

That ran Edmonton’s home playoff won-lost record to 8-0, and their overall playoff mark to 13-1. They revved up for the post-season by winning their final 11 straight regular-season games, then rolled to 11 straight victories, a 22-game win streak, all in.

Not only has there been high-end playoff hockey at Rexall Place for the first time since 2006, the Oil Kings have been featuring guaranteed win night at home, in effect. Until Friday night’s, loss, that is.

Yet, until Friday night, they hadn’t been able to crack the 9,000 mark in attendance. That they didn’t in Game 1 of the WHL came as no surprise to Oil Kings GM Bob Green.

“It was a Thursday night, you know,” Green. “We’re a family oriented organization.

“I think you’ve got to understand that it’s not the day you want to start with in junior hockey, you’d prefer to have Friday-Saturday.”

Point taken. Apparently even some of the Oil Kings billets, who have young children, weren’t about to attend the game on a school night, for example.

Still, through eight home dates, the Oil Kings’ top attendance was back on March 23, opening night against the Kootenay Ice in the first round, when they drew 8,939. Mind you, since then, only two crowds have been below 8,000, and none were less than 7,000.

Some point the finger at ticket prices — a $15 ticket has become, service-charges included, a $31 ducat.

Also a good point. And yet, the Oil Kings sold 1,200 $99 playoff passes, which have become a mighty attractive per-game bargain the deeper the club has advanced.

And for group sales — groups of 20 or more members of a hockey team, say — have been able to pay $15 per seat all playoffs long.

For Game 5 and, if necessary, Game 7, all seats in the Rexall Place upper bowl will be available for $20, the club announced Friday night.

By comparison, Portland had two crowds of more than 10,000 this playoffs. They have also had one gathering of fewer than 6,000 and three in the 6,000 range. The Oil Kings may not have built on that first post-season crowd, but they have been steady, so there’s that.

“We’ve been pretty solid, 8,000-9,000,” Green added. “I think it’s good.

“If you think of where we were last year or the year before, I think we’re fine. I think it will get better.”

In so many ways, this has been a breakout season for the first-place overall Oil Kings. All the pieces were there for the fifth-year, revived franchise to gain significant traction in the public. With Edmonton playing host to the Canadian pool of the world junior hockey championship, there was incentive to purchase Oil Kings season tickets, not to mention a showcase for the best junior hockey has to offer.

With the Oilers out of the playoffs for a sixth straight season, the junior club seemed an obvious and worthy alternative for those who like to pay to view meaningful games in the spring.

The template of the Calgary Hitmen’s 1998 post-season roll, when the urban myth is they created post-season magic, gathering larger and larger crowds until they were regularly selling out the Saddledome.

It’s true the Hitmen topped out at 16,916 in the final game of the Eastern Conference final that spring. It’s also true that the Calgary club drew 4,889 in its first game of those playoffs and didn’t hit five figures until the final game of the second round.

Here’s something else: the Oil Kings have sold about 300 season tickets for 2012-13 on the strength of these playoffs.

“That’s moving the needle,” said Jordi Weidman, the Oil Kings director of business operations. “Everybody expects an NHL (size) crowd.

“But we’ve been getting great numbers for junior hockey.”

The Oil Kings certainly deserve being dialed into the public imagination. It is an uncommonly good major junior team that has been on a fabulous roll.

Their season will continue at least until Game 5 of this WHL final. And wouldn’t you know it, that game is May 10, another Thursday night.

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Founders Club members passionate about their Oil Kings

Group of about 600 fans big supporters of junior hockey in Edmonton

By CAM TAIT, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

Stan Mah at an Edmonton Oil Kings game.

Photograph by: Larry Wong , EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM

EDMONTON - st look for the red jackets at Edmonton Oil Kings games and you will find some of the junior hockey club’s most loyal fans.

In fact, one of the owners of a red jacket says one of the reasons the Western Hockey League team is playing in the championship series is because Edmonton has such passionate fans.

“Edmonton fans are a driving force behind every team,” says Stan Mah. “And I think because they are so enthusiastic, the might have higher expectations — and that helps a team develop a little faster than other teams.”

Mah is one of about 600 members of the Oil Kings Founders Club. Shortly after the WHL awarded an expansion franchise to the Edmonton Oilers more than five years ago, the club was formed.

“They are our most loyal fans and we try to give them the best possible experience as we can,” says Jordi Weidman, director of business operations for the Oil Kings.

Founders Club members made a commitment to purchase seasons tickets for three years. The package also includes parking, a pre-game meal at Rexall Place and access to exclusive team events.

And, of course, they get to show off their red jackets.

One of the first club members was Mah’s father, Vic. The well-known Blue Willow restaurant owner was co-owner of the Oil Kings when they were the talk of the town back in the 1960s.

Vic attended games until his death in March 2011.

Mah says his father always had a keen interest in the development of young people, which is a very significant part of junior hockey.

“I think the Founders Club gave people a chance to feel like they were a part of bringing junior hockey back to Edmonton … and to ensure the Oil Kings were financially sound,” says Mah.

He is certainly not alone.

Gord Sarafinchan has been a tremendous supporter of junior hockey his entire life and wanted to show his strong support for the franchise.

“I wanted to be part of something special with the return of junior hockey to Edmonton. I thought the only way would be to be part of this special group,” says Sarafinchan, who is a club member along with his wife Linda. They rarely miss an Oil Kings home game, and both of them, of course, wear their red jackets to games.

“It’s a great feeling when hockey fans coming to the game ask how we received our jackets. They like them,” says Sarafinchan.

The Oil Kings have a high regard for their fan base and formed an advisory committee when the new franchise came to town in September 2007. Weidman says a group of club members bring suggestions to Oil Kings management as well.

“We recognize they have strong (season seat) numbers and think it’s a good pipeline to the way we run our company,” says Weidman.

Sarafinchan feels he is being listened to by the team. He made a suggestion that club members be recognized during games. Throughout the season, fans have been presented with autographed sticks or Oil Kings clothing.

Both Mah and Sarafinchan could feel the team develop and progress over its five-year history, but they really didn’t expect them to be in the league final this season.

Mah remembers attending games at the old Edmonton Gardens shortly after his father became a partner. He has been a stronger supporter since and marvels at the team’s recent 22-game unbeaten streak.

“I can’t remember the Oil Kings ever winning that many games before. It’s just remarkable,” he says.

It must be the red jackets.

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Winterhawks star Rattie watches Game 2 after taking hit in opener

Leads WHL in playoff scoring

By Chris O'Leary, edmontonjournal.com

May 5, 2012

Take a look at a highlights of the Oil KIngs 3-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks in Game 1 of the WHL championship.

EDMONTON - Ty Rattie sat out Game 2 of the Western Hockey League final on Friday night.

The Portland Winterhawks’ star player and the WHL’s leading playoff scorer (30 points in 16 games) doesn’t have a concussion, according to head coach and general manager, Mike Johnston.

“You have to be cautious and you have to be sure. It wasn’t deemed a concussion but he was shaken,” Johnston said.

Rattie took a hard hit from Edmonton Oil Kings forward Mitchell Moroz in the third period of Thursday’s series-opening 3-2 Oil Kings’ win.

Rattie’s head hit the boards and the 19-year-old lay motionless on the ice for a few moments before he was helped off by team trainer Rich Campbell and teammate Joe Morrow.

“We just want to be careful,” Johnston said. “There’s a set protocol for 24 hours. We have an online test he’ll take.”

Rattie was selected 32nd overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft by the St. Louis Blues. In his fourth year of junior hockey, the Airdrie product had 121 points (57 goals, 64 assists) and finished third in scoring in the WHL. He had one assist in his team’s loss on Thursday. Johnston said he and his staff thought of the big picture with Rattie when making their decision.

“There are times you wonder if you’re being overly cautious with these things, but I think you have to do what’s best for the player,” he said. “These guys will have long pro careers and you don’t want to make a mistake now.

“It’s an important game, but we felt that he wouldn’t be 100 per cent anyway, so let’s give him the day and we’ll evaluate.”

With the series shifting back to Portland for Games 3 and 4, Rattie will have Saturday to rest up and feel better.

“He looked good (Friday) afternoon. Last night he didn’t look good after the hit but when I talked to him he felt fine,” Johnston said.

The coach also said that after watching film of the play that Moroz’***** wasn’t dirty.

“I told the other guys, ‘I have no problem with the hit,’ ” he said. “It was with force. There was nothing illegal, there was no head shot. You’re expected to take people out in the playoffs with force and that’s the way playoff hockey is.”

Rattie did not take part in the Winterhawks’ morning skate and was re-evaluated in the afternoon before the decision was made to shelf him.

Twenty-year-old centre Jason Trott takes Rattie’s place in the lineup for Game 2.

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Three Blades head to NHL draft combine

By Daniel Nugent-bowman, The StarPhoenix

May 5, 2012

Three Saskatoon Blades players have been invited to participate in the upcoming NHL draft combine.

Defenceman Dalton Thrower, centre Lukas Sutter and goaltender Andrey Makarov will all be put through the paces in Toronto from May 28 to June 2.

The combine is meant to give each of the 30 NHL clubs an inside look at the top draft-eligible players through interviews and medical and physical testing.

Thrower, a third-year Blade, was eighth in WHL scoring among blueliners with 18 goals and 54 points in 66 games. He played on the shutdown pairing with captain Duncan Siemens and posted 103 penalty minutes and a minus-4 rating. Thrower also was named the team's defenceman of the year.

The North Vancouver native was the 26th-rated skater in NHL Central Scouting's final rankings, released April 9.

Sutter earned 28 goals and 59 points in 70 games, more than doubling his totals from the 2010-11 season. Like Thrower, Sutter also played a two-way role and was awarded the team's defensive forward of the year after posting a plus-15 rating.

The Lethbridge, Alta., product is currently rated 39th by central scouting.

Acquired by the Blades in the 2011 import draft, Makarov was named the team's MVP after going 292111 with a 3.01 goals-against average, a .913 save percentage and a pair of shutouts.

The Kazan, Russia, native also backstopped his country to a silver medal at the world junior championship in January.

Central scouting has rated Makarov as the seventh-best goalie available in the draft.

The 2012 NHL draft goes June 22 and 23 in Pittsburgh.

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