10 WHL Things By Glen Erickson, Volume XIV

It’s just about the best time of the year for international hockey enthusiasts! I’ll unpack some of Hockey Canada’s World Junior Championship roster details next week. For now, proceed with caution…

1 – Game Of The Week – If you are a fan of the Prince Albert Raiders, the team’s performance in Medicine Hat last week might have you fuming just a little bit. The Tigers drubbed the Raiders by a count of 7-1 at Co-Op Place. Back in the day when hypersensitivity didn’t rule over each and every one of our interactions, an apt description of the Raiders performance would have been simple. “The Raiders couldn’t piss a drop,” from the crease out. The Tigers were certainly up to the challenge Wednesday, lighting up netminder Michal Orsulak with four goals in the first 13 minutes of the contest. Prince Albert responded after the ensuing goaltending change and didn’t allow Medicine Hat a shot on goal during the final seven minutes of the first frame. But on this night, the Tigers were just too much, taking a 7-1 lead into the third period, where the game denigrated into a comical version of a Royal Rumble of sorts. Chirping, whacking and wrestling is much more commonplace in today’s hockey world than actual fisticuffs. All tolled, the game sheet suggests there were about 200 minutes in penalties assessed, but I think it’s fair to say both teams got exactly what they deserved on the night. The busiest guy in the building was probably veteran public address announcer, Jim Duce! The Tigers improved to 17-6-3-2 with the win while the Raiders stood at 17-3-4 after the loss. The teams meet twice more this season, so mark your calendars. It’s January 17 in the Gas City and January 24 in Hockey Town North.

2 – Upcoming GOTW – I’m looking at a couple games this week and both involve the Spokane Chiefs. Friday, the Chiefs host Portland and the next night travel to Everett. The Silvertips and Winterhawks are the top two teams in the US Division. Spokane is 15-14 through 29 games and cannot be entirely pleased with how the season is moving along. The Chiefs entered the current campaign with very high expectations after their appearance in the WHL Championship Series last season. The loss of Berkly Catton to the Seattle Kraken has had a huge impact on the group’s offensive production. On the weekend, Spokane acquired overage forward Logan Wormald from the Lethbridge Hurricanes in return for a package of four future draft picks. Wormald, who was the Hurricanes captain, has scored 14 goals and 19 assists in 30 games this season, including nine points on the power play and three game winning goals. The Chiefs power play is sputtering along at a meager success rate of 9.9 percent, which is far and away the worst in the DUB. I wonder how Spokane will fair this week, coming off its third straight win, 4-1 win in Seattle Sunday. The addition of Wormald suggests Spokane is not at all interested in throwing in the towel. The Chiefs appear to have room for another 20-year-old on its roster. How creative might veteran general manager Matt Bardsley be in the coming weeks? Stay tuned!

3 – Trade Winds – As we approach the break in the regular season schedule, I wonder which teams might try to get a jump on the rest by dipping their toes into the trade pool the next couple of weeks. Is it too early yet to narrow the field and identify the top contenders for the Ed Chynoweth Trophy? A peak at the division leaders is one way to examine who’s trending. Then, who might be the top two or three teams among the rest? The next step is to speculate on what those teams might need to really bolster their respective rosters. There won’t be any action during the Christmas break, while many of us are immersed in the start of the 2026 World Junior Championship. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think the trade freeze runs from December 20 to December 27. The trade deadline is still a month away on Thursday, January 8 at 6:00pm MT.

4 – Goalie Goal – The 11^th goal scored by a goaltender in WHL history occurred last week. Xavier Wendt of the Tri City Americans turned the trick against the Swift Current Broncos. Wendt tracked down a Broncos dump-in and sent the puck the length of the ice into the open net to make the score, 4-0. That’s how the game ended, with Wendt also collecting the shutout, his first in the DUB. WHL staff prepared a pretty comprehensive piece for the league’s website chronicling the history of goaltenders who have scored, or been credited with, a goalie goal. Look it up, it’s a good read! Wendt is not the only netminder to score and record a shutout in the same contest during the past couple of decades. Lukas Parik of the Spokane Chiefs pulled it off in a 3-0 win over the Kamloops Blazers on March 10, 2020, about ten days before that season was shut down so the world could go crazy for a few months. (Remember that old April Wine tune, from simpler times back in 1976?) For Parik, it was his first and only shutout in the WHL.

5 – Finders, Keepers – There have been six goalie goals scored in the DUB since the 2003-2004 season, enabling me to locate the respective game sheets online. On most occasions, these are scored late in a game after the opponent pulls its goalie for an extra attacker. But on February 1, 2014, the game sheet shows that Chris Driedger of the Calgary Hitmen actually opened the scoring against the Kootenay ICE, in the Hitmen’s eventual 5-2 loss. As a former referee, I think this creates a good rules discussion. I knew it was unlikely Driedger had shot the puck down the ice and beat ICE goaltender, Mackenzie Skapski. More likely, Skapski was probably on the bench as a result of a delayed penalty call against Calgary. Had Driedger shot the puck in this instance at the open net, he would have had “possession and control” to do so. In that case, the play would have been blown dead and we’re not having this conversation. So, I tracked down Jeff Hollick, who handled play-by-play duties in Cranbrook for many years, and he confirmed he was on the call that night. It seems it was a delayed penalty situation, Kootenay forward Zach Franco’s pass evaded a teammate, and the puck ended up in his own net. The goal was originally credited to a Hitmen skater, Chase Lang, but it was later determined that Driedger was the last Calgary player to touch the puck. Interestingly, the plus/minus statistics confirm six Kootenay players went minus-1 on the play! Calgary scored again, nine seconds later, a shorthanded marker to take a 2-0 lead before the ICE put them away with five unanswered goals.

6 – More Goaltender Adventures – A total of four goalie goals occurred in the WHL between 1989 and 1994, though I couldn’t dig up the game sheets. Chris Osgood of the Medicine Hat Tigers scored January 3, 1991 against the Swift Current Broncos. It’s poignant IMO because, if my research is accurate, Osgood is the only netminder to tally a goal in both the WHL and NHL. As a member of the Detroit Red Wings, Osgood scored the insurance goal into an empty net on March 6, 1996, in a 4-2 victory over the Hartford Whalers. At the time, Osgood was only the second NHL goalie to score by shooting the puck into the net. The first to do so? Another WHL legend, Ron Hextall, who scored against Boston as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers on December 8, 1987. Hextall did it again April 11, 1989, in a playoff game against Washington. For the record, when Osgood tallied for the Red Wings, the goal was referred to by many pundits as “Hextall-ian”. Other WHL alumni goalies who have scored in the NHL are Tristan Jarry (Edmonton Oil Kings), who shot the puck into an empty net, along with Chris Mason (Prince George Cougars) and Cam Ward (Red Deer Rebels), who were credited with goals after opponents deposited the puck into their own net.

7 – “We Breed Lions” – A few media wags have chimed in on the book written by Rick Westhead. Patrick Johnson of the Vancouver Province wrote, “It’s a grim tale of how a large corner of junior hockey continues to have a broken culture, one that desensitizes young boys to the safety of others.” Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star wrote that the book, “might make you view hockey a little differently, but it should leave you thinking one thing, above all: for all the medals, all the Cups, all the legends of the game we love, Canada, and hockey, could do so much better.” In her piece for the Canadian Press, Donna Spencer pulled a quote from the book by former WHL player Ryan Phillips. “Hockey people don’t like outsiders knowing their business”, he said. Spencer also opined, “Holding two ideas at the same time, that hockey is a beautiful game that enriches people lives but also has rot, is a theme in Westhead’s book.” I’m not sure it would make a great Christmas present because, frankly, so much of it is just grotesque. The examples about so many modern-day hockey parents and their kids, the entitlement and arrogance, how they behave and just assume they can take over at hotels and restaurants while on road trips, only moves hockey’s smug “do you know who I am” narrative into another stratosphere. Indeed, there’s a lot to unpack. I think it’s a good read, but as I mentioned last week, it’s not for the faint of heart.

8 – Randoms – The Prince Albert Raiders will have played in three Teddy Bear Toss games on the road (Red Deer, Edmonton, Swift Current) before its own TBT contest on December 13. I don’t think any road team particularly enjoys those 10-20 minute stoppages, but when the skate is on the other foot on home ice, it’s probably just a blast. Meanwhile, that’s a little extra work for play-by-play man Nick Nielsen, too, coming up with interviews to fill those gaps in each broadcast…Same gameday prep deal for Austin Draude, play-by-play voice of the Wenatchee Wild on its mini road trip through Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Calgary on the weekend. The Wild played three games in three nights and endured the host’s TBT in each contest…The Kamloops Blazers and Penticton Vees have met three times over the past week. The BC Division rivals split the first two, both played at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops. In the third contest, the Blazers escaped the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton with a 2-1 overtime win. Defenceman Isa Guram notched the game winner, his second of the season. Both have come in overtime…The Blazers are 29 games into the regular season schedule and have played only four games against division rivals…The Medicine Hat Tigers are 9-0-1-1 in its last ten games and 19-6-3-2 on the campaign. The Tigers are the hottest team in the DUB right now, only two points behind the Edmonton Oil Kings in the eastern conference standings. Both teams have played 30 games…At 11-13-2 through 26 games, the Seattle Thunderbirds are on the outside looking in at a western conference playoff spot. The T-Birds have some high-end assets. Might general manager Bil La Forge be ready to pull the trigger on a deal or two?…A tough road trip through the US Division for the young Swift Current Broncos. The eastern conference cellar dwellers dropped all six games in regulation time and were outscored 38-13. The Broncos are back in Speedy Creek for some home cooking and will host the Kelowna Rockets Wednesday. The contest is Kelowna’s first game on its six-game road trip through the East Division…A big win for Prince Albert Sunday at Rogers Place in Edmonton in front of 16,887 fans. Daxon Rudolph scored 48 seconds into overtime to give the Raiders a 4-3 win over the Oil Kings in the TBT game between division leaders…In Calgary, the Wenatchee Wild crashed the party at the Hitmen’s TBT game, stampeding out of the Scotiabank Saddledome after edging the hosts 3-2 in front of 16,538 fans…The Everett Silvertips keep rolling along atop the western conference standings, now 23-3-2-1, the best record in the league. The ‘Tips are 17 points ahead of the second-place Portland Winterhawks in the US Division strandings…The best team in the league when leading after two periods? Prince George is undefeated at 14-0-0-0, while perhaps surprisingly, Spokane is next at 13-0-0-0. Lethbridge is also undefeated when leading after 40 minutes at 7-0-0-0.

9 – Randoms, Part Deux – Blazers forward J.P. Hurlburt continues to lead the DUB scoring race with 21 goals and 29 assists in 29 games. The Allen, Texas-native will celebrate his 18^th birthday April 11. Among rookie scorers, Hurlburt leads Everett Silvertips import forward Matias Vanhanen by ten points…Defenceman Bryce Pickford hit the 20-goal plateau this past weekend, scoring five times in two games, including a hat-trick in the Tigers 5-1 win over the Wenatchee Wild on Teddy Bear Toss night in Medicine Hat. He tallied a total of 20 goals all of last season. Pickford and teammate Jonas Woo share the DUB lead in scoring among defenceman with 36 points apiece…The longest point-scoring streak in the league came to an end last week. Ryan Miller of the Portland Winterhawks had registered a point in 19 straight games. Hurlburt now owns the longest current streak at 10 games and counting…Goaltender Ondrej Stebetak (Portland) and Ethan Eskit (Victoria) are the top workhorses among goaltenders so far. Each has appeared in 23 games…Perhaps the best goaltending performance this past weekend belonged to Moose Jaw’s Chase Wutzke, though the Warriors managed only one point in the process. The veteran keeper made 36 saves Friday in the Warriors 4-3 overtime loss on home ice to Medicine Hat. Less than 24 hours later in Brandon, Wutzke made 41 more stops, but Moose Jaw fell 2-1 to the Wheat Kings, which scored the game winner with less than a minute remaining in regulation time…A nifty tidbit from Wheaties play-by-play man Rob Mahon who noted the victory was number 100 for head coach Marty Murray, the only active head coach in the DUB with 100 wins and 100 goals with the same franchise…I did an internet search last week where I queried, “who is the last defenceman to lead the WHL in scoring?” Frankly, I don’t know if it’s ever happened? The ever-reliable AI Overview returned this information, “The last defenceman to lead the WHL in scoring was Shea Weber of the Kelowna Rockets in the 2004-2005 season”. Yeh, sure. That’s not even close! Eric Fehr of the Brandon Wheat Kings won the scoring title with 111 points that season. Weber, with 41 points, was 14^th…among defenceman! Be careful with the “facts” your Google searches produce…Locked in the depths of my 63-year-old brain is the name, Cam Plante. Back in the day when I would scour the statistical pages of the Star Phoenix and the Hockey News, the Brandon Wheat Kings rearguard finished fifth in league scoring with 140 points during the 1983-84 season. Plante’s total of 118 assists alone would have placed him in a tie for 11^th overall in the league scoring. It’s the season his Brandon teammate Ray Ferraro scored 108 goals and 84 assists to capture the scoring title. Both played in all 72 regular season games…Some interesting names from the past among the top ten scorers that season. Remember Dale Derkatch (Regina Pats), Dean Evason (Kamloops) and Mark Lamb (Medicine Hat Tigers). Do you what they’re up to these days?

10 – World Cup – I enjoyed the 2026 World Cup Draw program on TSN. Because I’m not a big soccer guy, I found it to be educational. I didn’t know there had to be a European side in each group, nor did I know two teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn in the same group. I do think there was more hoopla and celebrity than was necessary because the event itself was already going to achieve global reach. It made total sense to me the Canadian and Mexican Prime Ministers, along with the USA President would participate, given each country is hosting games in an event I believe CONCACAF had at one point earmarked for Canada to host on its own. I’m glad we had Wayne Gretzky involved, as he’s certainly on my Mount Rushmore of Canadian sporting legends. I don’t give a damn where he chooses to live, nor do I light my hair on fire when the tee sheet surfaces and we find out who with whom he chooses to play golf. I do hope that by some miracle, the CMNT can avoid Italy in its first game. As I watched the draw unfold, I found myself rooting for the Great One to pull “New Zealand” to complete Canada’s group. Boy, what do you think the reaction would have been north of the 49^th parallel?

(Glen Erickson is a freelance hockey writer based in Medicine Hat, AB)