PR - Wheat Kings

Wheaties Stand Tall

First After Q1

The Saskatchewan Wheat Kings passed the first quarter mark of the season continuing their pace of the last fifty games of the previous season, standing first in the league with a solid .700 record. However, troubling was the fact that they have been seriously limping for the last ten games, suffering four losses whilst experiencing a weird series of injuries.

"The trouble all began when we faced the goon squads of the Misconduct and Spirit and lost a couple players in those two games," GM Tyler Young commented. "After that we overplayed some of our players to fill in for the injured players, and they became exausted and suffered injuries. It's been a painful tailspin, from which we hope we are now emerging."

During the first quarter the Kings have had some nice surprises, notably the play of newcomers Kevin Weekes, Karol Rachunek, Josh Henessey, and Eric Fehr, acquired in a risky preseason deal that saw pre-emininet netminder Roberto Luongo leave 'toontown. The continuing emergence of Dmitri Kazionov, Steve Bernier, and Matt Jones has been a badge of pride for Wheat fans and a great hope that this core of the Kings will secure the team among the league elite for the next decade.

Despite their success the Kings did not stop dealing, sending long time member and former core-prospect Scott Hartnell to the Blades for Shea Weber, and then dispatching Weber to the Saints in return for one time King Dan Sprang. The Kings also reaquired two other former Kings, Shawn Horcoff and Bryce Salvador, in a minor deal with the Clubbers.

"Overall I like how our team has played," Mr. Young stated, "but there is always room for improvement. I've said all-along that despite our President winning performance last year, and now our top spot this season, I consider the Pain the premiere team in this league, and so I'm building this team to beat them. I will not be satisfied with the success we have met with, nor should our players. Until we defeat the Pain in a best of seven playoff series we have accomplished nothing."

PR - Spirit

Spirit and Blackhawks duke ‘em out

Talk about a spirited affair. The Guelph Spirit and the Chicago Blackhawks had themselves a heck of an affair on the weekend. Things started nasty and early. Two of the Spirit’s punishing defencemen, Colin White and Dion Phaneuf, found themselves in the box, White for calling Randy Robitaille a “sissy” and Phaneuf for spearing Bryan Berard. The game went downhill from there. Sergei Fedorov, of all people, took a run at Marian Hossa, picking up an elbowing penalty. Thomas Vanek, the Spirit rookie, cross-checked Robitaille into the boards from behind, getting four minutes for his troubles. He didn’t go to the box alone, however, as Berard threw a vicious elbow at him. Robitaille sought his revenge later in the period, leaving his feet to take down Zach Parise, the Spirit’s skilled centreman, knocking him out of the game. Winger Kris Kolanos dealt Robitaille an elbow to the head, leaving Robitaille with a headache and a game misconduct and Kolanos with a ten minute misconduct to think about his misdeeds.

The second period was no less savage. Ryan O’Byrne collected a charging minor one minute in. Less than three minutes later, Phaneuf and Eric Lindros dropped the gloves, thrilling the fans with some no-holds-barred fisticuffs. Phaneuf found himself the object of the referee’s ire, receiving a game misconduct. Before the period was out Janne Niinimaa had a boarding minor, Hal Gill had an elbowing double-minor and Lindros had another charging minor in an unsuccessful attempt to challenge White to a fight. In between there were five goals scored, but the focus was on the physical play, which claimed another casualty as Spirit winger Matt Pettinger left the game.

In the third period, Lindros again tried to goad White into a fight, picking up an upsportsmanlike call for taunting. JP Dumont ran over Hossa and Vladislav Evseev picked up two minutes for making obscene gestures. White drew a two minute charging call when he flattened Byrne with three minutes to go. As soon as he stepped back on the ice, Byrne took a run at him and the punch-filled battle settled in a draw.

The game even went to overtime, where Berard left the game limping after a Chris Phillips hit. Radek Bonk eventually scored the game winner for the Spirit, but the talk afterwards was all about the nastiness that seemed to come out of nowhere. Games 85 and 92 are now being breathlessly anticipated by fans of both squads for the next round in this new rivalry.

After the game word came down that Dion Phaneuf had been suspended for a game. Phaneuf had previously received a five game suspension earlier in the season, so the league had little pity for him. Phaneuf expressed defiance and committed to being ready for the next matchup with the Blackhawks.

For those interested, here is the scoresheet for a great contest. The Blackhawks had 40 PIM and the Spirit 47 PIM. Not one of the penalties was for something whimpy like tripping or hooking.

Period 1
NO SCORING

PENALTIES: C. WHITE Spi (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 03:29, D. PHANEUF Spi (SPEARING, Major) 04:36, S. FEDOROV Blk (ELBOWING, Minor) 11:24, B. BERARD Blk (ELBOWING, Minor) 12:36, T. VANEK Spi (CROSS-CHECKING, Double Minor) 12:36, R. ROBITAILLE Blk (CHARGING, Minor, Game Misconduct) 17:41 (Served by Craig Rivet), K. KOLANOS Spi (ELBOWING, Minor, Misconduct) 17:41

Period 2
1. SPIRIT, MURRAY 6 (VANEK, BOYCHUK) (PP), 02:50
2. SPIRIT, KALTEVA 1 (VANEK, STEEN) (PP), 08:16
3. SPIRIT, KOLANOS 8 (BONK, MURRAY) (PP), 17:03
4. BLACKHAWKS, FEDOROV 5 (SATAN, CHRISTENSEN), 18:29
5. BLACKHAWKS, SPANHEL 2 (DUMONT), 19:40

PENALTIES: R. O'BYRNE Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 01:00, E. LINDROS Blk (FIGHTING) 03:49, D. PHANEUF Spi (FIGHTING, Game Misconduct) 03:49, J. NIINIMAA Blk (BOARDING, Minor) 07:25, H. GILL Blk (ELBOWING, Double Minor) 10:01, E. LINDROS Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 16:10

Period 3
6. BLACKHAWKS, DUMONT 2 (BERARD) (PP), 14:59

PENALTIES: E. LINDROS Blk (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 02:13, J. DUMONT Blk (CHARGING, Minor) 11:29, V. EVSEEV Spi (UNSPORTSMANLIKE-CONDUCT, Minor) 14:26, C. WHITE Spi (CHARGING, Minor) 16:39, R. O'BYRNE Blk (FIGHTING) 19:00, C. WHITE Spi (FIGHTING) 19:00

Overtime
7. SPIRIT, BONK 6 (EVSEEV, HOSSA), 04:40

PR - Clubbers

Has The Skid Finally Stopped?

BY Mike Oxolong for The Evening Telegram

After a very promising start the Clubbers had fallen on hard times. Going 0-3 in the last 3 games. Tonights game saw a determined effort against arguably the stingiest defence in the league. The Clubbers found themselves facing a Raider team that has only allowed 26 goals so far this year. Despite a very close game, game star Patrick Marleau's power play goal early in the third proved to be the game winner.

Meanwhile on the pros young goaltender Fleury has found himself back up to a very capable Roman Turek. Coach Nolan has expressed his disappointment in Fleuries performance so far this year and is hoping a little time on the bench will help him regain his focus. Coach Nolan" We are aware that Marc is our goaltender for the future, unfortunately last year we had to put Marc in there every game and he was really unable to develope his skills, this year he will get a chance to observe Roman and maybe take some pointers."

The past week has also seen a major shake-up on the team as well. Gone is long-time Clubber Jason Arnott as well as Mike Rathje and Scott Gomez. In their place are new faces Jason Allison, Patrick Marleau, and Jason Smith. There was also a shake-up on the farm, the loss of Matt Smaby and Anton Skorykh has done little to stop the early season domination. Lead by rookie Kevin Leland and his miniscule 0.50gaa....the Pelts now lead the league. It is hoped that he may be the next Barry Brust.

Tomorrow the Clubbers are at home to a young Canucks team.....hopefully another win is on its way

Wheat Kings - PR

In Defence of the Future

After the preseason mega-deal with the Owls, the Kings found themselves loaded at forward with very talented, very young forwards. Although initially the plans had been to give Eric Fehr a season on the farm so as to allow him a chance to further improve and to assuage this depth, an early season injury to Daymond Langkow allowed Fehr a chance to strut his stuff on the big stage, and he did not disappoint. With five points in three games Fehr had solidified himself a roster spot and made Selke candidate Scott Hartnell expendable.

Coupled with the depth on the forward was a scarcity of comparable young defencemen. So given the situation, GM Tyler Young traded away three players who had fallen to the sidelines of the Kings' roster. Inaugrual King member and long time leading defenceman scorer Kenny Johnsson was dispatched with utility forward Danius Zubrus to the Saskatoon Saints in return for defenceman Rosario Rugerri. Then Scott Hartnell was sent to the Saskatoon Blades along with a pick for defenceman Shea Webber.

"With these two deals I feel we've solidified our d-core for the future, plus we've now trimmed down our offensive corp to its future form, more-or-less. Our choice was between Langkow and Hartnell, and in the end we felt we preferred Daymond's leadership and offensive skills over Scott's greater grit and defensive awareness. We love the defencemen we have brought in: Shea Webber is a great all-around d-man, solid defensively but offensively gifted, and he meets our criteria of disciplined play; Rosario Rugerri needs another year on the farm, but our hope is that given some more time to develop he might turn into a Sergei Gonchar-type defenceman and the future pilot of our powerplay."

News&Notes: Eric Fehr is not the only rookie making a premature push to stay on the pro roster. Niklas Bergfors, the Kings' 12th overall pick last draft, was brough up after an injury to Jakub Hulva and has had three points in two games, well actually, he had three points in one game after being given a shot on the #1 line between snipers Keith Tkachuk and Steve Bernier, whereat Bergfors' playmaking skills were on total display.

Clubbers - PR

Clubbers make it three in a row.....on the road

By Mike Oxolong, The Evening Telegram

It may be hard to believe but The Clubbers have yet to lose this year. After going 3-0 in preseason...the team has continued its winning ways and started the regular season 3-0. Tonights game came at a price for the team, losing Scott Gomez for 2-3 games. Coach Nolan expressed his displeasure on what was obviously a cheap shot. " Only a game misconduct.... Wade gave Scotty a stick facial....it should have been at least a suspension for 3 games.

Even with the loss of their Gomez and Foote, the team managed to hold off a strong Flames team to take a close game. The surprising play of free agent Turek has the team sporting a new level of confidence, only time will tell if Turek can continue to stand on his head.

Flames - PR

The Atlanta Flames started the season off with quite a BANG! The Flames, unluckly had to play their first game against the back to back, TFHL champions, Michigan Pain. Looking at this first game, this did not bode well for a team that needed early confidence to start the season well off. Apparently, this did not matter as the Flames pounced the Pain 8-4. What was truly amazing was the true outburst of offense that shows what the Flames are capable of this season. The Flames managed to make the Pain pull top goalie, J-S Giguere and continue to lightup their backup. Flames GM, Patrick Amantea was quite pleased with the outcome. "What truly amazed me was the scoring in the third period. The Flames managed to score 4 goals in LESS THAN one minute. I was also quited impressed with our PP and even strength play. Last year, our EV play killed us. Our PP was amazing but EV was average at best. Without the Pain's killer PP, the score would have been very one sided. I also believe we s
hould start the playoffs tomorrow so the Flames are locked for a playoff spot." :P

Could the Flames be actually pulling itself together for once? Only time will tell as they prepare for the Saints tomorrow.

Atlanta Times