The Sea-to-Sky Boner Report: Nov 11th 2013
By Rhys Jessop
10 years ago
Due to some gremlins in the CanucksArmy blogware, this week’s Giants report is a bit abbreviated. Read on past the jump for news involving criminal charges against leading scorers Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck, as well as a look ahead to one of the marquee weekends of the Giants’ season.
The big news this week was that Jackson Houck and Brett Kulak have been charged with assault, stemming from an incident at a Delta house party on August 18th of this past summer. Both have already made three appearances in court, and are expected to return for more hearings later. In the meantime, both Kulak and Houck will continue to play for the Giants. You can read more about this story from these updates from Steve Ewen, News 1130 and Yahoo’s Buzzing the Net.
On the ice, the Giants pulled themselves into a playoff spot with a 5-1 win over the Prince George Cougars on Saturday night, before the Cougars took the 8th spot once more with a crazy 8-7 OT win over the last place Kamloops Blazers. Vancouver now sits just two points back of Prince George for the final playoff spot, but they have two games in hand on the Cougars and they will play five more times this season. First overall pick in the CHL import draft Dimitri Osipov scored his first career WHL goal in the 5-1 win, and Payton Lee has been better of late too, posting a 0.918 save percentage in three November games.
This Friday and Saturday are two of the biggest dates on the Giants’ schedule. Hunter Shinkaruk comes to town with the Medicine Hat Tigers this Friday, while Tyler Benson makes his WHL debut on Saturday against the Tri-City Americans. Shinkaruk scored in his 2nd game back from an injury, giving him 11 points in 9 games this year, and Benson has 34 points in 16 games playing for the Program of Excellence U-18 team.
Around the B.C. Division
Kamloops Blazers: Lost 3 of 4 games to continue sit at the bottom of the Western Conference.
Kelowna Rockets: Winnipeg Jets prospect F Ryan Olsen served a 1 game suspension for his actions against the Prince George Cougars…D Madison Bowey and D Damon Severson were named to team WHL for the Canada-Russia CHL Super Series…Bowey was also named team captain…posted a 3-0-0-0 record to stretch their division lead to 5 points over Victoria with 4 games in hand.
Prince George Cougars: Acquired F Todd Fiddler from Moose Jaw in exchange for a 5th round pick…Traded F Peter Quenneville to Brandon in exchange for a 3rd round pick…F Troy Bourke was named to team WHL for the Canada-Russia CHL Super Series…Dropped games against Kelowna and Vancouver before beating Kamloops in an 8-7 shootout on Sunday.
Victoria Royals: Acquired F Jack Palmer from the Brandon Wheat Kings in exchange for two 5th round draft picks…Lost D Joe Hicketts for an indefinite amount of time due to an upper body injury…Lost 5-0 to the Edmonton Oil Kings before beating the Seattle Thunderbirds and stunning the Portland Winterhawks 3-2 on the strength of two goals by F Brandon Magee.
Other News and Notes:
- The Lethbridge Hurricanes are terrible. They have a -56 goal differential through 21 games, and have just two wins on the season. The next closest team to them is Prince George at a -24 goal differential. They are on pace for just 7 wins – the 2nd worst season in WHL history, eclipsed only in futility by the 1989/90 Victoria Cougars.
- After dealing veteran forwards Sam Mckechnie and Jaimen Yakubowski to Seattle, the Hurricanes also sent D Ryan Pilon home to await a trade. To help bolster their roster, they have added G Teagan Sacher from Regina for a 5th round pick and D Kristian Khenkel on a transfer from Germany.
- The Regina Pats acquired D Jesse Zgraggen from the Calgary Hitmen in exchange for a 4th round pick.
- Prince Albert F Shane Danyluk was suspended for 1 game for a cross-checking major against Medicine Hat.
- The WHL roster for the Canada-Russia CHL Super Series was announced this week. It can be seen here.
- Medicine Hat F Hunter Shinkaruk returned from a hip injury this week, scoring one goal in two games.
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