Saturday Morning Special - Feb 26th

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A terrific edition of The Pipeline Show wrapped up at noon today that saw us talk NHL trade deadline, Oil Kings injuries, the rise of Merrimack College and the St. Louis Blues, another year of contention for the Tri-City Americans as well as another potential future NHL player for the country of Denmark.


We started out the program talking about the upcoming collision between Boston's Tyler Seguin and Edmonton's Taylor Hall on Sunday at Rexall. We auctioned off a pair of tickets ($375 the winning bid) for the Colleen and Gordie Howe fund courtesy of J&J Wholesale Truck and Auto.

The conversation continued in segment one to include current events of the day which was mostly waiver wire transactions. Then an emailer wanted to know what the quality of the 2012 NHL Draft was like so we got into that a bit more as it is clearly the Year of the Defenceman.

Our NCAA segment this week came next and for that we spoke with Mike Machnik of College Hockey News who moonlights as the colour analyst for the Merrimack College Warriors. 'The Mack' was ranked #4 heading into this weekend's action but lost to Maine on Friday. We spoke about several players on the team including Frenchman Stephan da Costa, Kyle Bigos, Jesse Todd, Chris Barton and Karl Stollery.

The St. Louis Blues were in town on Friday night to take on the Edmonton Oilers. Dean was on hand to watch the visitors blow out the home side 5-0 and had the chance after the contest to chat with a trio of key players; Alex Pietrangelo, Ben Bishop and newly acquired Kevin Shattenkirk. Those conversation made up our 3rd segment today.

The Tri-City Americans fell under the spotlight to start the second hour today. We went Behind the Mic with Craig West who educated us on top players like Adam Hughesman, Brendan Shinnimin, Carter Ashton and rookie sensation Connor Rankin. GM Bob Tory has his team looking to contend once again and Craig was able paint the picture for us.

Daren Millard made his weekly stop in segment 5 and we, of course, spent much of the time looking at possible trade action. The LA Kings came under close scrutiny, the subject of many rumors involving the Edmonton Oilers and Ales Hemsky.

Finally, 2011 eligible Nicklas Jensen of the Oshawa Generals joined us fresh off the ice at practice. The Denmark-born import is having a terrific season for the Generals and talked about the Div I WJC, his acclimation to Canada, teammates Lucas Lessio and Boone Jenner and also other Danes like Mikkel Boedker and Lars Eller.

It was a loaded show and if you missed any of the interviews you can check them out HERE in our audio archive.

As a bonus, we always recap Friday's action in the CHL and NCAA but today we got sidetracked with the question about the 2012 so ran out of time. Here are the Cole's notes version of the Friday recap:

WHL Notes

- BRANDON BEATS STOON 7-6 – IN TOON TOWN - 2ND TIME IN A WEEK AND A HALF, JUST ONE POINT BEHIND OIL KINGS FOR 6TH…BLADES WERE UP 4-1 IN FIRST…CURTIS HAMILTON 2 A +3…MARK STONE 0 POINTS AFTER 6 AGAINST BLADES A WEEK AGO TUESDAY

- CHILLIWACK TAKES OUT VAN 6-4…RYAN HOWSE G, 2A… 9TH STRAIGHT GAME WITH A GOAL – BEATS TJ FOSTER RECORD THIS YEAR - …45 ON SEASON, BRUINS 4 POINTS BACK OF 8TH PLACE PG…

- COUGARS MAULED BY SPOKANE 8-0…MARINCIN -4…CHIEFS JUST 1 POINT BACK OF FIRST PLACE PORTLAND…ANTHONY BARDARO HATTY…TYLER JOHNSON G, 3 A…NOW 102 PTS…

- TIED WITH LINDEN VEY WHO HAD 2 POINTS IN MHAT LOSS 6-5 LOSS TO KAMLOOPS…EDM PRODUCT AND RECENT TPS GUEST COLIN SMITH HATTY….LOOPS 49 SHOTS IN SHOOT OUT WIN, 23 IN 3RD….TPS BLOGGER DYLAN WILLICK 2 GOALS-20 ON THE YEAR…-4

- KENT SIMPSON 45 SAVE SHUT OUT AS EVERETT BLANKS FIRST PLACE PORTLAND 2-0

TONIGHT…. REG AT BDN….PA AT MH…LETH AT EDM…PATS WIN, RAIDERS AND HURRICANES LOSS = REGGIE 1 POINT OUT OF PLAYOFF SPOT

QMJHL Notes

- RIMOUSKI WITH A REMARKABLE WIN OVER MONTREAL…3-2 OVER 2ND PLACE JUNIORS… FORMER RD, SC, PG TENDER MORGAN CLARK FINISHED WITH 41 SAVES FOR RIMOUSKI INCLUDING ALL 20 IN 3RD WHEN MONTREAL OUTSHOT RIM 20-1…

- VICTORIAVILLE UPSETS QUEBEC 5-4 IN SO…VIC BLEW 2 GOAL LEAD IN 3RD BUT STILL WIN

- DRUM JUMPS AHEAD OF QUEBEC WITH 4-2 WIN OVER LEWISTON… COUTURIER GOAL…8 GOALS 15 PTS IN 9 GAME POINT SCORING STREAK, 10 POINTS BEHIND LEAGUE LEADER IN 9 LESS GAMES

TONIGHT...GATINEAU VS. SHAWINIGAN…ONE POINT SEPARATES FOR 6TH... HALIFAX-CAPE BRETON…MOOSEHEADS 2 UP FOR 15TH…

OHL Notes

- Peterborough continues to hold onto the 8th and final playoff spot after beating Erie 6-5 in overtime. Austin Watson had a pair including the game winner.

- Oiler Ryan Martindale had 2 points but Ottawa lost 4-3 to Plymouth.

- Oshawa moved to within a point of the 67s as they defeated Kingston in overtime. More on that game in hour 2 tonight when we speak with Generals forward Nicklas Jensen.

- Kitchener got out to a 4-0 lead and we just able to hold off Saginaw’s comeback taking home a 4-3 win.

- Finally, Windsor kept pace with the Rangers, Plymouth and London by dumping Soo St. Marie 4-2.

- TONIGHT: the 67’s are in Saginaw and Plymouth hosts the London Knights.

NCAA Notes

- The red hot Merrimack College Warriors were stopped cold by Maine who shutout the #4 ranked team 4-0. BU and Vermont ended 3-3, Boston College just got past Massachusetts 4-3 while Northeastern and New Hampshire also ended in a tie.

- In the CCHA, Miami pounded Lake Superior 8-1. Michigan and Michigan State were winners as was Notre Dame.

- ECAC action saw #5 Union tied with Quinnipiac while Yale tied Colgate. Princeton upset #14 RPI.

- Out West in the WCHA we had Wisconsin dropping a 4-2 game to St. Cloud, The Golden Gophers pasting Michigan Tech 5-2, Nebraska surprised #6 Denver 5-2, and Colorado College upset Duluth 5-4.

- TONIGHT: North Dakota begins their weekend series against Bemidji State.