One on One: Nathan Lieuwen

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He was one of WHL's best goaltenders last year and is picking up this season right where he left off in May. Nathan Lieuwen has stopped 95.3% of the shots he's faced and is sporting a miniscule 1.30 GAA after his first six appearances. Not bad for a guy who didn't get drafted until he was 19-years-old.

I had a chance to chat with the Buffalo Sabres 6th round pick about finally getting selected, what his impressions of the NHL organization were and where he fits into their big picture plus just what he thinks about returning to the WHL again.

The Great Gernat ices Kootenay for Oil Kings

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The defending WHL champions rolled into Rexall Place tonight to face the Oil Kings and a very small crowd watched one of the least exciting games of the year.

The OK kids had a ton of trouble getting in sync early on with passes off the mark and to many giveaways. The Ice could only take advantage once on the miscues when Max Reinhart lifted one over Laurent Brossoit's shoulder to open the scoring. It stayed that way until 6 minutes into the 3rd period. Not because of stellar goaltending from Nathan Lieuwen, although he did make one super stop in the second, but rather because neither team had much going.

On a 3rd period power play, Martin Gernat unloaded a blast from the point that went wide, but rebounded right on the stick of TJ Foster who put away his 3rd of the season, tying him with Gernat for the team lead. The Oiler draft pick wasn't only picking up assists, but he delivered a wicked hip check on Sam Reinhart during the second period, and then scored the game winning goal in the shoot out on a 'Peter Forsberg' type goal. Expect to see it on the WHL plays of the week.

Other then that, not very eventful, although all 3 Reinhart brothers had some sort of impact. Max scored, Griffin was kicked out for a kneeing major, and Sam went for a ride courtesy of Gernat.

Attack Get Iced: Kootenay still alive

Where to begin with tonight's tie breaker game at the Mastercard Memorial Cup? Injuries to Owen Sound? Matt Fraser does it again? A surprise starter in net? No matter where you start, the end result was a 7-3 win for Kootenay and a date with Mississauga in Friday night's semi final.

Majors to Semi Final, Attack to tie breaker

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The Mastercard Memorial Cup hosts won't have to go the tie breaker route to win the Memorial Cup after beating Owen Sound tonight 3-1 with an empty netter. The game was back and forth and feisty but the Attack will need much more discipline if they are going to get another shot at Mississauga, although I do think some of their penalties weren't deserved. This one would have been a blow out if Mississauga's power play would have been better, they only went 1-9.

Kootenay on the Verge

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There are two ways to look at the situation that the Kootenay Ice currently find themselves in. The first, call it the half-glass-full version, has the WHL Champions with the possibility of being just the second team ever to come back and win the Memorial Cup after losing their first two games. The second, and probably more realistic, is that the Ice are perilously close to going 0-3 at the Canadian Hockey League's showcase event.

Made In Canada

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There are four teams left playing in the Canadian Hockey League but one of them really could claim the moniker of "Canada's team". Believe it or not, in this day and age with the European import draft, the growth of hockey in the United States and the migration of that talent up North, there is a team that has bucked the trends on their way to success. The Kootenay Ice are 100% Canadian made.

Memorial Cup Preview Show

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Tuesday night was wall to wall coverage of the upcoming 2011 Mastercard Memorial Cup and TPS had it covered from all angles. We welcomed 3 coaches, a GM and our CHL insider to the show, and even slipped in an update on the potential move of Lewiston to P.E.I.

Portland Advances to WHL Final

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Craig Cunningham and Sven Bartschi both recorded 3-points to pace the Portland Winterhawks to a 6-3 win on Monday eliminating the Spokane Chiefs and punching their ticket to the WHL finals. Portland outshot Spokane 38-27 overall and in each individual period as well but they needed a big third period to take out the Chiefs.

Saturday Morning Special - April 30th

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We closed out the month of April with plans to preview the RBC Cup, go over the CHL playoffs, discuss round 2 in the AHL and NHL and speak with the coach of the hottest team in Canada. Some of that came together as planned... some of it didn't.

Saturday Morning Special - April 23rd

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Another jam packed show on Saturday as TPS went across Canada and south of the border to bring you the biggest and best in the world of hockey prospect news. We went behind the mic with two play-by-play guys who are now calling semi-final games, we looked at players leaving college teams and some interesting news out of Duluth, we chatted with arguably the top high school player in the Class of 2011 and we discussed an assortment of news and notes too.

Ice Prospect Scores 9 Points At TELUS Cup

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What a way to start a National Championship for the Pacific reps the Vancouver NW Giants as they beat up on the Western reps from Winnipeg 12-5.

Kootenay Ice Prospect Sam Reinhart scored an amazing 3 goals and 6 assists. His linemates Alex Kerfoot, a 12th round pick by Seattle in 2009 had 2 goals and 5 helpers while Dylan Houck a Giants 2010 pick recorded the hat-trick giving the trio 19 points.

Reinhart you might remember played during the playoffs with Kootenay until he used up his 5 game limit, he actually played for them in between clinching the Pacific title and the TELUS Cup.

Saskatoon Put On Ice

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Saskatoon may be the #2 ranked team in Canada but it's the Kootenay Ice moving on to the WHL's Eastern Conference finals after completing the sweep of the Blades on Wednesday night. A 4-point effort from Matt Fraser (DAL) led Kootenay to a 5-2 victory at home putting an end to the season for the team many expected to represent the WHL in Mississauga.

WHL trade...our crystal ball was right for once

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If you were listening Tuesday night you might have heard Guy and I talking about a possible trade taking place in the WHL. It wasn't a major block buster but an interesting one.

Coaching & Broadcasting Dominoes Keep Falling

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In case you missed it in our update that appeared below yesterday, it appears that Terry Virtue leaving Tri City for personal reasons, meant he wanted to join Owen Sound. He is now an assistant coach with the Attack of the OHL. Hockeydb.com shows Virtue as being born in Scarborough so maybe going back east was his reason. Tri City also looks like they have someone in mind for the vacant gig, word is it's Scott Beattie who was an assistant coach with Kootenay last year.

Speaking of vacant gigs, who is getting the Warriors open G.M. job?

More Coaching Scuttlebutt

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Late on Friday we mentioned that Medicine Hat Tigers GM/Coach Willie Desjardins appears headed for the NHL's Dallas Stars. Tonight, two other credible reports have come our way as well as a third being discussed that also concerns Medicine Hat.

Heard Around the Memorial Cup Campfire:WHL coaching vacancy? Russian Roulette?

Word is that WHL coach of the year Mark Holick may be leaving the Kootenay Ice for the AHL. Holick is reportedly the new bench boss for the Syracuse Crunch. Last year the Crunch were the AHL affiliate for the Columbus Blue Jackets. However this spring it was announced that Anaheim would be stocking the Crunch roster and it appears Holick will be the head man. Holick led the Ice to 43 wins this year, 6th most in team history, and a 8 win improvement from last year. Kootenay finished 4th in the Western Conference this year.

I'm also hearing that the reason Kirill Kabanov was sent packing from the Russian under 18 team was pay back for him leaving the KHL in the first place for Moncton. Kabanov by the way would gladly play for the Wildcats tomorrow if they called him. He's in Calgary right now staying with his agent. You will find out more about the Russian enigma Tuesday in the Globe and Mail. And there are a million reasons why he likely won't bolt the NHL for the KHL anytime soon after he's drafted. After Moscow Spartak traded his rights to Salavat of the KHL, which somewhere along the line, a million dollars was exchanged, Kabanov used an out clause in his contract to leave for the QMJHL. I'm not sure a lot of Russian teams are going to be anxious to throw more money at him. By the way I'm told Kabanov would return to Moncton next year as well.

Enjoy Moncton and Windsor and we'll hopefully bring you some more camp fire stories on Tuesday.

Rodeo Roy Back In The Saddle

Former Lethbridge Hurricanes G.M. 'Rodeo' Roy Stasiuk is back in the hockey game, hired on by the Toronto Maple Leafs as a western Canadian scout.

Stasiuk was let go in what I think was a odd and poor decision by the board of directors in one of Canada's windiest cities this off season, and yes I still think the decision blows.

But the 'Canes loss is the Leafs gain as Stasiuk knows talent. He was the head scout for the Kootenay Ice during the team's best years where they made it to atleast the western conference semi-final from 1999-2003, and won the franchises only Memorial Cup in 2002.

Stasiuk was the brains behind players like Steve McCarthy, Jarret Stoll, Marek Svatos, and Dan Blackburn who were all great WHLers and some of whom have gone on to very good NHL careers as well.

Toronto has only selected one WHL player in the last 3 drafts (Luke Schenn, 5th overall, 2008) and when you factor in Junior A, have only grabbed 4 kids total west of Ontario in the same time frame. Something tells me Rodeo Roy will be changing that.