Weekend Wrap/Robison Relocation/small market stuff

Stories and Column for the Daily Townsman

Shootout weekend split for Kootenay
by Jeff Bromley

One step forward and one step back left the Kootenay Ice in the same spot they started in Friday night as the club edged the Swift Current Broncos 5-4 Friday night and in turn lost to the Spokane Chiefs 4-3 Saturday in the Lilac City, both in shootouts. A third period collapse Friday turned up two points while a valiant third period comeback Saturday against the Chiefs produced only one. At the end of the day the weekend action solidified the real likelihood that the Moose Jaw Warriors will be at the Rec Plex to open the WHL Playoffs March 25. “We let up in the third period,” said Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch of his club’s blown 4-1 lead Friday over the Broncos. “We didn’t shoot everything we were shooting in the second period and we were getting a little too cute with the puck and all three of their goals we’re almost identical mid-lane drives. We have to do a better job pushing to the outside in our own end.”

On Saturday in Spokane Kootenay opened strong with a goal by Kevin King, his 31st on the season, 2:43 into the game with the Ice on the power play. The Chiefs’ Dominik Uher tied it two minutes later with Elgin Pearce off for tripping to knot the game at one. In the second Tyler Johnson scored his league-leading 51st on the season to give the Chiefs a 2-1 lead and then Mike Aviani gave the Chiefs a 3-1 lead halfway through the game. Cody Eakin continued his with his hot hand with his team-leading 34th two minutes later to keep the Ice in it headed into the third. D Brayden McNabb then set yet another team record – the fourth time he’s put his name in the team record book this season - with his 21st goal on the season to tie the game at three and send it into overtime and then the shootout. The breakaway competition didn’t go Kootenay’s way Saturday as Jesse Ismond, Eakin, Matt Fraser, Pearce and McNabb were all stopped by Chief goaltender James Reid while Ice goaltender Nathan Lieuwen stopped the first four Chief shooters but couldn’t stop Levko Koper for the Chief win.

It was almost a complete opposite result from 24 hours earlier at the Rec Plex where the Ice completely dominated the second-worst team in the WHL through two periods, out-shooting the visitors 32-13 and jumping out to 4-1 lead in the process. Goals by Adam Rossignol, with his 2nd, Cody Eakin’s 33rd, Joe Antilla’s 20th and Steele Boomer’s 13th indicated the third could be a runaway except the Ice stopped running as the Broncos rode their way back into the game, scoring three straight goals on Ice rookie starter MacKenzie Skapski in the third, the last one by Saskatchewan Midget League leading-scorer Graham Black – in only his second WHL game – when the 18-year-old notched his first-ever WHL goal with only 24 seconds left. “We can’t let teams do that,” said Eakin of the Broncos comeback. “We want to come out in the third and put the foot to the gas pedal. Instead we hung around and got a little cute. Any team in this league can come back and they did that.”

Playing his former mates for the last time Eakin and the rookie Black traded shootout goals before Ice forward Max Reinhart scored in the fourth round to get the win. Reinhart was initially stopped by Bronco goaltender Mark Friesen only to have the puck shoot straight up and then down the goaltender’s back, trickling into the net for the win.

Quick Hits – Eakin had a stellar weekend with two goals and an assist… After scoring the shootout winner Friday Reinhart didn’t make the trip to Spokane Saturday. The 18-year-old forward was hit in the first period Friday but finished the game and scored the game-winner. Reinhart wasn’t feeling well after the game and missed his first game of the season Saturday. He is questionable for Tuesday’s game in Medicine Hat… With the Ice shootout loss the Tigers only need one win in their last three games to clinch at least third in the Eastern Conference. The Tigers with a 44-17-4-4 record sit third with 96 points while the Ice, with a 43-21-1-4 record, are fourth with 91 points.


Small markets still relevant in WHL – Commissioner
by Jeff Bromley

All the talk about relocation of franchises generates a lot buzz about the WHL but for less-than-desirable reasons, especially if you live in one of the rumoured small markets. In town Friday to present the WHL's Distinguished Service award, Commissioner Rob Robison reiterated the league's commitment to making sure small-market franchises like the Kootenay Ice survive in their current form. “Fans in Cranbrook and the Kootenay region deserve credit because when you see that over 10% of the cities population is in attendance every night, the strong, loyal fans really deserve credit as they’ve been here since day one,” said Robison.

Robinson said strategies, new ideas and innovations are needed in order to ensure that the small-market WHL teams do not go the way of the Dodo. “What we need to do is get that attendance up to about a range of 500/game through more innovative marketing strategies, group sales, theme nights and give people reason to attend the game and as well make sure that the season tickets can be broken down into halves or thirds so that people who have other commitments can still find a way to get to the games.”

But while he was quick to praise the loyal fan base of the Ice he also was a realist in terms of falling attendance. “The reality is that we need a certain level of attendance to ensure these clubs are viable on a long-term basis and that’s the same message in Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert. The margin of error is much more reduced here because there’s a certain minimum that needs to be in place.”

The last innovative strategy for small-market teams was an idea of one of his predecessors and former owner of the Ice, the late Ed Chynoweth. Seeing the growing discrepancy between the big and small-market clubs, much like the NHL of the 1990’s, it was Chynoweth’s idea to expand the league’s revenue sharing potential far beyond what it is now. “It was one thing that Ed certainly felt strong about,” said Robison. “We do have various forms of revenue sharing right now.”

Citing funds generated from extraordinary or special events such as the Memorial Cup, in which the WHL hosts every three years, the World Juniors Championships, licensing programs and even when the bigger centres such as Calgary or Vancouver go far into the playoffs and draw huge crowds. The assessments against those large gate receipts the league imposes are also shared. “The league is very supportive of revenue sharing in the forms of new revenue,” he said.

And while Ed Chynoweth wanted more of the gate receipts shared, specifically on the subject of the spiraling cost of the player’s education funds, the commissioner said that is proving much more difficult. “We need to work harder at it to generate those funds and we are generating funds on a league-wide basis for that program but they are limited.”

“We need to do a better job at it and that’s more my responsibility, quite frankly. We’re focused on franchise stability and making sure our business model remains in place and those are all things that are of strong benefit to the small markets and throughout the league, maintaining the costs at a certain level that help the smaller markets.”

“There are maybe not the revenue sharing levels or the new revenue we’d like to see but there’s a full commitment to keep the business plan and business model to make sure every team can compete in.”

No Jumbotron yet – The commissioner did indicate that the full requirement that all league venues has a jumbotron or video replay screens in place by the 2012 season has softened to a recommendation rather than a requirement. With Moose Jaw set to move into a new building next season and Lethbridge’s upgrade to the Enmax Centre complete with a new video replay screen, only Swift Current, Medicine Hat and the Rec Plex won’t have one next season. The City of Swift Current has put one in their capital budget for next year for the Credit Union Iplex and the proposed $80 million replacement of the Arena in Medicine Hat will include a replay screen. The league will approach the City of Cranbrook for an indication or plan as to when a replay screen could be in place here but it’s currently not in next year’s budget.


Column - Relocation rumours dog Chilliwack; Could it happen here?
Like some perverted Bucket List, the lists are always the same; Prince George, Chilliwack – the community owned teams in Saskatchewan to a lesser extent – and always, always, includes the Kootenay Ice. The ‘list’ is the names of WHL franchises rumoured at one point or another almost every season to be on the move to Vancouver Island and take up residence in the province’s capital, Victoria. With an average attendance this season of 2487 per game through 35 games this season at the Rec Plex, down just over 5% from last season and 14% from 2008 when 3070 turned the stiles of the Plex each game, it’s been numbers such as those that throw gas on the relocation fire.

When a Victoria sportswriter called Ice GM Jeff Chynoweth to enquire about such rumours two weeks ago, he replied, “We’re not moving anywhere.”

The Chilliwack Bruins, an expansion club that began play in 2006, are the intended target for relocation to Victoria, according to various reports, as RG Properties, headed up by Graham Lee - the operator of the 7400 seat Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria and the ECHL’s Victoria Salmon Kings – seeks a WHL club. With expansion of the 22-team loop not in the cards it is relocation that will fill the Victoria rink, though officially the league is not entertaining any requests to move from its franchises. “There’s a lot of speculation out there this year – as there is with every year – but if there’s anything being taking seriously in terms of offers from the individual ownership groups, I’m the first to know,” said WHL Commissioner Ron Robison Friday. “At this point in time we haven’t received anything from Chilliwack so there really isn’t anything to report at this time.”

Robison did add that, “It’s a lengthy process (if a team were to move) and because I don’t have anything in front of me right now it’d be very difficult to make it work in a short period of time. But if situations dictate and we have to deal with things, we will but certainly time is of the essence given we’re entering into scheduling and making plans for next season. If (relocation) is going to occur it would have to happen very soon.”

But in Chilliwack attendance is up this season. The club is on a hot streak of late, having won seven of their eight games and have clinched a playoff spot, their fourth in the five seasons of their existence. Not bad for an expansion team. Attendance is over 3300 a game at the 5000-seat Prospera Centre, up seven percent over last season in the club’s dogfight for fan support in the Fraser Valley with the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat, 15 minutes down the freeway.

So what gives?

The Phoenix Coyotes, that’s what gives. The troubled story of the former Winnipeg Jets in the desert could come to a just end at this season with the very real possibility of the Coyotes returning to Manitoba, current home of the Vancouver Canucks AHL farm club, the Moose. Follow the possible fall of the dominoes and you have the NHL back in Winnipeg, the Canucks with a farm team looking for a home and a endless appetite for anything Canucks a ferry ride away from Canuck Nation in Victoria. Two major markets the WHL has stated keen interest in, swept away in one fail swoop.

Couple that with the obvious rivalry boost with Abbotsford’s AHL club and you get a sense of desperation not to lose one important half the Vancouver Island market, the other being Nanaimo if and when a WHL-size building is ever built. Throw in the new part-owner of the BCHL franchise in the Hub City, former WHL’er, NHL’er and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Kelly Hrudey and you have an instant WHL link to the hockey there. The seeds are being sown for two WHL club’s to be on the Island.

What does this have to do with Kootenay, you ask? Consider this; if a franchise move can come out of nowhere, like the Chilliwack situation over the past two weeks, and possibly move with its attendance numbers and on-ice on the rise, what are the chances a successful club on the ice in the WHL’s second-smallest market could be wooed away to the Island climate?

There are lots of reasons it could never happen here but if the messy situation in Chilliwack – and there’s no real other way to describe it – is any indication, the possibility is always very real.


WHL honours Nella Rounsville for Ice service
by Jeff Bromley

Although they look like pros on a nightly basis the players on the Kootenay Ice are for the most part, still kids. They are teenagers and young adults with goals and dreams and like many of their non-hockey playing brethren, high-school responsibilities. Helping the Kootenay Ice players navigate through those educational waters is club education advisor Nella Rounsville, who has ensured Ice players have graduated from high school and started their college careers for the past 13 years. “It’s a labour of love,” offered Rounsville during the first intermission in which she was honoured by the club and the WHL with the league’s distinguished service award for 2010-11, along with Lorne Frey the assistant GM of the Kelowna Rockets who was honoured Wednesday night in Kelowna. “I truly love to do this and I wish that all of you could have the contact that I do with these boys. These players come to Cranbrook and learn how to balance hockey and their academics and hopefully they move on to bigger and better things. We try to keep them opening the doors and go through them.”

Almost all players to pull on the Ice uniform come to Cranbrook from various parts of Western Canada and the U.S. and most that arrive here at the age of 16 or 17 still have grade 11 and 12 to complete at Mt Baker High School. Rounsville’s experience as a former teacher and a competitive athlete give her the tools to ensure that happens as smooth as possible. The standard is set for the players still in school; no pass, no play. “The iron fists are the coaches,” said Rounsville. “If they don’t perform in school they don’t play hockey.”

Rounsville’s role begins early in the season prior as the club prepares for new faces that will pull the jersey on next season. “I’ve already started with training camp. We’ve sent out 15 packages to 15 prospects that have to give me course selection for Mt Baker, so we’re actually ahead of the game. We mediate the equivalency between the provinces and the U.S. and sequence things so that the transition back to their home schools is easy so that they can graduate with their piers in grade 12.”

WHL Commissioner Ron Robison, in town Friday to present the award, recognized the efforts of Rounsville and what that kind of commitment and volunteerism means to the small-market hockey club. “Franchises in the WHL cannot survive without people like Nella,” said Robison. “They’re really the backbone of the franchise in so many ways even though they don’t get the public recognition in terms of coaching or managing the teams but they’re very, very integral to making the team work. Especially ensuring the players have the type of environment we want them to have and it’s people like Nella that really make that work.”

The WHL’s Distinguished Service Award was established in 2004 and is awarded to associates annually from nominees submitted by teams from both the Eastern and Western Conferences. In addition to her duties as the club’s education advisor Nella also chairs the organizing committee of the Kootenay Ice Annual Golf tournament that has raised over $320,000 over the past 12 years. “I don’t tutor them – this season (Nathan Lieuwen) has been helping out he’s such a bright kid – but it’s the Mt Baker tutors and teachers that make this work. Bob Buxton showed me the way years ago and Daryl Taylor has carried on and without them we wouldn’t have the support we need. We really value Mt Baker. We had 13 kids there at the beginning of season and just two left to graduate. We had 8 at the College of the Rockies and 2 with Athabasca University. We take education really seriously here and I just love what I do and I deem myself lucky to be able to work with these kids.”