1. The 10-day break for the holidays is done and the ICE will play 3 games in the next 4 days. It’s the second year in a row they will start the past Xmas schedule with a home and home with Spokane.
2. Last year after losing 1-0 at home to Spokane, the next night they won 7-3 in Spokane which started a 7 game winning streak and a stretch of games where they won 12 of 13.
3. After being 1-3 skaters short of a complete line-up the ICE will have a full line-up going into the weekend. Jagger Dirk (3 games), Ryan Chynoweh (6 games) and Rinat Valiev (5 games) should be off the injured list.
4. 16-year-old defenseman Dylan Overdyk and 16-year-old forward Austin Wellsby have been added to the roster for the next few weeks.
5. Wellsby, 4th round pick in 2012, will make his WHL debut while Overdyk, 2nd round pick in 2012, played 1 game in September.
6. It’s been a long time since the ICE played a game without Dirk in the line-up. According to my records he played in 245 consecutive regular season games. He is 3rd in team history with only Adam Taylor (289) and Andrew Bailey (276) with longer streaks.
7. It’s good news for the rest of the WHL as the ICE will not be playing on New Years’ Eve this season as they have a career record of 7-3-0 on December 31st.
8. Sam Reinhart and Team Canada have 3 round robin games left at the WJHC
Dec 28 vs Czech Rep
Dec 30 vs Slovakia
Dec 31 vs USA
9. Troy Murray and Team West will start their U-17 in Nova Scotia on Monday.
Mon 30 vs Pacific
Tue 31 vs Czech Rep
Wed 1 vs Sweden
Thu 2 vs Quebec
10. There are many ICE prospects playing in the Mac’s Midget Tournament in Calgary.
Calgary Buffaloes
Jack Thomas
1 GP 0-1-1 0pm
Calgary Royals
Shane Allan
1 GP 0-0-0 0pm
Cariboo
Bryan Allbee
0 GP 0-0-0 0pm
Lloydminster
Dallas Hines
0 GP 0-0-0 0pm
Moose Jaw
Jared Legien
1 GP 0-0-0 2pm
Red Deer
Matt Krawiec
0 GP 0-0-0 0pm
Carter Sawicki
1 GP 0-0-0 2pm
Jayden Sittler
1 GP 0-1 6.00 (4 goals allowed in 40 minutes)