Fined For His Big Talk, Portland Coach Has Little Else To Say
The Western Hockey League fined Portland Winter Hawks coach Brent Peterson Tuesday for his comments after Sunday’s game in the Arena.
After the Winter Hawks beat the Spokane Chiefs 4-3, Peterson told his club it was “no use fighting their whackheads,” meaning Spokane’s tough guys, whom he also called meatheads.
Peterson was also critical of referee Kevin Acheson.
WHL vice-president Rick Doerksen said the size of the fine was being determined. It was levied for “statements pertaining to both Acheson and the Spokane players.”
Peterson said quotes attributed to him in Monday’s Spokesman-Review were accurate. He had no comment beyond that.
Chiefs owner Bobby Brett called the statements “inappropriate.’ “We’re trying to promote a game and sell a product,” Brett said. “Brent’s comments don’t help.”
Apart from the win, Portland’s third in as many nights, the Spokane trip was a tough one for the Winter Hawks, who lost goaltender Brent Belecki for at least a month with a sliced thumb. Belecki was cut by a skate and treated at Deaconess Medical Center after making a second-period save.
To replace Belecki, whose tendon was completely severed, the Hawks picked up goaltender Chris Wickenheiser, late of Red Deer.
Wickenheiser reportedly left the Rebels over playing time and was en route to the East Coast Hockey League when the trade came down.
Wickenheiser had a 4.12 goals-against average in 48 games last year.
Around the league
Joel Kwiatkowski’s second-period goal was the game-winner Saturday night when the the Prince George Cougars won a franchise-record fifth straight, beating the struggling Tri-City Americans to continue as the surprise leader in the WHL West. … With 20-year-old Chris Mason back in goal, the Cougars dealt back-up goalie Tyler Love to Saskatoon. … The rumored Portland-to-somewhere-else move (Vancouver and Boise are frequently mentioned) was given a rest when the NHL’s board of governors voted to delay expansion until 1998-99. With Houston, Atlanta and Nashville reportedly the top three candidates for an NHL expansion club, major junior hockey in Portland is secure, for the time being. … The rich get richer: the Brandon Wheat Kings picked up forward Johnathan Aitken - the eighth pick of the June NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins - for defenseman Derek Holland and forward Jeff Temple. Aitken had refused to report to the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Wheat Kings also wound up with Saskatoon’s first pick in next June’s Import Player Draft - a certain early choice - after dealing Russian left wing Pavel Terekhov to Saskatoon. … The Chiefs inquired about Aitken, a 6-4, 207-pound 18-year-old, but the price was too high. “They wanted one of our D-men who we think is part of our life-line to the future,” said Chiefs GM Tim Speltz, who’s off on a tour seven-game tour of the WHL East. … The Kamloops Blazers will lose left wing Jeff Ainsworth to disciplinary action, possibly for as many as 10 games, after checking Seattle’s Nathan Forster from behind. … The Calgary Hitmen are bigger after acquiring 6-4 defenseman Ryan Berry from Spokane last week and 6-2 left wing Peter Bergman from Spokane on Tuesday. … A Montreal contractor was chosen to build an 8,000-seat facility (10,000 for concerts) with 26 suites and 650 club seats on the lake in Kelowna. Work on the Kelowna Rockets’ new home is supposed to start around Christmas, but until dirt is moving nobody talks about the project with confidence, given the city’s history of false starts. The facility is to be built with private funds, with the city kicking in $1 million a year for 20 years, after which ownership reverts to the city.
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