Daily Dose

Daily Dose of the Dub: Ice on the move?; Ungar and Chiasson up with Brandon; WHL hands out weekly honours

Written by Stephen Hawco on

Move to Winnipeg possibly being announced on Tuesday:

The Kootenay ICE announced on Monday afternoon that they would be having a press conference at 10:30 am Tuesday. ICE Governor Greg Fettes will be there along with ICE President and General Manager Matt Cockell. Along with those two, WHL Commissioner Ron Robison will be present.

The speculation instantly was that the long awaited announcement of the Cranbrook-based franchise’s move to Winnipeg would finally be made official.

This news has been expected since October 25th, when the Kootenay ICE Green Bay Committee, a group charged with selling tickets to the ICE’s games, which are distributed to local service clubs and schools, held a Town Hall. This is where they announced that season tickets were well short of the number they were targeting. In 2017-18 they sold 1,900 and they were hoping to hit 500 by November 9th.

Less than a month later, that same committee disbanded and blamed the ownership of the franchise’s lack of support as the reason they chose to do so.

Articles from the Winnipeg Free Press came before the meeting and afterward, with one stating that there would be a press conference in early December. The WHL was quick to state there would be no such conference.

Under two months later a press conference has finally been announced.

It should be noted that during this whole situation, the ICE and the WHL never came out and denied reports of the move, just that any announcement was being made on the time and date given.

By no means will that take the sting out of this for longtime fans of the franchise which has been in Cranbrook since 1998.

Now Fettes and Cockell, along with the WHL appear to be ready to make their announcement, ending the speculation that has been there for the entire 2018-19 WHL season and really since Fettes purchased the team back in late March of 2017 from the Chynoweth family.

We will have more here on DubNetwork Tuesday after the news is made official at the two separate events.

Patera injury means Ungar is back in Brandon:

Last Friday, Brandon Wheat Kings starting goalie Jiri Patera was injured in a game with Regina, prompting backup Ethan Kruger to finish the game – a 4-0 loss to the Pats.

Patera was not okay to go the next night and Kruger stopped 31-of-33 shots in a 3-2 win over the Pats. It is believed that unsigned 2001-born local goalie Keegan Watkins-McIntyre served as emergency backup. He plays for the Brandon Wheat Kings Midget AAA team in the MMHL.

Now that Ungar made it to Brandon, the 16-year-old Northern Alberta X-treme Prep goalie and signed Brandon prospect can serve as backup for Kruger.

He has played in two games for Brandon this season, posting a 3.09 GAA and 0.892 save percentage.

Also up with the Wheat Kings is 2018 first round WHL Bantam Draft pick Jake Chiasson. The Yale Hockey Academy Prep forward was taken with the 15th overall pick last May and could be making his WHL debut on Brandon’s Alberta trip. They play four games in five days on the trip, starting Tuesday in Edmonton.

WHL honors the week’s best: