Hockey Teams

Bullfrog President and General Manager Stuart Silver is expected to be in Nevada today to make an offer to buy the Reno Rage of the West Coast Hockey League. Silver said he intends to place $250,000 from unspecified investors with a Nevada bankruptcy trustee. He said his agent, Canadian sports broker Al Howell, believes the offer has a good shot of being forwarded to a federal bankruptcy court.

Nick Aliotti has done a nice job coordinating Oregon's defense if you consider he has to plot each week against two offenses — the opponent's and his. This week, Aliotti is prepping Oregon for Monday's 98th Rose Bowl game against Wisconsin. The Badgers average 44.6 points per game and appear to be playing downhill, against you, on a slanted field. Wisconsin has a running back, Montee Ball, who has scored 38 touchdowns and a quarterback, Russell Wilson, who can run, pass and probably belt out the national anthem.

The owner of the Anchorage Aces of the West Coast Hockey League said the $2.3-million bid received Thursday for the team in an auction on EBay Inc. was a mistake, and the team is still for sale. Mike Cusack Jr. said that the bid was placed by a student who was curious about the auction. The student's identity wasn't disclosed. Cusack said he's going to re-list the team on EBay.

A world-class team and the worldly city it represents absorbed devastating blows Wednesday night. The damage won't easily be repaired for the Canucks, who were thumped by the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, or for Vancouver, where rioters looted in the downtown core after the team's 4-0 loss. The stench of disappointment was overpowered by the smell of tear gas police deployed to quell the vandalism. Cars were flipped and burned, sending plumes of smoke skyward.

Glasnost and familiarity have created considerable change for touring Soviet hockey teams and North Americans with whom they come into contact. During previous visits, players were closely watched by grim-faced "tour guides" and media interviews were rigidly conducted with interpreters who obviously altered any controversial words.

Twenty players on the Tri-City Americans Hockey Club refused to play their Western Hockey League game at the Tri-Cities Coliseum against the Portland Winter Hawks Saturday. The revolt surrounded Bill LaForge, hired by Americans' owner Ron Dixon Dec. 17 to become director of hockey operations. A player for the Americans who requested anonymity telephoned the Tri-City Herald on Saturday and said: "We won't play until Bill LaForge is out of the organization.

Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall said Thursday that his hockey club would unequivocally support the relocation of a National Hockey League franchise to Orange County and that team executives are helping a local partnership in its attempt to secure a team for the new Anaheim arena.

To the list of myriad uses for the Internet you can add one more: unloading a bankrupt minor-league hockey team. The cash-strapped Anchorage Aces of the Western Hockey League drew a high bid of $2.3 million Thursday in an auction on Ebay, making them what is believed to be the first sports team that would ever be sold on the site.

For the first time in the four-year history of the Great Western Freeze Out, the NCAA's No. 1- and No. 3-ranked hockey teams, Maine and Lake Superior State are in the field. Two other U.S. teams, Western Michigan and Princeton complete today's bracket at the Forum. Previously, the tournament included two teams from Canada and two from the United States.

The Soviets are back. In what promises to become an annual event, the top 2 finishers in the Soviet Elite Hockey League, Central Red Army and Dynamo Riga, this week begin a North American tour in which each will play 7 National Hockey League teams. Central Red Army will open tonight in Quebec, and Dynamo Riga Tuesday in Calgary.

Russia's gold-medal celebration went into overtime. And that prevented the team from boarding a flight Thursday morning, a day after Russia won the title at the World Junior Hockey Championships at Buffalo, N.Y. About 30 members of the Russian contingent were asked to get off a Delta Air Lines flight because of their unruly behavior as they boarded the plane, a spokesman for Buffalo Niagara International Airport said. Players and managers spent the day at the Days Hotel across the street ?

Tim Leiweke slugged me. It's probably been a long time coming, but when it happened, it was so unexpected. I'm just sitting there like a dedicated Kings fan Sunday evening, two rows from the ice while wearing my official team sweater, name on the back along with No. 2, no lie, and Leiweke jumps out of his seat sounding almost delirious as he yells, "Kopie, Kopie." I don't even get the chance to say, "Who's Kopie?" Whoever he is, he apparently disappoints Leiweke, and since I'm sitting beside him, I get smacked.

Pushed to the brink of Olympic elimination Wednesday for the second day in a row, Team Canada pushed back. Literally. Playing a relentlessly physical game that shredded Russia's defense and eliminated Alexander Ovechkin from what rapidly became a wildly unbalanced equation, Canada pounded Russia, 7-3, before a roaring crowd at Canada Hockey Place and advanced to the tournament semifinals on Friday. Canada will face Slovakia, a 4-3 winner over No. 2 Sweden in the late game Wednesday.

The chipmunk costume was the final straw. A mother's desire for her daughter to become a figure skater led to a young Lisa Chesson in tears at each competition. She so hated to dress up as a rodent that it led to the end of her figure-skating career and the start of one in hockey. That change has led her all the way to Thursday's gold-medal game against favored Canada. "My mom wanted me to be a figure skater because she was when she was younger," said Chesson, a defenseman on the U.S. women's team.

Team USA's exhilarating upset of Canada on Sunday might as well be ancient history, so far had the players in red, white and blue put it behind them as they prepared for their Olympic quarterfinal playoff game against Switzerland on Wednesday. Criticism of their performance against Canada from their general manager, Brian Burke, achieved its purpose. The top-seeded Americans say they're thoroughly prepared to face No. 8 Switzerland, which defeated Belarus, 3-2, in a shootout Tuesday behind a strong performance by Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller.

Redemption was at hand as the Canadian Olympic hockey team was about to polish off an 8-2 rout of Germany and advance to the playoff quarterfinals, so the crowd at Canada Hockey Place was feeling giddy Tuesday. A cry arose from the stands, loud and proud: "We want Russia! We want Russia!" You sure about that? "Good idea," affirmed Canada's captain, Scott Niedermayer. The question is whether he and his teammates will still think it's such a great notion Wednesday, after they face the powerful Russians in a matchup that was projected to be the Olympics' grand finale but was moved up by Canada's preliminary-round loss to the U.S. and consignment to a qualifying playoff round.

Hitting the right emotional pitch today will be as important for the U.S. hockey team as hitting the open man on the power play or hitting the upper corner of the net. Admittedly tense in their first two Olympic appearances, the U.S. players showed little offensive creativity and had to scramble for a 4-4 tie with France and a 3-3 draw with Slovakia.

It all started innocuously enough for Jessica Bernal. "We went for skating lessons," said Ilene Bernal, Jessica's mother. "She kept asking, 'When do I get to play ice hockey?' We finally put her in a summer league and it just kept snowballing from there." All the way to boys' teams, girls' teams and national camps for elite junior players, where participation is by invitation only.

Winger Bobby Ryan of the Ducks and the U.S. Olympic team is blogging for The Times during the Games. Here's his post on the U.S. team's 5-3 upset of Canada on Sunday: Hi again, everyone: That was a great game to be part of. To beat Canada in their own barn in front of their own fans was pretty special. It was a pretty quiet building at the end, it was almost eerie. We enjoyed it in the locker room afterward. It's a huge confidence boost for us. As far as the game, I thought we were outplayed for quite a while.