Stealin’ - Drayson Bowman Lights up Memorial

A player who could be the steal of the 2007 NHL Draft, Drayson Bowman of the Spokane Chiefs, is currently the leading scorer in the Memorial Cup.

After scoring a hat-trick and an assist while leading the Chiefs to a win in their opening game against Belleville on Saturday, Bowman came back with a goal and an assist to help his team secure a 2-1 victory against Kitchener on Sunday.

Bowman has been Spokane’s leading scorer throughout the year, as well as in the playoffs. He scored 42 goals and had 40 assists in the regular season, 11 goals and 9 assists in the playoffs, and now has 4 goals and 2 assists so far in the Memorial.

The Carolina Hurricanes drafted him in the third round last year. Someone give the scouting staff a raise.

Next up for Spokane is Gatineau on Tuesday night.

In other news, Team Russia beat Team Canada for the gold medal in the IIHF World Championships on Sunday.

Canada held a 4-2 lead going into the third period, but the Russians came on strong to tie the game in regulation and scored a power-play goal in OT to win it. Ilya Kovalchuk had the game winner.

It must have been tough to lose at home for the Canadians, but give the Russians credit. They had a heck of a tournament. For a recap and a few short interviews, (including Cam Ward), check here.

Speaking of Russia, it’s been reported that John Grahame signed a contract to play in Russia next year. I’m not sure exactly how those Russian contracts work, but I think the player can opt out, (up to a certain point), if they can sign an NHL contract in the meantime.

Either way, the writing was on the wall that he wouldn’t be coming back to Carolina. Best of luck to Johnny.

Uriah Heep