KELOWNA, B.C. — It turns out Tim Bozon is as fluent at defying gravity with a hockey puck as he is in any of four languages.

The breakaway challenge at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game on Tuesday night ended up being a goaltenders' duel. Unlike their NHL counterparts, this wasn't played as straight entertainment. As the victor, Kitchener Rangers centre Radek Faksa, explained, "The coach was telling us to score goals, the scouts don't really want to see fancy stuff, then the judges were telling us they were only going on fancy stuff. It was a bit of mixed emotions." Bozon, though, remembered (a) it's only a game (b) the people who paid good money to see an exhibition want some flair and (c) the scouts have an entire regular season plus playoffs to build a profile on him by draft day. So Bozon aimed high and the result was the highlight of the shootout, even though he did not score.

As Adam Kimelman explained, Bozon was paying homage to another Swiss-trained star, current New York Islanders rookie Nino Niederreiter. Niedereiter, then with the Portland Winterhawks, scored one-handed during the skills competition of the 2010 Top Prospects.

Scooping the puck up on the blade of his stick, Bozon kept the puck in place as he held his stick high over his head while he skated in on net. He finished with a spin-o-rama, but when he tried to score lacrosse-style, the puck landed in the crease and bounced wide of the net.

"Everyone remembers his one-hand goal, so I tried to do a different one with one hand," Bozon told NHL.com. "I didn't score — almost scored — but I tried the creativity he (Niederreiter) had two years ago." (NHL.com)

Emerson EtemSpinoff! Buzzing the Net will feature a column at the start of each month that entails Kelly Friesen's seven thoughts on the Western Hockey League's previous month.

The month of January is one of the Western Hockey League's busiest months. It entails players returning from the world junior, NHL Central Scouting releasing its mid-term rankings, players being named to the CHL's Top Prospects Game, and of course, the trade deadline.

Without further ado, here's a look at seven thoughts on the previous month.

Warriors add Braes and Henry. Are they now the odds on favourites out of the East? — The Moose Jaw Warriors were built for this season. So it only made sense for them to load up at the trade deadline. Sure they didn't get a top NHL prospect that non-junior hockey gurus know off by heart, but they did add two impact forwards with great leadership in Cam Braes and James Henry.

Teams such as the Brandon Wheat Kings and Kootenay Ice could make for an interesting series, but it seems only the Edmonton Oil Kings could be considered a slight favouriteagainst the Warriors.  Talent wise, one has to give the edge the Oil Kings. But the Warriors leadership and experience in the dressing room could trump Edmonton's skillful team.

What could separate these two teams is the play of the men between the pipes. By the numbers, it's nearly dead even. Oil Kings' Laurent Brossoit has maintained a .914 save percentage and a 2.46 goals-against average. The Warriors' Luke Siemens boasts a .913 save percentage and a 2.47 GAA. A bad game by either goaltender could ultimately cost his team the series if these two clubs do indeed meet in the post-season.

Hurricanes' Brody Sutter asks for a trade, but instead made team captain — Usually when a player asks for a trade he's told to pack his bags; however, that wasn't the case for Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Brody Sutter. Instead of cleaning out his locker, the Carolina Hurricanes prospect stitched a C to his sweater after former captain Cam Braes was traded to Moose Jaw.

According to Global's Paul Kingsmith, Hurricanes GM Rich Preston decided to keep Sutter after not receiving any adequate offers. It's impossible to know Preston's definition of an adequate offer. Nevertheless, one has to be skeptical on how bad the offers really were. After all, the Seattle Thunderbirds fetched two first-round picks and a young player from the Portland Winterhawks for Marcel Noebels. It's debatable whether Noebels is much better than Sutter.

Quebec Remparts centre Mikhail Grigorenko, NHL Central Scouting's No. 2-ranked North American skaterMikhail Grigorenko would have loved a Mikhail vs. Nail showdown at this week's CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.

"I wanted him here," says the Quebec Remparts centre, now the highest-ranked prospect in the game after Yakupov's withdrawal due to his recovery from a knee injury. "It would be really fun to play against Nail. We didn't play on the same line at the under-20, but he's a really good guy and a really good player."

Grigorenko has earned the second spot in NHL Central Scouting's North American midterm rankings, along with his own Fail For Mikhail shadow campaign, by regularly putting on showstopping performances since joining Quebec in September. The rangy Russian, who possesses great skill in a good-sized package at 6-foot-2 and 191 pounds, is averaging better than a point and a half per game as a 17-year-old. His numbers through 41 games (28 goals, 64 points) are near-identical to what last season's No. 3 overall pick, Jonathan Huderdeau had through the same number of games  (27 goals, 65 points) while playing in a weaker division. Grigorenko has done is in spite of an ankle injury that he played through during the world junior championship that is still bad enough that Remparts coach-GM Patrick Roy didn't want him to play in the Top Prospects Game (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, Sportsnet/TVA Sports).

"It's not one hundred per cent, probably 70 or 80," Grigorenko says. "I was disappointed to get hurt [at the world junior] because I had been one of the top scorers on the team and I would have been able to help the team more. After the injury I changed my style to play more in my zone and help my D [defence]."

Grigorenko adds that coming to North America has helped him brush up on some of the finer points of his game.

"When I was in Russia last year I couldn't play my zone, but now I'm not bad," he says. "My faceoffs have improved as well."

Calgary Hitmen vs. Tri-City Americans

The West's best have company. This week, the Western Hockey League has its best, balanced showing during the 37 years 15 months the Dynamic Dozen has been kept, with three teams from each conference cracking the top 12.

Credit the Calgary Hitmen, who are channeling the championship juggernaut of two seasons ago, for adding more spice to a thick stew in the Eastern Conference. Meantime, the Tri-City Americans hit a rough patch, opening the door to the Quebec league's leaders to take the top two slots. And guess what? Saint John and Shawinigan have a game on Saturday.

1. Saint John Sea Dogs, QMJHL (.566 RPI, +2) — Plowed through two wins last week, with the Hub Line of Zack Phillips between Jonathan Huberdeau and Charlie Coyle looking sharp, particularly on Sunday vs. Blainville-Boisbriand. (Coyle and Phillips each have Massachusetts ties, hence Hub). The only fault one can find with Saint John's week is a centre-ice coughup that Nathan Beaulieu had in that Armada game. Amazingly, no Montreal sportswriters are suggesting the Canadiens trade him; it's only a matter of when until the media there start suggesting any good young defenceman in the Habs system get dealt just to make sure he won't make mistakes in Montreal. (Yes, that's sarcasm about the suggestion the Habs move P.K. Subban.)

2. Shawinigan Cataractes, QMJHL (.561, +3) — You know how you know the pressure is off Cats coach Éric Veilleux? He's dropped the ban on players using Twitter. Note that he did it after loading up on veterans. Shawinigan is three games into an eight-game stretch at home that includes a return game Saturday vs. Saint John, which it beat in the second week of January. That was Coyle's first game with the Sea Dogs; much has changed.

3. Tri-City Americans, WHL (.555 RPI, -2) — Five games in a row without a regulation win has eroded the Americans' once-massive lead over the rest of the pack; the only game in that stretch where they got the W was an overtime contest in Edmonton that star goalie Ty Rimmer stole from the Oil Kings. Surely Tri-City sorely needed the four-day break it has this week before getting back to business.

Everett Silvertips standout Ryan MurrayRyan Murray is not seeing his young team's improved play in terms of his own good fortune. The fact he's helped the once straggling Everett Silvertips join the playoff push speaks well for his capacities as a leader on the blueline.

The 18-year-old Murray, who was NHL Central Scouting's top-ranked blueliner in the North American midterm rankings, bears added responsibility as the captain of one of the Western Hockey League's youngest teams. The Silvertips were stuck on a meagre seven wins when he returned from representing Canada at the world junior hockey championship. Since Murray got back into the swing of the junior game, they've put together a little 5-5-0-1 run to get within four points of their conference's final playoff spot. Murray's also become a productive two-way defender, posting four goals and 12 points in 14 games this month.

"We're doing a lot of better as of late," says Murray, who will also captain Team Cherry in Wednesday's CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, Sportsnet/TVA Sports). "We have a lot of young players and are starting to figure out what it takes each game and how we have to play. Everyone's been doing a really good job."

A high ankle sprain limited the 6-foot-1, 195-lb. Murray to 11 games before he left to wear the Maple Leaf. While many in the media seized on some costly mistakes he had in Canada's 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia, overall he exceeded the standard for an 18-year-old defender playing in his first WJHC. The effect he's had since returning to Everett could be a better barometer.

"It's always tough losing, we had a rough first half," says the native of White City, Sask. (pop. 1,113). "It's great that things are picking up now. I'm not even thinking about how it helps me. It's in the back of the mind, I guess you could say, but right now I'm focused on the team."

As Central Scouting's No. 3-ranked North American skater, Murray leads the WHL's Fab Five of draft-year defencemen that includes Edmonton's Griffin Reinhart, Red Deer's Mathew Dumba, Portland's Derrick Pouliot and injured Moose Jaw star Morgan Rielly. Dumba and Rielly might have higher ceilings. Murray, though, probably has the most refined game among that group, which means he will go in the top 10 picks this summer.

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ...

WHL

Congratulations, Radek Faksa, Mathew Dumba and Brendan Gaunce! You're the only ones among NHL Central Scouting's top 10 North American skaters who have actually stayed healthy, more or less. (Coming Down The Pipe!)

Vancouver Giants defenceman Brett Kulak, who is playing in tomorrow's CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, is a throwback in one sense. He learned the game outdoors. (Vancouver Province)

Damn: the Red Deer Rebels have lost captain Adam Kambeitz for six weeks. (The Red Deer Scene)

Tonight marks the first former Victoria-current Victoria contest at the Save-On Foods Centre, as the Prince George Cougars visit the Royals. (Victoria Times-Colonist)

The Western league has rolled out an Ask The Commish feature. Annie Fowler has a few questions for commissioner Ron Robison. So does Gregg Drinnan. (The Red Light District, Taking Note)

Nelson Nogier, suit up! With Dalton Thrower away at Top

Kitchener Rangers defenceman Ryan MurphyNo. 1 star: Ryan Murphy, Kitchener Rangers (OHL)

Funny how Murphy gets in a groove and now the Rangers have won 8-of-10 games to move into a tie for third overall in the Ontario Hockey League. The 18-year-old Carolina Hurricanes draft pick scored a short-handed breakaway goal and chipped in two assists in the Rangers' 5-3 win over the Guelph Storm, giving him 18 points in his past seven games.

There are few defencemen in junior who skate two-thirds the length of the ice for a short-handed goal, but Murphy broke the game open early by doing just that in the first period. Kitchener led 1-0 when Guelph's Andrey Pedan duffed a slapshot from the centre point. Rangers captain Michael Catenacci tapped the puck about 10 feet ahead to Murphy, who went coast-to-coast to beat Toronto Maple Leafs-drafted goalie Garret Sparks (who's been great lately, by the way) five-hole. Murphy also added two assists later on to help the Rangers play from ahead all afternoon.

No. 2 star: Angelo Miceli, Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL)

The 17-year-old scored his first career hat trick, helping the Canadian Hockey League's highest-scoring team edge the division rival Quebec Remparts 6-5. The game must have resembled the NHL all-star game by times since there were seven goals in the second period, including four in a 2:38 span. Miceli, who just six goals on the season, got the Tigres started with an unassisted tally in the first period and scored twice during that wild second frame.

Top NHL draft prospect Nail YakupovNail Yakupov cannot wait to open the throttle again.

The Sarnia Sting right wing barely needs any introduction, since he's been the consensus favourite to be the NHL's No. 1 overall pick since, if not before, dazzling scouts in last spring's IIHF under-18 championship. The native of Nizhnekamsk, Russia, is a rare confluence of quick hands, creativity and assertiveness on the ice. He's done little to disabuse most observers he will go No. 1 between his play for Russia's silver-medal world junior team while putting up 22 goals and 55 points in 29 games for the Sting despite losing time to back and knee ailments. It speaks well for him that he rushed back from hurting his knee in the world junior gold-medal game to rejoin the Sting.

"My knee is fine, I'm feeling 100 per cent," says Yakupov, who tested out his knee with a 3-in-3 weekend for the Sting, scoring an unassisted goal vs. powerhouse Ottawa and contributing a helper in a 2-1 win over a Kingston team that played the trap. "I missed 20 games, so it's pretty exciting to be back. We just need to keep going, we need some wins."

By all accounts, Yakupov — the type who actually asks media folks if they want an interview — has the personality to match his game. Another big takeaway from his injury-interrupted second season with the Sting is that he's scoring at a prolific rate without cheating in the defensive zone. His team-best +19 plus/minus is more than double that of any of his Sting teammates. Listed at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, he's also not averse to finishing the odd check along the boards.

On top of missing time, one dark lining in Yakupov's season is that the Sting (24-19-1-5) are lagging behind the lead pack in the OHL's Western Conference. Can Yakupov make them a darkhorse, especially if fellow potential top 10 pick Alex Galchenyuk returns from rehabbing a surgically repaired knee around March 1?

"We have a good team," Yakupov says. "We just need to start winning and stay focused,"