A High School pal passes...thought I'd post it here for the peeps to check in.

Kamloops – Ed Patterson remembers former teammate Dale Masson as a quiet guy with a terrific sense of humour.

Masson, a goaltender who played parts of four seasons with the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, died Saturday near Calgary. He was 36.

Masson spent much of his time with the Blazers backing up Corey Hirsch, but, according to Patterson, he accepted his role and was a good teammate.

“He was a quiet guy, a nice guy and a big part for our team when we won,” said Patterson, who played two seasons with Masson. “He never caused too much trouble when he was the backup for Corey.”

Masson, a lawyer in Calgary, collapsed and died while running in the Kananaskis 100-mile race, a 10-person relay that starts in Longview, southwest of Calgary, and ends at Nakiska ski hill. He leaves a wife, Tanya, and two sons — Wyatt, 2, and Sam, two months.

Masson, an Edmonton native, joined the Blazers in 1989 and played in Kamloops until he was dealt to the Victoria Cougars for goaltender Steve Passmore during the 1992-93 season. In 1991-92, when the Blazers won their first Memorial Cup, Masson appeared in 29 games and had a 3.68 GAA.

Masson is the third former member of the Blazers to die in the last 13 months. Mike Mathers, who played in Kamloops from 1990-93, died in his sleep in St. Albert, Alta., on June 1, 2008. On Nov. 29, Michael Maniago, who was a Blazers goaltender from 2004-07, died in a car crash in Calgary.

Upon graduating from the WHL, Masson attended the U of Alberta and played five seasons with the Golden Bears, the last four as starter. In his final season (1998-99), he backstopped the Golden Bears to the CIAU national championship in Saskatoon.

Masson went on to play two seasons of pro hockey, spending time with the ECHL's Pensacola Ice Pilots and the Central league’s Wichita Thunder and San Antonio Iguanas, before returning to the U of Alberta to study law.

Masson got his law degree in 2004 and was working for Burnet, Duckworth and Palmer in Calgary. According to the firm’s website, Masson, who was called to the bar in 2005, specialized in securities and corporate law. His profile picture on the website bdplaw.com shows a smiling Masson wearing a blocker and leaning on a goalie’s mask.

Patterson, who guessed that he last spoke with Masson 15 years ago, was shocked at the news of his death.

“He had a good sense of humour,” Patterson said. “He was a quiet guy, but when he dropped a joke, it was always funny.”

The BDP website noted that Masson was a participant on Team Burnet, Duckworth and Palmer for the Kananaskis 100-Mile Relay from 2005-08, meaning this was his fifth appearance in the race.

Masson also ran in the Calgary Police half-marathon on April 26, finishing in two hours five minutes 45 seconds.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be finalized, but the tentative plan is for a service to be held Friday in Calgary.

Guess it was meant to be:

An Italian woman who missed the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic on May 31 has died in a car accident in Austria, according to an Italian media report.

Johanna Ganthaler, an Italian senior citizen, had been vacationing in Brazil with her husband, Kurt. They were due to take Air France Flight 447 from Rio De Janeiro to Paris on May 31, but missed it after arriving late at the airport.

The plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours after takeoff. All 228 aboard lost their lives.

The Ganthalers flew to Germany the next day. Upon landing in Munich, the two rented a vehicle and decided to drive home, Italy's ANSA news agency reported Thursday. While driving through Kufstein, Austria, their vehicle swerved into the opposite lane, hitting a truck.

Ganthaler died at a local hospital, while her husband remains in critical condition, ANSA reported. It was not immediately clear when she died.

Proof that Hockey beat writers IN US backwater just don't get the game:

I don't like the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They remind me of how smug the Colorado Avalanche used be when we couldn't stand Patrick Roy, whiny Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg.

The ghost of Claude Lemieux is traveling with Pittsburgh during the finals as this talented bunch of so-called superstars have become an ice gang of crybaby cheap-shot artists. They know they are the weaker team next to the big Red Wings machine.

The good part about the bad blood in this series is Red Wings fans now have a team to hate for the next decade in Pittsburgh. Five games with the Chicago Blackhawks provided a platform for a future regional rivalry but pales in comparison to the ugly side of hockey we have witnessed from the Pittsburgh bench in this series.

A lot of people have been waiting so long to despise a hockey team and individuals as much as we did Colorado back in the day. This is good for hockey and good for the Red Wings.

Watching Detroit crush the Penguins on Saturday night was as fulfilling as anything I have ever witnessed in sports. Even better than when the Red Wings got Roy pulled in that epic Western Conference final Game 7.

The sad part of this story is that Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, a Grand Haven native, never played the game the way his team has played in the finals.

The showboating and headhunting has no place in hockey. It's obvious Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the malcontents who run the show and when their game is on they dance and throw it in the face of their opponents. Did Stevie Yzerman or Wayne Gretzky ever show up other teams?

When the little baby Penguins are frustrated, they can't handle it and lose it on the ice for all to see. Great teams and great players win and lose with class like the Red Wings.

This ridiculous comparison of Sidney Crosby to Gretzky is propaganda spewing out of the NHL front office on the Nothing But Crosby network (NBC).

The Great One respected the game and never would resort to the dirty tactics Crosby delivered in Game 5 and his constant complaining to the officials.

Lets be honest about Crosby. He's got great talent with an immature side to him that probably will never see a Stanley Cup trophy parade as long as the Red Wings are in business. He knows this and it kills him so the little sniper and his Russian buddy Malkin bask in the glory of home ice but have curled into the fetal position on the road in Detroit.

Crosby is no superstar until he gets multiple Cups. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings are more complete players than Crosby and Malkin.

The Game 5 win was a message to all that the Red Wings still are the class of hockey on this planet and plan on staying at the top for a long time.

The beauty of what will be a win over the Pens compared to last year is that the Red Wings became a better hockey team while Pittsburgh's thuggery lowered the street value of Malkin and Crosby.

If Crosby wants to be Gretzky he had better start winning some Cups and respecting his opponents. Malkin will never be a star outside of Pittsburgh and his homeland because he has no respect for the game.

Maybe one day Bylsma will be able to show them how to win and lose with dignity. If you're a hockey mom or dad you want your kids to be like the Red Wings and not the Penguins.

E-mail Bill Simonson: huge@grpress.com