scamperdog
03-03-2007, 12:55 PM
03/03/07 - Blazers Of Old Get Past Hitmen (Kamloops Daily News)
By GREGG DRINNAN www.blazerhockey.com
Daily News Sports Editor
When Matt Kassian scores, the Kamloops Blazers win. It's as simple as that.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, the hulking right winger has only six goals this WHL season.
Goal No. 6 came Friday, ending a personal 12-game drought, breaking a 2-2 tie and providing the Blazers with a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen in front of 4,866 fans at the Interior Savings Centre.
The Blazers, now 6-0 when the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder scores, needed this victory the way Paris needs the paparazzi. The home boys had gone into February on top of the B.C. Division but, after a 2-8-2-0 February, found themselves eight points in arrears of the Vancouver Giants.
Last night, the Blazers were able to end a seven-game losing skid and clinch at least second place in the B.C. Division, all with one victory.
"We were back to what we were before," said Dean Clark, the Blazers' general manager and head coach. "There's a whole bunch of guys in (the dressing room) who weigh about a hundred pounds less.
"There's a real good feeling in there and that's good because when we play like that we're a real good club." The Blazers fell behind twice in this one, with Freddie Pettersson scoring both Calgary goals, but there was never a sense of panic. Instead, they kept their game simple and got second-period goals from Juuso Puustinen and Brenden Dowd that sent the teams into the third period deadlocked 2-2.
There wasn't any doubt which was the better team in the third, as the Blazers, outshot 10-3 in the first period, turned the tables and outshot the visitors, 9-3.
"Kamloops came out in the third period and took it away from us," offered Kelly Kisio, Calgary's GM/head coach. "I don't think we got out of our zone for the first seven or eight minutes. They played really well in the third." The winning goal, at 11:27, came off a terrific play by Kamloops left-winger Terrance Delaronde in the neutral zone. With the Hitmen trying to run a set play off a faceoff - they were trying to spring Pettersson wide right, not unlike a slotback in football - Delaronde stepped up and intercepted the pass.
"I saw him there," Delaronde said. "I figured what they were going to do so it was a pretty easy interception." Delaronde and Kassian took the puck deep.
"We got the puck down in their zone and somehow it ended up going to the net and bounced around a couple of feet," Kassian said. "I knew I needed to go to the net and create a screen or find a rebound. It went off my skate and was just sitting there for a split second and I managed to get a piece of it on my way down." The Hitmen protested the goal, feeling that, at one point, Delaronde had gloved the puck to Kassian.
"We thought it was a glovehand pass but (referee Andy) Thiessen was right on top of the play and he waved it off right away," said Kisio, whose Hitmen (35-24-3-4) are third in the Central Division.
The Hitmen also felt that Puustinen's goal - he got a stick on a point shot from defenceman Ray Macias - came off a high stick.
"It looked like a high stick," said Kisio, who may have had a case. "I looked at the replay and it looked fairly close." Perhaps the scariest moment for Kamloops came at 17:10 of the third period when goaltender Dustin Butler, who finished with 19 saves, mishandled the puck and was forced to make a pad save on Calgary's Ryan White, who is second in the WHL scoring race. But that was about all the noise White and linemates Brodie Dupont and Keegan Dansereau made. The Kamloops defensive pairing of Ryan Bender and, yes, Ryan White really put the clamps on them.
"I thought they did a great job," Clark said. "We talked about it before the game. We told them, 'You guys have got to do a job for us. If you shut them down, we can win the hockey game.' "And they did that." Delaronde added: "They stepped up . . . and that's what we needed to do." A lot of Blazers stepped up in this one.
"We played with patience . . . with a lot more patience and a lot more confidence," Kassian said, "which is something we've been missing. Anytime we faced any kind of adversity, we would just fold up the tent. But tonight we stuck with it, gritted our teeth and battled through it.
"This is really huge for pulling a team back together and for us getting in the mindset of getting ready for playoffs."
JUST NOTES: Referees Sean Raphael and Thiessen gave the Blazers six of 11 minor penalties. . . . G Kurt Kramer, a former Blazers prospect, was backing up for Calgary last night. The Blazers dealt Kramer to the Portland Winter Hawks for Butler earlier this season. Kramer, however, chose not to report and went home to the Lower Mainland. The Blazers dropped him from their list in January and he was added by the Hitmen. . . . C Eric Hunter, Prince George's captain, is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury in Thursday's practice. Hunter, 20, banged a knee hard on the boards during a shooting drill. The Prince George Citizen reported that "at this point his availability for the rest of the season is uncertain." . . . Prince George D Kalvin Sagert (concussion) is out for at least a week.
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THE SCORE
Kamloops 3, Calgary 2
WHAT HAPPENED
The Blazers played simple, with confidence and without panic, and really it away from the Hitmen in the third period, allowing the visitors only three shots.
THE STANDINGS
With the victory, the Blazers (39-21-3-1) clinched at least second place in the B.C. Division. They trail the first-place Vancouver Giants (40-14-3-7) by eight points.
THE PLAYOFFS
The Blazers will open the playoffs at home, likely against the Prince George Cougars, on March 23 and 24.
THE STREAK
Blazers D Ray Macias had his goal-scoring streak halted at five games. The season's high is seven games, reached by Blazers C Reid Jorgensen and RW Juuso Puustinen, as well as LW Troy Ofukany, when he was with the Kelowna Rockets.
THE HITS
The game's two biggest hits occurred at 1:30 of the first period, when Kamloops D Kevin Kraus collided with Macias in the neutral zone, followed within seconds by a big hit by Calgary LW Derek LeBlanc on Kamloops RW Ivan Rohac.
THE DEFENCEMAN
D Kurt Torbohm, 16, played his first game of the season for the Blazers last night - he was pointless but was the only player from either team to be a plus-2 - and will be in the lineup again tonight in Chilliwack. The Chase native had 19 regular-season points with the KIJHL's Revelstoke Grizzlies. The Blazers selected him with the 86th pick of the 2005 bantam draft. Torbohm played one game with the Blazers last season.
THE MEDAL
Alberta beat B.C. 4-3 for the bronze medal at the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse on Friday. Blazers D Jordan Rowley had one of Alberta's goals, while RW Tyler Shattock had a goal for B.C.
THE ATTENDANCE
With one home game remaining, the Blazers' average attendance is 4,775, a decrease of 87 fans per game from last season's final total.
THE DAILY NEWS THREE STARS
1. RW Matt Kassian, Kamloops. Played well from start to finish, and scored.
2. LW Terrance Delaronde, Kamloops. Key play on the winner.
3. D Karl Alzner, Calgary. Leader on back end.
UP NEXT
The Vancouver Giants are here Sunday, 7 p.m. It is the Blazers' final home game of this regular season.
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By GREGG DRINNAN www.blazerhockey.com
Daily News Sports Editor
When Matt Kassian scores, the Kamloops Blazers win. It's as simple as that.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, the hulking right winger has only six goals this WHL season.
Goal No. 6 came Friday, ending a personal 12-game drought, breaking a 2-2 tie and providing the Blazers with a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen in front of 4,866 fans at the Interior Savings Centre.
The Blazers, now 6-0 when the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder scores, needed this victory the way Paris needs the paparazzi. The home boys had gone into February on top of the B.C. Division but, after a 2-8-2-0 February, found themselves eight points in arrears of the Vancouver Giants.
Last night, the Blazers were able to end a seven-game losing skid and clinch at least second place in the B.C. Division, all with one victory.
"We were back to what we were before," said Dean Clark, the Blazers' general manager and head coach. "There's a whole bunch of guys in (the dressing room) who weigh about a hundred pounds less.
"There's a real good feeling in there and that's good because when we play like that we're a real good club." The Blazers fell behind twice in this one, with Freddie Pettersson scoring both Calgary goals, but there was never a sense of panic. Instead, they kept their game simple and got second-period goals from Juuso Puustinen and Brenden Dowd that sent the teams into the third period deadlocked 2-2.
There wasn't any doubt which was the better team in the third, as the Blazers, outshot 10-3 in the first period, turned the tables and outshot the visitors, 9-3.
"Kamloops came out in the third period and took it away from us," offered Kelly Kisio, Calgary's GM/head coach. "I don't think we got out of our zone for the first seven or eight minutes. They played really well in the third." The winning goal, at 11:27, came off a terrific play by Kamloops left-winger Terrance Delaronde in the neutral zone. With the Hitmen trying to run a set play off a faceoff - they were trying to spring Pettersson wide right, not unlike a slotback in football - Delaronde stepped up and intercepted the pass.
"I saw him there," Delaronde said. "I figured what they were going to do so it was a pretty easy interception." Delaronde and Kassian took the puck deep.
"We got the puck down in their zone and somehow it ended up going to the net and bounced around a couple of feet," Kassian said. "I knew I needed to go to the net and create a screen or find a rebound. It went off my skate and was just sitting there for a split second and I managed to get a piece of it on my way down." The Hitmen protested the goal, feeling that, at one point, Delaronde had gloved the puck to Kassian.
"We thought it was a glovehand pass but (referee Andy) Thiessen was right on top of the play and he waved it off right away," said Kisio, whose Hitmen (35-24-3-4) are third in the Central Division.
The Hitmen also felt that Puustinen's goal - he got a stick on a point shot from defenceman Ray Macias - came off a high stick.
"It looked like a high stick," said Kisio, who may have had a case. "I looked at the replay and it looked fairly close." Perhaps the scariest moment for Kamloops came at 17:10 of the third period when goaltender Dustin Butler, who finished with 19 saves, mishandled the puck and was forced to make a pad save on Calgary's Ryan White, who is second in the WHL scoring race. But that was about all the noise White and linemates Brodie Dupont and Keegan Dansereau made. The Kamloops defensive pairing of Ryan Bender and, yes, Ryan White really put the clamps on them.
"I thought they did a great job," Clark said. "We talked about it before the game. We told them, 'You guys have got to do a job for us. If you shut them down, we can win the hockey game.' "And they did that." Delaronde added: "They stepped up . . . and that's what we needed to do." A lot of Blazers stepped up in this one.
"We played with patience . . . with a lot more patience and a lot more confidence," Kassian said, "which is something we've been missing. Anytime we faced any kind of adversity, we would just fold up the tent. But tonight we stuck with it, gritted our teeth and battled through it.
"This is really huge for pulling a team back together and for us getting in the mindset of getting ready for playoffs."
JUST NOTES: Referees Sean Raphael and Thiessen gave the Blazers six of 11 minor penalties. . . . G Kurt Kramer, a former Blazers prospect, was backing up for Calgary last night. The Blazers dealt Kramer to the Portland Winter Hawks for Butler earlier this season. Kramer, however, chose not to report and went home to the Lower Mainland. The Blazers dropped him from their list in January and he was added by the Hitmen. . . . C Eric Hunter, Prince George's captain, is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury in Thursday's practice. Hunter, 20, banged a knee hard on the boards during a shooting drill. The Prince George Citizen reported that "at this point his availability for the rest of the season is uncertain." . . . Prince George D Kalvin Sagert (concussion) is out for at least a week.
=====
THE SCORE
Kamloops 3, Calgary 2
WHAT HAPPENED
The Blazers played simple, with confidence and without panic, and really it away from the Hitmen in the third period, allowing the visitors only three shots.
THE STANDINGS
With the victory, the Blazers (39-21-3-1) clinched at least second place in the B.C. Division. They trail the first-place Vancouver Giants (40-14-3-7) by eight points.
THE PLAYOFFS
The Blazers will open the playoffs at home, likely against the Prince George Cougars, on March 23 and 24.
THE STREAK
Blazers D Ray Macias had his goal-scoring streak halted at five games. The season's high is seven games, reached by Blazers C Reid Jorgensen and RW Juuso Puustinen, as well as LW Troy Ofukany, when he was with the Kelowna Rockets.
THE HITS
The game's two biggest hits occurred at 1:30 of the first period, when Kamloops D Kevin Kraus collided with Macias in the neutral zone, followed within seconds by a big hit by Calgary LW Derek LeBlanc on Kamloops RW Ivan Rohac.
THE DEFENCEMAN
D Kurt Torbohm, 16, played his first game of the season for the Blazers last night - he was pointless but was the only player from either team to be a plus-2 - and will be in the lineup again tonight in Chilliwack. The Chase native had 19 regular-season points with the KIJHL's Revelstoke Grizzlies. The Blazers selected him with the 86th pick of the 2005 bantam draft. Torbohm played one game with the Blazers last season.
THE MEDAL
Alberta beat B.C. 4-3 for the bronze medal at the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse on Friday. Blazers D Jordan Rowley had one of Alberta's goals, while RW Tyler Shattock had a goal for B.C.
THE ATTENDANCE
With one home game remaining, the Blazers' average attendance is 4,775, a decrease of 87 fans per game from last season's final total.
THE DAILY NEWS THREE STARS
1. RW Matt Kassian, Kamloops. Played well from start to finish, and scored.
2. LW Terrance Delaronde, Kamloops. Key play on the winner.
3. D Karl Alzner, Calgary. Leader on back end.
UP NEXT
The Vancouver Giants are here Sunday, 7 p.m. It is the Blazers' final home game of this regular season.
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