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Beaner
03-28-2005, 12:45 PM
from http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/sports.html


Ferner blasts officiating
by Gregg Drinnan

CRANBROOK — Mark Ferner said he didn’t need a crystal ball to foresee what was going to happen on Saturday night.

“We knew we were screwed. I knew we were going to be screwed,” Ferner, the head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, said after his side dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Kootenay Ice in front of 4,441 witnesses at the Rec Plex.

The Ice’s victory evened the first-round best-of-seven series 1-1 after the Blazers had won 4-3 in overtime on Friday. Games 3 and 4 will be played Tuesday and Wednesday in Sport Mart Place, with Game 5 back here on Friday.

When Game 2 ended, Ferner left little doubt that, at least in his mind, the WHL’s department of officials had a lot to do with the outcome.

Asked what the message was in a pregame visit from Kevin Acheson, one of the WHL’s officiating supervisors, Ferner replied: “That there was too much clutching and grabbing, too much stickwork (in Game 1), that we have to let Dawes play. Word for word …”

That would be Nigel Dawes, the Ice left-winger who is their captain, their 50-goal man, their Mr. Clutch with 14 game-winning goals over the regular season. And you can make it 15, because he got Saturday’s winner, 35 seconds into extra time.

But shortly after Dawes scored, it was Ferner holding court with the media.

“It’s frustrating, I’m sure on both sides,” Ferner said. “This is playoff hockey. You’re setting up for a seven-game series and want to wear the other team down. We’ve been told that we’re supposed to let their skill guys be skill guys and not clutch and grab, not hold up … It’s disappointing because we’ve built a team that hopefully will play seven games here and we want to wear the other team down.

“But we’ve been told by people from the Western Hockey League that we’re not allowed to do that. We knew we were in trouble before the game even started.”

Rob Matsuoka, who is generally regarded as the WHL’s best referee, was in charge of Game 1. He gave the Blazers six of 11 minor penalties. The Ice was 0-for-5 with the man advantage; the Blazers were 1-for-4.

In Game 2, referee Devin Klein called 20 minor penalties, 19 of them in the first two periods. The Ice was 0-for-9 on the power play; the Blazers were 1-for-5.

“Matsuoka caught **** because they thought he reffed a bad game,” Ferner seethed. “It’s playoffs. Let them play. Instead of telling the coaches to tell the players you can’t be doing that, how about the coaches tell the players to fight through that? That’s what’s wrong with the game.”

When Ferner was asked how well he thought his club had played, he began to answer and then …

“We played well enough to win but, again, when you get (seven) penalties in the first period … ” Ferner said. “Matt Kassian gets a holding penalty in the first period — he has two hands on his stick. Reid Jorgensen gets a slashing penalty because Nigel Dawes is in front of the net getting a pass and (Jorgensen) bangs (Dawes’) stick. Gawd almighty … it’s frustrating.

“They go to the net, knock (goaltender Devan Dubnyk) over and we get a penalty for holding. I don’t understand that call.

“And then (Klein) puts (the whistle) away (in the third period). Is it wrong, is it right? I’m not sure. I’m sure both teams didn’t know what was going to be called and it was frustrating.”

Ferner also was angry after losing right-winger Moises Gutierrez late in the first period.

“Dawes knees him in the head. He knees him in the head and (Gutierrez) has got a concussion,” Ferner said. “Because it’s Nigel Dawes, there’s no penalty.”

Gutierrez watched the last two periods from the stands. He was wearing a suit and tie when Dawes broke the tie.

The play that ended with the winning goal began with the Blazers breaking from their zone and left-winger Richard Jasovsky firing a long shot at Kootenay goaltender Jeff Glass. The Ice scooped up the long rebound and headed into the Kamloops zone. Centre Dale Mahovsky dumped the puck past defenceman Roman Tesliuk into the left corner, the Ice got to it and put it to the net.

“I didn’t see it,” Dubnyk, who stopped 39 shots, said of the winner. “I stopped the first one then saw the puck through some feet. I tried to cover low and get my glove up. There was a couple of guys planted in front of me. I just heard the cross-bar and that was it.”

Dawes, the sniper that he is, was on the scrum’s outskirts. He was able to corral the loose puck and thread the needle for the winner.

Unlike Game 1, the Blazers got off to a terrific start on Saturday and had a 1-0 lead just three minutes in, after Tesliuk’s rocket from the blue line hit Jorgensen and got in behind Glass.

The hosts, clearly on their heels in the early going, didn’t get that one back until 17:24 after Adam Taylor blocked a Tesliuk shot at the Kootenay blue line. With Tesliuk backing in on his goaltender, Taylor took advantage of the open ice and whipped a shot past Dubnyk’s glove.

Kevin Hayman gave Kamloops a 2-1 lead at 10:45 of the second period, busting to the net in time to tip a pretty Jorgensen backhand pass behind Glass, who finished with 26 saves.

That lead lasted until 11:53 of the third period when Ice defenceman James Cherewyk’s shot from the point bounced off two legs and in behind Dubnyk.

“We are disappointed in that we feel … we didn’t let one slip away … we played well enough to be up 2-0,” Ferner said. “Now we just have to go home and make sure we get the job done there.”

JUST NOTES: The Blazers were 0-4-0-0 during the regular season with Klein in charge … The Blazers scratched C Adam Chorneyko, LW Tanner Irwin, RW Ray Macias and D Benn Olson. The team says Macias has a lower-body injury; he appeared to tweak his right knee in Game 1, although he finished the game … The Ice went without D Josh Fauth, RW Andy Bossence and RW Laine Allen … Kootenay lost D Roman Polak in the third period with what appeared to be an injury to his right shoulder.

Well, looks like all the teams are starting to have enough of this officiating this year and are just going to pay the fines the league hands out. Maybe if more teams speak out publicly then the league will have to do something.

RunTheGoalie
03-29-2005, 01:42 PM
That sure is a lot of crying for a coach of a team who has already won one more game than I think a lot of people would have expected.

ihlemic10
03-29-2005, 03:21 PM
I don't get why the Ref's tend to put the Whistle away in the 3rd. The players know this and act like they can get away with murder. The refereeing in this league has been terrible all year. Yes I can admit the Tips are not perfect, in everygame both sides get away with clutchy grabby and stickwork. I just hope next year the Refs get a good kick in the butt and call things as they happen. I don't like when they call the same number if one team commits way more penalties just to be "fair". Some teams get way more than other teams but there only might be 10 called a game when one team is constantly commiting ones that go uncalled. Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get it out.

AMS Princess
03-29-2005, 09:00 PM
Klein has been a shady ref. The games I have seen him ref and heard about, he always seems to favor the "better team" of the match-up. Klein needs somebody to kick him upside the head.