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scamperdog
10-20-2006, 05:02 PM
Tale of two teams and goaltenders
by Gregg Drinnan www.kamloopsnews.ca

The Blazers are No. 2!

Going into this weekend’s WHL action, only the Vancouver Giants are allowing fewer shots per game than the Kamloops Blazers.

Through nine games, the Blazers (4-3-1-1) are allowing opponents 21.8 shots on goal per game. The Giants (10-0-1-0) are at 18.8, with the Everett Silvertips third, at 23.4.

Last season, when they didn’t make the playoffs, the Blazers surrendered 28.3 shots per game.

The Blazers, who have yet to be outshot this season, are scoring 3.0 goals per game and allowing 3.2. It is no secret that Dean Clark, the team’s general manager and head coach, wants to see better goaltending.

Dustin Butler, who is 3-1-0-0 since being acquired from the Portland Winter Hawks on Oct. 3, has a .886 save percentage with the Blazers, which would be 25th among WHL goaltenders. Freshman Dalyn Flette’s .860 would have him 30th if he had enough minutes played to qualify. Mike Maniago, who starts tonight against the Saskatoon Blades at the Interior Savings Centre, is at .828.

And in major junior hockey it isn’t about trying to be fair, which is why Butler started the last four games, playing until he lost.

“It’s tough to be fair,” Clark said Thursday following a high-tempo practice that included a spirited verbal exchange between defenceman Keaton Ellerby and right-winger Matt Kassian. “Ultimately, it comes down to the competition that I want to get out of this. Somebody, on any given game night, is going to be sitting and watching.

“But fair is probably for minor hockey. We’re here to do what is best for the organization. That’s our mandate and that’s why we went out and got (Dustin Butler).”

When pressed, Clark admits he isn’t sure in which direction the goaltending is going.

“I don’t know. It’s a game-to-game thing,” Clark said. “I’d like to see Maniago have some success (tonight) so he plays again on Saturday (against the visiting Kelowna Rockets).

“I’m not sure what I want to do next.”

No doubt the goaltenders will help him decide.

One thing is for sure, though, and that is that Flette, 16, isn’t going anywhere. Clark feels the Calgary native is better off in the WHL environment, primarily because “he is competitive and that’s what we want.”

The Blades, meanwhile, settled on their goaltender a long time ago.

“We were grooming him to be our guy,” Lorne Molleken, the Blades’ general manager and head coach, said of Braden Holtby, 17, who was the 161st player taken in the 2004 bantam draft.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Holtby, whose father, Greg, played goal for the Blades for two seasons (1983-85), was born on Sept. 16, 1989, which means he is one day too young to be eligible for the 2007 NHL draft.

Holtby spent last season with the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers, where he was teammates with Kamloops forward Brenden Dowd.

“Holtby’s style is very similar to Marc-Andre Fleury,” Molleken said, referring to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ young goaltender. “He’s a real good athlete. He’s a big, strong kid. He competes; he’s a battler. He’s got great lateral movement, tremendous glove . . . he is going to be a good one.“The biggest thing is that he wants to be a player and he’s very coachable.”

Molleken, a goaltender himself in his playing days, said he has no trepidations about having 17-year-old Holtby as his starter in a league that historically has been ruled by veteran goaltenders.

“No, not at all,” Molleken said. “Coming into training camp we really only had the one goaltender . . .”

Earlier this month, the Blades acquired Blaine Neufeld, 19, from the Medicine Hat Tigers so are in the rare position of having a 19-year-old backing up a 17-year-old.

JUST NOTES: The Blades arrived in Kamloops yesterday about 9 a.m. An hour later, they were on the ice practising. . . . Blazers prospect Shayne Wiebe struck for four goals, including three straight in the first period, and added two assists Sunday, helping the Brandon Wheat Kings to a 10-5 Manitoba midget AAA league victory over the Parkland Rangers. . . . Former Blazers G Devan Dubnyk, 20, and second-year pro Cam Ellsworth will share goaltending duties with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder. Also on the Thunder’s opening roster are former Kelowna Rockets forwards Troy Bodie and Tyler Spurgeon, as well as C Brendon Hodge, son of former NHL star Ken Hodge, and RW Tim Verbeek, brother of former NHL sniper Pat Verbeek. The Thunder opens tonight against the host Bakersfield Condors.

JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs have released G Kevin Opsahl, 20, who played in the WHL with the Spokane Chiefs and Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . C Kyle Pess, 20, left the Thunderbirds yesterday, saying he wants to play closer to home. Pess, who has three goals in six games, is from Red Deer.