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Ferners little freak out scene in the last game in Kelowna.
He totally went ballistic at Truit swinging a stick at him in between benches - actually broke the stick on the glass. I haven't seen a coach go that nuts since Kevin "the physco" Constantine was in town.
Anyone hear why he went nuts? :spineyes:
The smell in Kamloops, I think is the culprit. The pulp mill is enough to make anyone snap at the flip of a switch.
No need for taking personal cheap shots at this stinky city. As we ALREADY KNOW, muahaha.
Teams brawl as rivalry boils over
The Okanagan Sunday
KELOWNA — The regular season hasn’t even started, and there’s already bad blood between the Kelowna Rockets and Kamloops Blazers.
The two WHL arch-rivals took a lacklustre, penalty-filled exhibition affair to the next level when a linebrawl suddenly exploded five minutes into the third period. Then, during said melee, the ante was upped when both team’s head coaches began trading heated pleasantries and finger pointing.
Why, at one point, Blazers bench boss Mark Ferner, after snapping a stick in half over the photographer’s box separating the two benches to grab his counterpart’s attention, climbed the glass and asked Kelowna head coach Jeff Truitt if he’d like to step outside and settle their differences. Truitt declined, though it’s unsure if he did so politely.
“We’ll have to look at the video, but it looked like two of their guys jumped one of our players in front of their bench,” said Ferner after Kamloops skated to a 2-1 decision in Saturday’s tilt at Prospera Place. “One of our guys was being taken advantage of by two of their players.
“We’re not sure if one of those guys came off the bench, but we’re certainly going to look into it.”
Truitt called the brawl unfortunate but a part of hockey.
“That stuff happens,” said Truitt. “We don’t preach it, and it just happened, simple as that. We don’t promote that kind of stuff, but guys stick up for themselves. That’s the way it is.”
Asked the last time he met somebody in the back alley, Ferner laughed.
“Well, hey, we want to be a real tight-knit hockey team and that begins with the coaching staff,” Ferner replied. “If our guys are being taken advantage, we’re not going to stand for it.”
Replied Truitt: “Emotions were running high at that point. Mark is sticking up for his players and I’m sticking up for mine. That’s the nature of the business, and any coach would do that.”
Bryan Kauk scored twice for the Blazers (2-3), including the game-winner, a short-handed effort midway through the third period, while Josiah Anderson, a 6-foot-2, 19-year-old forward from Kelowna, replied for the Rockets (0-2). Between the pipes, Kurt Kramer made 27 stops for Kamloops, while
Devon Murtah kicked aside 25 for Kelowna, which lost 6-3 to the Blazers on Friday.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Truitt after watching his squad lose twice in 24 hours. “But it was good to see the teams go back-to-back. A lot of our guys are first-year guys and they didn’t have to wait four or five days to get back into it again. That tends to get rid of the nerves in a short period of time.”
ICE CHIPS: Kamloops scratched Joel Woznikoski, Brock Nixon, Keaton Ellerby and Cody Bogner. Kelowna, with 13 players away at NHL training camps, had no scratches. … Both teams were 0-for-10 on the power play.
Wow sounds like I missed a doozy.... Last time I go out of town during a homegame!
Can anyone recap how the fights went? I heard there were a few.
Sure it looked like Couture and someone else jumped one of the Blazers, because they did. The reason why they did was to respond to a knee on knee on Colin Joe. Ferner looked pretty stupid, but that's the emotion of the game.
In the first period Howarth verses Chapman, nothing really. In the second Dowzak verses ?, couldn't see it against the boards, but I heard Dowzak gave him four good shots.
In the line brawl after all players shoving and Ferner going nuts Couture and Olsen paired off. They were both tied up then Couture got loose and really gave it to him. Blazer trainer went out and picked up a bunch of snow, so Olsen lost a tooth or contact?
Ofukany verses a blazer, this broke out and Troy was whaling on him, not sure how many connected but it looked good.
Sounds like the fans got there moneys worth for an exibition game. I see there is no love loss for these two teams. It will be a good rivalry again this year.
I think this game was the best thing that could have happened to these two teams. I think the rivalry has declined in intensity in the last few years and needed this game to step it up a bit.
Last year the Blazers and Rockets didn't have too much for fights compared to Rocket Giant games. I hope this rivalry picks up, the old days were great.
I hate to say it but I miss Brown and Upshall. And the guys in the Zamboni end (112, 113 and 114) of the rink really miss Parley. Those guys gave it to him all night, it was great. :laugh:
Anyone have a report card on how our young guys looked?