Blazers 3, Rockets 1

From The Daily News of Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 . . .

First, the Kamloops Blazers put a beating on the Kelowna Rockets.
Then Dean Clark, the Blazers' general manager and head coach, ordered a
retreat.
Immediately after concluding their WHL exhibition schedule with their sixth
victory in seven tries — they beat the Rockets 3-1 before 1,484 fans at
Interior Savings Centre — the Blazers left for a weekend retreat in the
Shuswap.
They will return Sunday, in time to greet season-ticket holders at the arena
in the afternoon, and hit the ice Monday to begin preparations for their
first two regular-season home games, Friday against the Chilliwack Bruins
and Saturday against the Seattle Thunderbirds.
From a Kamloops perspective, last night’s game was mostly about goaltending.
Justin Leclerc, an 18-year-old acquired prior to training camp from the
Lethbridge Hurricanes, was scheduled to go the distance. He did and, in the
process, he likely put the writing on the wall in ink for Dustin Butler.
All Butler, 20, did last season was come in from the Portland Winter Hawks,
set a single-season franchise record for shutouts and put up 33 victories.
But he’s 20 and keeping Leclerc over him allows the Blazers to hang on to
defencemen Ryan White and Ryan Bender and centre Brock Nixon as their
20-year-olds.
You’re right. Life isn’t fair in love, war or the WHL.
Still, Dean Clark, the Blazers’ general manager and head coach, wasn’t
spilling any beans last night.
“I thought he was pretty solid,” Clark said of Leclerc. “He kept things
pretty simple and he didn’t look like he was in any kind of panic or
anything like that. I thought it was a pretty good outing.”
Asked if Leclerc would start the home-opener, Clark replied: “I don’t know
that yet . . . I don’t know that yet.”
Leclerc, who made 21 saves, is hoping to be the guy.
“I think I’m at the stage of my career where I’m ready for that,” he said.
“I’d have no problem filling that role.”
Last night was his first route-going performance since before his 2006-07
season was ended by mononucleosis with about 10 games remaining.
“I felt pretty good,” he said. “I tried to break the game down into
10-minute mini-games just to try and keep my focus because we haven’t been
playing full games. I think I’m in good shape and the 60 minutes wasn’t a
challenge.”
As for the uncertainty of not knowing who will be No. 1, Leclerc said, “I
think I’ve been pretty good at not worrying about it at all.
“There’s a lot at stake if you sit down and think about it. But you just try
to take it one day at a time. It’s a cliche, but you can control what you
can control.”
Last night, he controlled things until the last minute of the third period.
He lost his shutout at 19:13 when Kelowna centre Colin Long, who was the
Rockets’ best player, stripped Kamloops winger-turned-defenceman Sasha Golin
of the puck and beat Leclerc on a bang-bang play.
“It came as a surprise,” Leclerc said. “I didn’t play it like I would have
wanted to but it was a quick play.”
The Blazers absolutely dominated the first period. They were credited with
outshooting the Rockets 12-10 but that doesn’t nearly describe the period as
the home boys badly outchanced the visitors.
Still, only right-winger Tyler Shattock was able to beat Kelowna goaltender
Torrie Jung, scoring on a three-foot tap-in off a rebound at 17:34. It was
Shattock’s team-high sixth goal.
“We need to have a little bit more intensity when it comes to finishing
plays off at the net,” Clark said. “We had some chances but we just didn’t
finish them by scoring. We have to remind ourselves to keep the game simple
at times. We’re winning games and we’re scoring goals and guys are trying to
get too fancy at times.
“We’ve got to understand that less is more.”
Juuso Puustinen, in his first game since returning from the NHL’s Calgary
Flames, and Alex Rodgers added second-period goals for the Blazers.
Clark and Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska both expressed concern about the
game’s lack of intensity.
“I don’t think we had enough energy or enough urgency,” Huska said, “and I
think that’s part of the reason why it took an hour and 50 minutes to play.
There was no physical play. There was no nastiness to this game at all.
“And it seemed like our guys were content to play that way.”
The Rockets (1-5) finish off their preseason schedule tonight against the
visiting Chilliwack Bruins.
JUST NOTES: The officiating firm of Smith and Smith — that would be Colby
and Pat — gave the Rockets seven of 12 minor penalties. . . . Bill
O’Donovan, CFJC-TV’s anchorman, made his debut as the public address
announcer. He replaces Paul McKeown, who moved east over the summer and now
is the announcer for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. . . . It is believed to be
the first time since the days of the Junior Oilers that Kamloops’ public
address announcer isn’t from Radio NL. . . . Former Blazers sniper Len
Barrie was in the crowd last night. Barrie, who lives in Victoria, was here
to watch his son, Tyson, a 16-year-old Kelowna defenceman.