Blazers beat Cougars

From The Daily News of Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007 . . .

The Kamloops Blazers, having shaken off a case of bus legs, scored the
game’s last six goals, four of them in the third period, Friday night and
doubled the Prince George Cougars 6-3 in a WHL exhibition game.
The Blazers, who go north a day early when they play regular-season games
against the Cougars, left Kamloops yesterday 10 a.m., arriving in Prince
George at 5 p.m.
And, once the game began, it wasn’t long before the visitors trailed 3-0, as
the Cougars scored shorthanded (Colin Haas) and twice on the power play
(Alex Poulter and Dale Hunt).
“We travelled for seven hours,” Dean Clark, the Blazers’ general manager and
head coach, said, “and some guys weren’t mentally sharp at the start.
“But we were the better team with the better chances. We outshot them 12-6
in the first period and then really poured it on. They only had seven shots
over the last two periods.”
The Blazers, 3-1 in the exhibition season, outshot the Cougars 40-13 with
the hosts getting a terrific effort from veteran goaltender Real Cyr.
Down 3-0, the Blazers got a power-play goal from Tyler Shattock — at the
time the visitors were outshooting their hosts, 21-8 — and one from Sasha
Golin, off a nice feed from rookie Jimmy Bubnick, to get to within 3-2 in
the second period.
The Blazers thought they had tied the score late in the second period when
Matt Wray, who was cut last week by the Cougars (1-3), appeared to beat Cyr
with a shot that came out of the net as quickly as it went in. However,
referee Sean Raphael, after talking with his linesmen and a goal judge,
ruled that the puck hadn’t entered the net.
“There was a goal that they missed,” Clark said. “It’s exhibition so I’m not
too concerned. But Wray played really well and it’s too bad because that was
a goal.”
Defenceman Ryan Bender scored on a power play to pull the Blazers even early
in the third period and Kenton Dulle, shorthanded, put them in front at
12:21. Bubnick then increased the lead to two, with Ivan Rohac finishing the
scoring with an empty-net goal.
Justin Leclerc started in goal for the Blazers and stopped five of eight
shots. James Priestner came on at 9:35 of the second period and stopped the
five shots he faced.
Clark said one of the decisions yet to be made is “how many defencemen we’ll
carry on our roster.”
One of the defencemen certainly will be newcomer Darcy Huisman, who spent
last season with the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings. He had two assists
last night.
“I think he was the first star,” Clark said. “He made a couple of great
plays. He’s really good.”
The teams meet again tonight, 7 o’clock, at Interior Savings Centre.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers are without D Victor Bartley (Detroit Red Wings), RW
Juuso Puustinen (Calgary Flames) and D Keaton Ellerby (Team Canada). After
the Canada-Russia series concludes Sunday in Vancouver, Ellerby will go home
to Calgary for a couple of days and then head to camp with the NHL’s Florida
Panthers. . . . The Cougars have picked up C Marcus Watson, 19. From San Jose, he had been with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats and was added by the Cougars after clearing QMJHL waivers.