Blazers playing well

From The Daily News of Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007 . . .

Yes, it’s only the WHL’s exhibition season.
But . . . the Kamloops Blazers, with one game left before the banging starts
for real, have a 5-1 record.
But . . . what has been more impressive than the record, centre Brock Nixon
said, is the way in which the Blazers have been playing.
“Everyone’s playing, everyone’s working hard.” Nixon, who is entering his
fifth and final season here, said prior to Wednesday’s practice at Interior
Savings Centre. “(GM/head coach Dean Clark) mentioned the other day that in
the years he’s been here, we’ve never really got our game going as quickly
as we have this year, as far as systems and the way we need to play to be
successful.
“It’s our forcecheck, it’s our defensive zone . . . it’s the little things
that are starting to show up already that down the road, if you get them
implanted within the team at this time, is huge.”
The Blazers have outscored their opponents 25-12 in the six games and have
given up only 115 shots.
“We’ve been working together as a team and everyone has just been playing
their roles and working hard,” offered third-year centre C.J. Stretch.
Stretch scored once and set up three others Tuesday as the Blazers whipped
the Chilliwack Bruins 7-1 in Abbotsford. With seven points, including three
goals, he has picked up where he left off last spring when he had eight
points as the Blazers were swept in four games by the Prince George Cougars.
“I think that motivated a lot of guys,” Stretch said of the Cougars using
the brooms on them. “It was a pretty long summer, way longer than we wanted
it to be.”
Nixon, who has four points, agreed.
“It’s pretty easy to work hard in the summer and come back with some fire in
your eyes when you get swept in the first round,” Nixon said. “Our returning
guys are in really good shape and came back stronger and faster, and that’s
huge.”
The Blazers will complete their exhibition schedule Friday against the
visiting Kelowna Rockets. Game time is 7 p.m., and Stretch said it’s
important that the home boys maintain the momentum.
“We have to keep going all season,” the native of Irvine, Calif., said,
before adding: “Preseason is one season. We’ve got two more to go — regular
season and playoffs.”
Nixon noted that preseason success easily beats the alternative.
“It’s certainly a good sign,” said Nixon. “Over my first four years here we
haven’t had a successful exhibition season. So it’s certainly nice to get
the winning trend started early.”
In the previous four preseasons, the Blazers were 7-14-1-1.
“But at the same time,” Nixon added, “anyone who has played in the league
knows the gap between exhibition season and regular season is big.
“We’re happy we’ve been successful but we know the bottom line is there
aren’t any points for an exhibition win.”
The Blazers open the regular season against the visiting Chilliwack Bruins
on Sept. 21 with the Portland Winter Hawks here the following night.
l l l
The Blazers reassigned two players Wednesday and welcomed one back from an
NHL camp.
G Jon Groenheyde, 16, a Surrey native who had a tremendous camp and
exhibition season, was assigned to the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials, as was RW
Matt Riley, 16, who is from Coquitlam.
Groenheyde, 6-foot-3 and 174 pounds, was a free-agent find who stopped 20 of
22 shots (.909) in three preseason appearances. While he wasn’t tested all
that much — witness three shots against in the first half of Tuesday’s
victory over Chilliwack — he did make a tremendous stop in the last minute
of a 4-3 victory over the visiting Cougars on Saturday.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Riley, the 67th pick in the 2006 bantam draft, is
from Coquitlam.
Groenheyde and Riley signed WHL contracts during training camp.
Groenheyde’s departure almost certainly means that James Priestner, 16, will
open the season as the backup goaltender behind either Dustin Butler, 20, or
Justin Leclerc, 18.
Meanwhile, RW Juuso Puustinen, the Finnish flash who totaled 32 goals and 71
points, was scheduled to return last night from the camp of the NHL’s
Calgary Flames.
Still missing from the Blazers’ roster are D Victor Bartley, who was with
the Detroit Red Wings’ rookie team, and D Keaton Ellerby, who will go to
main camp with the Florida Panthers.
Bartley is on the Red Wings’ main camp roster after playing in a rookie
tournament in Traverse City. He spent part of the time paired with Salmon
Arm’s Scott Jackson of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Jackson, 20, also is on
Detroit’s main camp roster.