Blazers wrap

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007 . . .

Dean Clark is excited.
Never mind that the WHL season is but three exhibition games old.
“We had a real good weekend,” Clark, the GM/head coach of the Kamloops
Blazers, said Monday evening after his club went 2-1 in three exhibition
games in Edmonton. “We started to develop the style of game we need to
play.”
The Blazers opened Saturday with a 2-1 victory over the Regina Pats, then
beat the expansion Edmonton Oil Kings 5-1 Sunday, before falling 3-1 to the
Swift Current Broncos yesterday afternoon.
“I was excited about the game we played (Sunday),” Clark said. “Regardless
of who we were playing, to be doing the things we were doing at this time of
the year, it’s good.”
Despite the loss to the Broncos, Clark felt his charges did fine.
“I don’t think we gave them a lot of good scoring chances,” Clark said. “The
guys are starting to pick up our forecheck and everything.”
Clark, who felt his club dominated its first two games, said he dressed a
younger roster, especially up front, against the Broncos and not having the
likes of Brock Nixon, Ivan Rohac and Kevin Kraus really showed.
“It was a greasy game . . . lots of penalties,” Clark said. “But when we
wanted to forecheck, we showed we could really hem them in.”
The Blazers got their goal from centre Brendan Ranford, their first pick in
the 2007 bantam draft who is from Edmonton.
After the game, the Blazers reassigned three players, leaving them with four
goaltenders and 25 skaters. A complete roster is in Scoreboard.
When the Blazers boarded their bus, Ranford stayed at home where he will
play midget AAA this season. C Jake Trask, 16, headed for Saskatoon and the
midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers, and C Richard Vanderhoek, 16, left to join the
BCHL’s South Surrey Eagles.
The roster includes right-winger Matt Wray, who was dropped by the Prince
George Cougars last week and joined the Blazers on Friday. The 6-foot-2 1/2,
212-pound Wray, who is from Qualicum Beach, won’t turn 18 until Nov. 22.
Clark said he liked what he saw of Wray, who will get a longer look and
could play in two weekend exhibition games. The Blazers are in Prince George
on Friday, with the Cougars here Saturday, 7 p.m.
The Blazers will go a bit longer with four goaltenders on their roster. All
four — Dustin Butler, 20, Justin Leclerc, 18, and Jon Groenheyde and James
Priestner, both 16 — played on the weekend.
“It’s hard to get a read on the goaltenders,” Clark said. “They haven’t had
a lot of shots. “
On Sunday, defenceman Jordan Rowley, an Edmonton native who didn’t score a
goal in his rookie season, scored twice to lead the Blazers, who got their
other goals from forwards C.J. Stretch, Tyler Shattock and LW Shayne Wiebe.
On Saturday, Stretch’s power-play goal midway through the third period won
it for the Blazers. Nixon had their other goal, with Josh Elder scoring for
Regina.
JUST NOTES: D Victor Bartley (Detroit Red Wings) and RW Juuso Puustinen
(Calgary Flames) left today for NHL camps. . . . C Paul Van de Velde, 17,
left the Blazers before they headed to Edmonton. The 46th pick of the 2005
bantam draft, Clark said that Van de Velde and his father, George, wanted a
contract, something the Blazers weren’t prepared to grant him on what he had
shown to that point in camp. Van de Velde, from Mariapolis, Man., played the
last two seasons with the midget AAA Pembina Valley Hawks, who play out of
Morden, Man. His MJHL rights are held by the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.