Cougars power past Blazers

From The Daily News of Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007. . . .

Dean Clark, the general manager and head coach of the WHL’s Kamloops
Blazers, tried to take the pressure off his underachieving team earlier in
the week by saying his negativity had become a problem.
No more, Clark said, adding that from now on he would be a more positive
person.
His players tested him Friday by surrendering four first-period goals, three
of them while shorthanded, and dropping an 8-3 decision to the Prince George
Cougars in front of 4,504 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
It was the third straight loss for the Blazers, who have been outscored 17-4
over that stretch.
Kamloops had a chance to get off to a good start in this one as Prince
George’s Colin Haas was hit with a goaltender interference penalty 49
seconds into the first period. But moments after the penalty expired, the
Blazers got caught on a bad change — defenceman Keaton Ellerby lost his
stick in the Cougars’ zone and when he got to the bench his replacement was
slow to react — and it cost them a goal as left-winger Corey Tyrell went in
alone and beat goaltender Justin Leclerc.
“Giving up that first goal . . . we’re just finishing off a power play and
it ends up in your net . . . those are not good things to happen,” Clark
said. “We had a bad change. Those are just mental mistakes and right now if
we make a mental mistake it ends up in our net.”
The Cougars got their eight goals on just 21 shots.
“The problem,” said Kamloops centre Brock Nixon, who scored twice, “is that
we’re making our mistakes at the worst places. It’s at our blue line, at
their blue line . . . giving up breakaways. They only had 21 shots but they
probably had 16 great chances.”
Veteran left-winger Dana Tyrell, Corey’s older brother, struck for three
goals, his first hat trick since he played midget for the UFA Bisons in
Calgary.
“We capitalized on our power play,” said Dana, who had one PP goal and set
up another. “The last 10 or so games we’ve been bearing down. Our top
players are out there and we seem to have some chemistry going.”
The Cougars, now 8-9-0-0, are 7-3-0-0 since starting the season with one
victory in seven attempts.
“Our chemistry got better when we went on the road trip,” Tyrell said,
referring to a 4-2-0-0 swing through the East Division, “and everything has
flowed from there.”
With the Blazers, right now everything is flowing downhill.
“(They think) the sky is falling on them,” Clark said of his players. “Any
time something goes wrong they think the world is . . . they feel they have
a cloud above them that no matter what happens it’s not going to get a
(positive) result. That’s kind of how they feel right how.”
Down 4-0 going into the second period, the Blazers came out with some fire
and outshot the visitors 11-3. But the home boys gave up the period’s only
goal.
“Losing like that in your own building,” Nixon said, “there isn’t a lot to
take out of it. But there were times when we played really well. In the
second period we were . . . I’m not going to say great . . . we played our
game. They sat back a little bit and we took it to them for the majority of
that period.
“We can take that . . . but certainly we are not happy. That is not the way
we need to play.”
Aside from the Tyrell family, the Cougars got two goals from Alex Poulter, a
preseason acquisition from the Red Deer Rebels, who has 10 goals, and
singles from Greg Gardner and Parker Stanfield.
Mark Hall had the Blazers’ other goal.
The Cougars returned home and will face the Rebels on Sunday.
As for the Blazers. . . .
“We work hard,” Clark said. “We can’t sit here and hang our heads. It’s Game
16 and right now we’re not playing great, we don’t have a lot of confidence.
“We have to come back (Saturday) and work hard, work hard on Sunday, and
work hard on Monday so we’re ready for Tuesday against Red Deer.
That’s all we can do.
“If we sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, nothing is going to happen.”
JUST NOTES: Referees Cory McLean and Sean Raphael gave the Blazers 11 of 21
minors and two of four misconducts. . . . The Cougars were 4-for-8 on the
PP; the Blazers were 2-for-7. . . . Leclerc got the hook for the second game
in a row after giving up four goals. He stopped five of nine shots in this
one, with James Priestner coming on to turn aside eight of 12. . . . At the
other end, Tommy Tartaglione stopped 27 shots. . . . Ellerby spent the
second period on the bench. . . . Kamloops D Victor Bartley, who hurt a knee
in practice Monday, didn’t play. He is listed as day-to-day.