Rohac rocks the Rockets

From The Daily News of Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. . . .

Early this week, the WHL’s 22 teams got a memo from the league office in
Calgary. Effective immediately, the memo stated, the ice surface is to be
scraped by the Zamboni prior to a shootout.
No one was happier to hear that than left-winger Ivan Rohac of the Kamloops
Blazers.
And, Wednesday night at Interior Savings Centre, Rohac scored in a shootout
to give his Blazers a 2-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets, who had come in
having won six in a row. In fact, the Rockets hadn’t lost since Oct. 26 when
they dropped a 5-3 decision right here in River City.
“It was better ice,” Rohac, a sophomore from Slovakia, offered. “It was
better than the last time. The last time there was lots of snow.”
The last time was Nov. 6 when the Red Deer Rebels beat the host Blazers 2-1
in a shootout. The next day, general manager/head coach Dean Clark was
fired.
Since firing Clark and trading defenceman Keaton Ellerby to the Moose Jaw Warriors for winger Brady Calla, the Blazers have won three of four games to get to within one victory
of .500, at 9-10-1-1, as they leave today for a meeting with the
bottom-feeding Winter Hawks (3-17-0-0) in Portland on Friday.
Rohac, the last of three Kamloops shooters on Nov. 6, grimaced at the memory
of that one. But he was all smiles at the thought of last night’s
game-winning goal, which came when he skated in on goaltender Kris Westblom
and slid the puck along the ice and between his pads.
“I like it,” Rohac, the fourth Kamloops shooter this time, said of that
particular soft deke. “I like that move . . . just like in Europe.”
Still, it took one last save by goaltender Justin Leclerc to preserve the
victory, and he did just that by getting a pad on centre Colin Long’s weak
attempt along the ice.
The Blazers had taken a 1-0 lead at 19:11 of the first period when
right-winger Tyler Shattock one-timed a C.J. Stretch feed past Westblom.
The lead held up until 7:26 of the second when left-winger Jamie Benn beat
Leclerc after the Rockets dominated down low.
The home boys outshot the visitors 32-22, including 7-3 in the third period.
But it took two late saves by Leclerc, off forwards Brady Leavold and Lucas
Bloodoff, in the last minute of the third period to force overtime.
Calla had the Blazers’ best chance in OT, but was denied by
Westblom from in close. Leclerc then made a dazzling come-across save on
defenceman Colin Joe.
Leclerc finished with 21 saves, and then foiled Benn, Cody Almond, Dylan
Hood and Long in the shootout. At the other end, Westblom stopped 31 shots,
and beat Juuso Puustinen, Brock Nixon and C.J. Stretch in the circus.
“I thought we just didn’t have that energy or urgency needed to win a hockey
game,” Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska said. “But I guess we still found a way
to get a point.”
Yes, this was one of those three-pointers, and the Rockets now have at least
a point in each of their last eight games (6-0-0-2).
Huska was quick to give credit to the Blazers, who he felt “played very
hard,” and, in particular, to defenceman Victor Bartley.
“The one guy who makes a big difference for them is Bartley,” Huska added.
“He settles things down for them. When he wasn’t in the lineup, you really
noticed that. He’s a big difference for them.”
The last time these teams met, in Kelowna on Oct. 26, the Rockets won, 6-1.
Bartley left that one early in the first period because of a wonky knee.
He played last night and the Rockets knew it.
“I feel fine. The knee is great,” Bartley offered. “Our first period was
pretty good but near the end we started to let up a bit and that’s when they
started to get their cycle going and constant pressure.”
The Rockets were able to take that momentum into the second period.
“Our second period was not acceptable by any means,” Bartley said, “and we
all knew that. It was not our style of game and we knew it.”
They paid for it in the dressing room during the intermission, too, as head
coach Greg Hawgood . . .
“When we came in the coach gave us a bit of an earful,” Bartley said. “We
knew everyone of us had to get better going into the third period and we
did. We kept them to three shots . . . and we got shots to the net.”
Was that the first time Hawgood has raised his voice since taking over the
post a week ago?
“Yeah,” Bartley said, with a bit of a chuckle. “It was a good one, though.”
Hawgood preferred to call it a regroup, as in “we had a little bit of
regroup going into the third period and we went out and showed how we have
to play the game to win.”
JUST NOTES: Referee Pat Smith gave Kelowna five of nine minors, including
the lone penalty of overtime. . . . Attendance was announced at 4,338. . . .
Going back to last season, Rohac is 3-for-6 in shootout attempts. Puustinen
is 3-for-7, Nixon 1-for-4 and Stretch 0-for-3.