Blazers drop Cougars

From The Daily News of Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008 . . .

All is not lost for the Prince George Cougars.
But the search party is saddling up and getting ready.
When the Cougars arrived at Interior Savings Centre on Friday, they were 14
points out of a WHL playoff spot. When they left, the number was 15.
In between, they were soundly beaten, to the tune of 5-2, by the Kamloops
Blazers, who now have won three games in a row. They also have won five
straight games at home, where they are 14-9-0-1.
The Blazers moved into a tie for sixth in the Western Conference with the
Chilliwack Bruins, one point ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds. After a
night when 15 of the 20 teams who were in action picked up at least one
point, the Thunderbirds slipped to eighth, 15 points ahead of the Cougars,
who have 26 games remaining.
For the third time in seven nights, the Blazers line of Alex Rodgers between
Ivan Rohac and Juuso Puustinen lit the fire.
“We knew the Cougars were coming in off a long bus ride,” Rodgers said. “As
a line we figured we might as well go out there and go hard right away and
hopefully we can bury some chances and take the momentum.”
Which is exactly what happened.
Rodgers scored two first-period goals, sandwiching one from Prince George
defenceman Patrik Magnusson, to give the home boys a 2-1 lead.
“When you look at the first half of our season I think we were down every
first period,” Rodgers said, “so we’ve been really taking pride in our
starts and it’s starting to pay off.”
He was exaggerating only slightly — the Blazers have trailed going into the
second period in 28 of their 47 games.
“I thought at times we were in the hockey game,” Prince George head coach
Drew Schoneck said, “but we struggled at times with the Kamloops speed.”
And it was Rodgers’ line that supplied a lot of that speed.
Puustinen and defenceman Jordan Rowley added second-period goals as the
Blazers took complete control, outshooting the visitors, 14-4. By game’s
end, that edge was 38-18 as the Cougars didn’t win many battles.
“No,” Schoneck stated, “and that’s the knock when you’re a younger team.
We’ve got a 16-year-old (Justin Maylan) centring our second line and I
thought he was our best forward. He had the most jump and the most
opportunities.
“Our veterans had to be better and they weren’t. We’ve got to bear down and
win battles and we didn’t and that’s something an older Kamloops team made
us pay for.”
Czech left-winger Jan Kupec, with his second goal in 26 games, got the
Cougars to within two midway through the third period but centre Jimmy
Bubnick, trailing a Nick Ross end-to-end rush, pounded the garbage behind
goaltender Real Cyr to put this one away.
Cyr finished with 33 saves, while the Blazers’ Justin Leclerc stopped 16. It
was the first time in 12 games that the Blazers surrendered fewer than 30
shots.
Ross had perhaps his best game since coming over from the Regina Pats on
Jan. 5. He set the tone physically with a hard open-ice check on centre
Colin Haas.
“I didn’t think he was coming,” Ross said. “I thought the guy saw me. But he
ducked his head and came right into my path. It felt pretty good. (It was
my) first good open-ice hit in a couple of games.”
Ross, who had two assists, liked what he saw later, too.
“A lot of guys are starting to believe that we can really accomplish
something here,” he said. “Everybody is focussing more on what we need to do
to win. There is a lot more focus on playing the systems and coming prepared
for every game.”
JUST NOTES: Referee Pat Smith gave the Cougars 11 of 19 minors and one of
two majors. . . . The Blazers were 2-for-8 on the power play; the Cougars
were 1-for-5. . . . Attendance was announced as 4,637. . . . D Victor
Bartley, who went to Regina in the Ross deal, had an assist in the Pats’ 6-5
shootout victory over the host Kootenay Ice last night. He had been out with
a groin injury since being hurt in practice here Jan. 2. . . . Former
Blazers C Brock Nixon’s OT goal gave the Calgary Hitmen a 2-1 victory over
the Oil Kings in Edmonton. . . . Former Blazers assistant coach Andrew Milne
won in his first game behind the bench with the AJHL’s Canmore Eagles. The
Eagles, who had lost eight in a row, beat the visiting Lloydminster Bobcats,
8-4.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca