Chiefs get past Blazers

From The Daily News of Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008 . . .

The Kamloops Blazers may be lacking in some areas. Heart isn't one of them.
Two days after interim head coach Greg Hawgood suggested a heart transplant
might be in order and a day after he all but skated them into the ice, the
Blazers, who were playing their fifth game in seven nights, turned in one of
their grittiest performances of the season.
Still, it wasn't enough as they fell 2-1 to the Spokane Chiefs before an
announced crowd of 4,255 at Interior Savings Centre on Tuesday night. But it was a whole lot
better than what fans witnessed Sunday when the locals fell 8-1 to the
Lethbridge Hurricanes.
After that game, Hawgood questioned his club's heart. On Monday, he skated
them hard during a practice in which pucks were in short supply.
"The effort was good, obviously a drastic improvement from last game,"
Hawgood said. "But you're so close to a really good team. We had an awful
lot of turnovers and we gave up too many scoring chances that consistently
aren't going to get you wins.
"We had our chances but I think we'd be kidding ourselves . . . we just gave
them too many great scoring chances and they didn¹t get the bounces
tonight."
Spokane head coach Bill Peters, for one, wasn't surprised with the way the
Blazers pushed his club to the wall.
"I'm not surprised they played as well as they did," said Peters, whose
Chiefs (37-10-1-3) have the WHL's best record and now have won five in a
row. "They played real well in our building both times. They beat us in
there the first time and it was a 3-2 game in the middle of the game the
last time. I'm not surprised they came out with a real good effort."
The Blazers won 4-3 in Spokane on Nov. 9 in what was Hawgood's first game
behind the bench after he replaced the fired Dean Clark. The Chiefs won 6-2
on Jan. 9.
In this one, the Blazers were outshot 37-28 and badly outchanced as they
once again used Justin Leclerc's goaltending to keep them close.
"It's a nice feeling knowing that your goalie is going to stand on his head
every game," Hawgood said. "That's just the way we expect Justin to play."
"Justin's been playing great," Blazers captain Scott Wasden added. "We know
he's going to make some big stops. We just have to bail him out; we can't be
giving up odd-man rushes and turning over the puck."
As seems to have become the custom, the Blazers did give up too many odd-man
rushes. But, on this night, they didn"t pay a price for that.
"We had a lot of chances but we didn't show a lot of composure offensively,"
Peters said. "Those 2-on-1's in the first . . . it would have been nice to
find a way to finish one of those.
"We had some good chances that we didn't make anything happen on."
Leclerc likely would want back Spokane's first goal -- winger Chris Bruton
beat him to the long side from the top of the right circle at 2:41 of the
first period -- but the third-year goaltender was rock solid after that.
The Blazers pulled even with 11 seconds left in the first period when
defenceman Nick Ross, taking advantage of a turnover deep in the Spokane
zone, blasted a slapshot from the point that beat goaltender Dustin
Tokarski.
That was payback for Ross, who was shocked at a save Tokarski made off him
earlier in the period. Staring at an open side, Ross thought he had scored,
only to have Tokarski drive across and glove the puck.
"I will have to see that one again," Peters said. "Did he glove it? I was
waiting for the light to go on. That was great battle by him. He's beat and
he just doesn't quit and makes a great competitive save there."
After the game, Ross still was wondering if it wasn't a goal.
"If they could have looked at the video, they might have been able to . . .
his glove was pretty far back in the net," Ross said. "It was definitely a
really good save. His glove just came out of nowhere and saved it but I was
pretty sure it was past the line.
"He stretched back to save it but if I had put it on the ice it probably
would have gone in."
There wasn't anything Leclerc could do about the winner when winger David
Rutherford played give-and-go with centre Tyler Johnson, a rookie from
Spokane, and scored on a low shot inside the left post.
The goal came at 14:18 of the third period, just 42 seconds after Hawgood
had used his timeout -- the Blazers had just killed a penalty, had three
defencemen on the ice and were called for icing.
After that goal, try as they did, the Blazers weren't able to mount any
offence.
"The guys are a little tired but we're not using that as an excuse," Wasden
said. "We've got a couple of days off here to get ready for the weekend up
in Prince George."
The Blazers will meet the Cougars, who have lost seven in a row and are 18
points out of a playoff spot, on Friday and Saturday nights.
JUST NOTES: Referee Derek Zalaski gave the Blazers five of eight minor
penalties. . . . The Chiefs were 0-for-4 on the power play; the Blazers were
0-for-2. . . . Hawgood said that D Mark Schneider is "tender" and has some
stitches and swelling on his face. Schneider, who was struck in the face by
a puck in Sunday's loss, didn't play last night.