The Kamloops Blazers and Tri-City Americans aren’t playoff strangers to each other, although they haven’t met in the second season since the spring of 1999.
In fact, when the two teams open a best-of-seven first-round series Friday in the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Wash., it will mark the fifth time the two have clashed in a WHL playoff series.
Nine years ago, the Blazers opened a march to the WHL championship final by taking out the Kelowna Rockets in six games. The Blazers then swept the Americans, winning 4-3 and 6-0 (Kenric Exner put up an 11-save shutout) at home. In Kennewick, the Blazers won 3-2 in overtime (Konstantin Panov got the winner at 11:39) and 4-3.
The Blazers went on to lose in five games to the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL final.
In the spring of 1996, the Blazers, who were the defending Memorial Cup champions, opened the playoffs with a 4-1 series victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds and moved into a best-of-five Western Conference semifinal against the Americans.
The Americans, with Brian Boucher making 38 saves, took the opener, 2-0, in Kamloops, with the Blazers coming back the next night for a 4-3 victory on Jarome Iginla’s goal at 13:23 of OT. The series shifted to Kennewick and the Americans won Game 3, 5-2. The Blazers pulled even by taking Game 4, 6-1.
The Blazers won the series at home, taking Game 5, 5-1, before 5,622 fans, a crowd count that then was automatic.
The Spokane Chiefs then took out the Blazers in six games in the Western Conference final.
In 1994-95, the Blazers and Americans met up in the best-of-seven Western Conference final, with Kamloops winning in six games.
The Blazers won the first two games at home, 4-2 and 2-1 in double overtime, Ashley Buckberger scoring at 8:27 of the second OT period.
In Kennewick, the Americans won twice in overtime – 7-6 on Daymond Langkow’s goal at 15:38 and 4-3 when Pavel Kriz scored at 10:03.
The series returned to Kamloops and the Blazers won Game 5, 6-2.
Back in Kennewick, the Blazers wrapped up the series with a 7-1 victory.
Kamloops would go on to eliminate the Brandon Wheat Kings in six games in the WHL’s championship final and then would win its third Memorial Cup in four seasons.
The Blazers and Americans met for the first time in postseason play in the spring of 1991, and it was one of those lovely best-of-nine affairs.
The series opened in Memorial Arena with Kamloops defenceman Darryl Sydor scoring once and setting up six others – he had four assists before the game was 12 minutes old – in an 11-5 victory highlighted by a 55-save performance by Blazers goaltender Corey Hirsch. The next night, Sydor had two assists but the Americans won, 6-2.
The series moved to Kennewick and the Blazers won twice, 5-3 and 6-5, as Sydor added five more assists to his total.
Back in Kamloops, Sydor drew one assist in a 3-1 Kamloops victory as the Blazers grabbed a 4-1 series lead.
The teams went back to Kennewick for Game 6, which the Americans won, 6-3, despite Sydor scoring once and setting up his club’s other two goals.
The series headed to Kamloops for Game 7, which the Blazers won 7-5 to capture the series, 5-2.
Sydor had a goal and two assists in the last game, bringing his series total to 21 points, including 18 assists. Sydor, now one of the Blazers’ five co-owners, tied a franchise single-game playoff record for assists (six) that was set by Jim Camazzola on April 14, 1984, and set franchise records for most points in one game (seven), assists by a defenceman in a series (18) and points by a defenceman in a series (21).
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The Blazers and fans gathered at Colombo Lodge last night to break bread and hand out regular-season awards, and RW Juuso Puustinen went home with three pieces of silverware.
Puustinen accepted the Dean Evason Award for inspirational leadership abilities, and also got the Kamloops This Week Award after leading the team in plus-minus (plus-6) and the Vern Seaman Memorial Trophy as the team’s top scorer.
G Justin Leclerc was honoured as the team’s MVP and got the C.H. Day Memorial Trophy. Leclerc also got the Radio NL Three-Star Award – he was one of the stars in 16 of the 54 games in which he played.
D Jordan Rowley and RW Tyler Shattock shared the George Stewart Sr. Award for excellence in hockey and education.
The Mair Jensen Blair Award as most improved player went to Kenton Dulle, who had 21 goals after scoring five in 65 games going into this season.
RW Brady Calla was the only choice for the Williams Moving and Storage Award as the most dedicated player, while Calla and Golin shared the Blazers Booster Club Community Award.
The Rick Anderson Memorial Trophy (unsung hero) went to C Scott Wasden.
F Mark Hall won the Great Growlies Grinder of the Year Award, with LW Shayne Wiebe taking the Jonathan Buchner Gems and Jewellery Diamond in the Rough Award.
The Andy and Molly Clovechok Rookie of the Year Award went to Jimmy Bubnick, who had the best 16-year-old season stastically of any player since D Mikki DuPont in 1996-97.
Nick Ross went home with the Eldon Dever Trophy as the team’s best defenceman.
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The Americans won the first banners in franchise history with their 2-1 victory over the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Saturday night. With that one victory, the Americans won the U.S. Division, the Western Conference and the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy, which goes to the WHL’s regular-season champion.
After that game, the Americans, who set franchise records with 52 victories and 108 points, handed out their player awards.
Goaltender Chet Pickard and left-winger Colton Yellow Horn were honoured as co-most valuable players. Pickard, 18, put up 46 victories, only the sixth goaltender in WHL history to win that many games in one season; Yellow Horn, 20, led the WHL with 48 goals and his 97 points left him third in the scoring race.
C Shaun Vey, in his fourth season with the Americans, went home with the Todd Klassen Memorial and Community Leader awards. C Kruise Reddick and RW Taylor Procyshen were named the team’s most gentlemanly players, with C Drew Hoff selected the most inspirational player.
LW Adam Hughesman, a 16-year-old from Winnipeg, won scholastic and rookie-of-the-year awards, while T.J. Fast, the team captain, was honoured as the top defenceman. He also got the plus-minus award, at a team-high plus-29.
D Eric Mestery was the most improved player and RW Blair Macaulay ws named the unsung hero.
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JUNIOR JOTTINGS: The Blazers expect to have all hands on deck Friday, with the exception of D Mark Schneider (knee), who won’t play in the first round. . . . Tri-City LW Radek Meidl, 19, went into last week day-to-day with an arm injury but should be ready to go Friday. . . . Terry Bangen, who once worked for the Blazers, is the Americans’ director of player personnel. . . . F Mark Santorelli of the Chilliwack Bruins scored twice Sunday in a 5-3 loss to the Giants in Vancouver and won the WHL scoring title. He finished with 101 points, one more than Kelowna Rockets C Colin Long. . . . Santorelli led the league with 74 assists. . . . RW Juuso Puustinen led the Blazers in goals (27) and points (53). LW Ivan Rohac was tops in assists (34) and second in points (51). RW Kenton Dulle was the team’s only other 20-goal man, finishing with 21. . . . The Calgary Hitmen set a WHL single-game attendance record Sunday when 19,305 fans showed up at the Pengrowth Saddledome to watch a 6-1 victory over the Kootenay Ice. That broke the previous record (19,103) that was set March 15, 1997, when the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Winter Hawks played to a 6-6 tie in the Rose Garden in Portland. . . . Calgary also holds the playoff single-game record (17,139) from the spring of 2000. . . . In its last two home games, Calgary drew 38,089 fans. As a reference point, the Swift Current Broncos’ total attendance for 36 home games was 75,329.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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