Daily News Sports Editor
KENNEWICK, Wash. — The Kamloops Blazers headed for home late Saturday night
down 2-0 in a best-of-seven WHL playoff series and searching for positives
before facing the Tri-City Americans twice at Interior Savings Centre.
The Americans, the No. 1 seed in these playoffs, posted a 4-1 victory
Saturday, after beating the Blazers 6-1 on Friday, and now have won seven
straight games.
The Blazers, meanwhile, have lost 16 of their last 17 games.
Games 3 and 4 are to be played Tuesday and Wednesday. Game time both days is
7 p.m.
"Our first period might have been better than (Friday)," Kamloops interim
head coach Greg Hawgood said. "We did some good things like making sure we
got the puck out and making their (defencemen) chase it down."
But, Hawgood pointed out, his club also did just enough "to lose our
momentum and give it back to them."
"Just the penalties we take, they seem to feed off that," Hawgood said.
"Their better players are on the ice more in outmanned situations, which
they're very good at. The more we can play 5-on-5 the better it is for us."
The Americans were 1-for-8 on the power play Saturday, after a 3-for-10
night on Friday. The Blazers are 1-for-8 in the two games.
"Good first period. Not bad second period. Penalty trouble," summed up
Kamloops winger Mark Hall. "We know we can compete with them. No question.
"Penalties were a big problem. We have to figure that out and go from
there."
The problem with taking penalties against Tri-City is that it allows for
left-winger Colton Yellow Horn to get even more ice time. The Blazers line
of Shayne Wiebe, Scott Wasden and Brady Calla has done an admirable job
against Yellow Horn, Kruise Reddick and Taylor Procyshen in even-strength
situations.
Yellow Horn had a goal and two helpers Saturday, getting his goal into an
empty net and adding assists on a key power-play score by defenceman Eric
Mestery and a funny bouncer by Procyshen.
"Great . . . unbelieveable," Calla said of the defensive work against that
line. "Look at their goal (Saturday). It went off three guys in front and
got whacked in. We¹ve done a great job so far.
"On the negative side, I think we can capitalize on some of their risky
offensive plays."
The Blazers had two 2-on-1 breaks in Friday's first period and didn't score.
They had chances again Saturday, but struggled to beat goaltender Chet
Pickard, who now has 48 victories on the season, including his first two
playoff triumphs.
"You know it's not going to be easy to score on this guy," Hawgood said of
Pickard, who has stopped 51 of 53 shots in the two games. "You have to shoot
it through the back of the net almost to make sure it goes in."
At the other end, Justin Leclerc has played just as well in making 71 saves
over two games.
Left-winger Ivan Rohac gave Kamloops a 1-0 lead at 7:28 of Saturday's first
period and at one point the Blazers held an 11-5 edge in shots. However, the
Americans began to take over in the second period, much as they did Friday,
and outshot the visitors 29-11 over the last 40 minutes.
"It was a real good effort in the first. It was great," Calla said. "The
start of the second was real good also. But, then again, we got away from
the game plan a bit and opened the window for them a bit offensively."
The Blazers took three minor penalties in the second period¹s first nine
minutes, the second one leading to a lengthy 5-on-3 for the home side. The
same thing happened again in the third period. Although the Blazers didn't
give up a goal on either opportunity, they allowed the Americans to gain
even more momentum.
Right-winger Shaun Vey got the eventual game-winner at 13:29 of the second
period off a backdoor play at the Kamloops crease, with Procyshen and
Yellowhorn concluding the scoring in the third.
In Friday's opener, the Blazers played a simple first period and even had a
pair of 2-on-1 breaks, Devon Kalinski and Calla coming up empty while
shorthanded, and Rohac and Juuso Puustinen failing to score a short time
later.
But the Blazers got in trouble early in the second period and the tide
turned in a hurry.
Right-winger Radek Meidl scored 1:15 into the second, Procyshen struck on
the power play at 2:38, with defenceman Nick Ross in stir, and school was
out.
Defenceman Tyler Schmidt and Yellow Horn upped the lead to 4-0 before the
period was over, and centre Jason Reese made it 5-0 with Ross in the penalty
box again at 12:57 of the third.
Defenceman Mike Gauthier scored the Blazers' lone goal, beating Pickard with a
quick shot from high in the slot at 17:56 of the third period.
Tri-City winger Johnny Lazo finished the scoring with his club's third
power-play goal.
"We had two good starts," Calla said. "Our physical play has been great. Our
penalty kill was better (Saturday) and the power play got a goal.
Systematically, we had a great start. We know the system can work but again
we have to put 60 minutes together."
They get their next chance Tuesday in front of a home crowd.
"It wasn't our best game," offered Tri-City head coach Don Nachbaur after
Game 2, as he, too, searched for positives. "But we still head up to
Kamloops with a 2-0 lead. But we know we have to be better. You can't play
that way and expect to win up there.
"But on the other side of the coin I thought they played hard. They put us
in some situations that were uncomfortable and we didn't react very well.
But we stuck with it and only gave up one goal, so that's a positive."
gdrinnan@kamloopsne
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