Chiefs tie franchise record with victory

From The Daily News of Thursday, March 13, 2008. . . .

For the better part of two periods Wednesday night, the Kamloops Blazers
were living a dream.
The Blazers, who appear headed for an eighth-place finish in the WHL’s
Western Conference, were right there — right there! — with the Spokane
Chiefs, who very well may finish with the league’s best record.
But the Chiefs, like a drip from the kitchen faucet, wore down the Blazers
and took control in the latter half of the second period en route to a 4-3
victory at Interior Savings Centre.
The Chiefs, with 104 points, have tied a single-season franchise record held by the 1995-96 team.
The result means that these two teams, with first to play eighth in the
opening round, are that much closer to a date in the first round of
postseason play, which begins March 21.
The Blazers, with three games remaining, are three points behind the
Chilliwack Bruins. The Chiefs, who are tied for first-place overall with the
Tri-City Americans, also have three games left, two of them against the
sad-sack Portland Winter Hawks.
“It’s crunch time and . . . I’m sure they wanted to send a message playing
at home, like we do,” Spokane captain Chris Bruton said. “They were
physical. They played a solid game but we came out on top.”
Bruton was being kind, because the Blazers weren’t especially physical or
emotional. And they lost this one in an eight-minute stretch of the second
period.
The Blazers took a 2-1 lead into the second period but momentum could be
felt changing sides as time wore on. The Chiefs would outshoot the Blazers
12-4 and outscore them 3-0 in the middle period which is where this game was
won — and lost.
“We’re right with them,” Kamloops forward Kenton Dulle said. “If we play for
60 minutes it can go either way. But we got away from the game plan for five
or 10 minutes in the second period and it really cost us.”
Kamloops head coach Greg Hawgood agreed, but wasn’t overly upset with what
he saw, other than that bad spell in the second period.
“The guys came out and played a great third period,” Hawgood said. “They
were getting pucks on net and going to the net and doing the things we need
to do to be successful.”
Goals by Mark Hall — his second shorthanded score of the season — and Brady
Calla had given Kamloops a 2-1 lead, Bruton having scored his 26th of the
season in between.
However, defenceman Justin Falk pulled the visitors even on the power play
at 11:29 before forwards Levko Koper, at 17:33, and David Rutherford, at
19:12, all but finished the Blazers.
“We played a little too light in the third period,” said the 6-foot-5 Falk,
who would have been a McGuire Monster had this game been on TSN. “We thought
the game was well over and they ended up making it close. We have to play
these guys hard. We dominated the second but the first and third we would
have liked to have been a little bit better.”
Yes, the Blazers came on in the third, holding a 13-6 edge in shots and
getting the only goal, when Dulle beat goaltender Dustin Tokarski at 19:32.
Dulle almost beat him again 17 seconds later, too.
“It was close,” said Dulle. “I was just trying to get the puck on net. There
wasn’t time to look where I was shooting . . . I just put it on net.”
“He was good,” Spokane head coach Bill Peters said of Tokarski, the reigning
CHL goaltender of the week who made 20 stops. “We left him alone in the last
second and he had to make a big save.”
Peters, however, wasn’t at all enthralled with what he had just witnessed.
“We played awful,” he said. “We weren’t a very intelligent group right from
the start right to the very end. I didn’t think we were very good in any
area of the game all night.”
Well, his defencemen weren’t bad when it came to physical play.
As Bruton put it: “We’ve got some big guys back there and that’s there job,
to be phsycial and take the body and try to hurt guys. They can play a mean
game back there.”
That includes Falk, who ended Kamloops centre Alex Rodgers’ night with a
hard check late in the second period.
“He tried to beat me wide and I got my feet moving over,” Falk said of the
hit that may have left Rodgers with a concussion. “We have to stay physical.
Our back end . . . we want to play physical and make it a long night for
their forwards. We’re a hard-working team . . . we showed that in the
second; we just have to bring it for the full three periods.”
JUST NOTES: Referees Sean Raphael and Graham Skilliter gave each team 14
minor penalties. . . . The Blazers were 1-for-7 on the power play; the
Chiefs were 2-for-6. . . . Kamloops had played 17 games since it last had
more power plays than its opposition. . . . Attendance was announced as
4,434 but, in fact, was nowhere close to that.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca