Cougars sting Blazers again

From The Daily News of Monday, March 17, 2008. . . .

The Kamloops Blazers have spent most of this WHL season skating uphill.
They woke up this morning and discovered the mountain they now are facing is
named Everest.
The Blazers concluded their regular-season schedule with two weekend home
games — they lost 3-1 to the Vancouver Giants on Saturday and 4-2 to the
Prince George Cougars on Sunday — and now will prepare for a first-round
playoff series against the Tri-City Americans. That series opens Friday in
Kennewick, Wash.
In their 72nd game, the Americans, who set franchise records for victories
(52) and points (108), scored a 2-1 victory over the visiting Spokane Chiefs
on Saturday night. With that one victory, a franchise that never had won a
banner wrapped up three of them — U.S. Division champion, Western Conference
champion and WHL regular-season champion.
While the Americans were closing with a passionate rush — they won their
last five games and went 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 — the Blazers were
crawling to the finish line.
Since trading veterans Victor Bartley, Ryan Bender and Brock Nixon on Jan.
4, the Blazers are 8-22-1-1. They won only one of their last 15 games and
they have the poorest record of any of the 16 playoff teams.
But they know they can undo the damage with a better performance in the
second season.
And, despite the lethargy fans witnessed last night, winger Brady Calla
expects things to be different come Friday. He expects the team that was as
flat as pee on a plate against Prince George to recapture the enthusiasm
with which it played against Vancouver.
“I don’t think it’s going to be hard,” said Calla, who was given last
night’s game off to rest. “Just coming to the rink and just thinking about
the excitement and energy there is going to be Friday night in Tri-City.
It’s not going to be that hard, I don’t think.
“The next 24 hours, 48 hours, we’ll take away all the good and bad and
digest all of that. Hopefully, we’ll make some corrections and get ready.
This week is so big for our team’s success starting Friday night.”
Judging by what the Blazers showed last night, Friday night is a long, long
ways away.
“Unfortunately,” Kamloops interim head coach Greg Hawgood said, “we don’t
seem to be learning lessons from games in the past. If you underestimate
your opponent and stand around and don’t put out an effort, they’re going to
beat you.”
Which is precisely what happened as the ninth-place Cougars were
well-deserving winners.
The visitors never trailed and it was winger Dale Hunt who broke a 2-2 at
5:19 of the second period. It was only fitting that Cougars captain Greg
Gardner, who was blocking shots with five minutes left in his career, should
score his club’s final goal into an empty net.
Parker Stanfield and Jordie Deagle also scored for Prince George, with Mike
Gauthier and Ivan Rohac counting for the home side.
“I don’t think our personal pride kicked in fast enough,” Hawgood said. “We
underestimated them . . . and are on the short end of the stick.
“Your pride has to be there. I talk about it. You want to win the last game
of the season. It’s tough to watch. When you don’t have an effort it’s
pretty tough to win the game.”
On Saturday, the Blazers were outplayed by the Giants but demonstrated a
level of emotion seldom seen from them this season. They were badly outshot
43-17, but a huge game by goaltender Justin Leclerc kept them in it until
centre Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who played his minor hockey in Kamloops, broke
a 1-1 tie by scoring a power-play goal from a frantic scramble at 11:26 of
the third period.
Mario Bliznak and Craig Cunning ham, into an empty net, also scored for the
Giants, while Juuso Puustinen had the Blazers’ lone goal, scoring two
minutes into the game.
“It’s probably a little bit predictable,” Hawgood said of his club’s Sunday
effort. “It’s hard to carry the same intensity into that last game. But if
you want to rank our intensity at 100 per cent (Saturday) night . . . if it
drops to 80 and we work hard we win (Sunday’s) game. But we dropped it to
about 30.
“We talked about it (Sunday) morning, that we wouldn’t let it happen, how
they were going to work hard.”
They didn’t, and it happened again. If they don’t four more times, the
season will be over.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers finished with a 16-18-1-1 home record. . . . On
Sunday, referees Saad Al-Jadir and Steve Papp gave each team seven minor
penalties. . . . Each team was 1-for-6 on the power play. . . . Prince
George G Real Cyr stopped 39 shots, including dazzling pad stops on Tyler
Shattock and Puustinen in the third period. . . . The announcement that
Sunday’s attendance was 4,638 drew something of a groan/laugh from the 3,000
or so fans who were there. . . . On Saturday, in front of 4,809 fans,
referees Andy Thiessen and Colby Smith were busy handing out 124 penalty
minutes, 68 to the Blazers. . . . The Blazers will take today off and be
back on the ice Tuesday. They are scheduled to leave Thursday for Kennewick.