Blazers anything but Dulle

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers had been waiting for Kenton Dulle and his stick to come
alive.
The wait would appear to be over.
Dulle, the WHL team’s leading sniper last season, scored two goals Friday
night, the first on a penalty shot, to spark the Blazers to a 4-1 victory
over the Prince George Cougars in front of an announced crowd of 4,194 fans
at Interior Savings Centre.
The victory lifted the Blazers (4-4-0-1), who are at home to the Chilliwack
Bruins tonight, into fifth place in the Western Conference. The Cougars
(6-2-0-0) are tied for second as they go into Kelowna to play the Rockets
tonight in the second game of a nine-game road trip.
The Cougars owned this one in the early going and only goaltender Justin
Leclerc kept them off the scoreboard. Just a few minutes in, the Blazers had
been outshot 4-0 and outchanced by about double that.
But the tide turned at 10:37 when Dulle was awarded a penalty shot after
being hooked from behind by a backchecking Corey Tyrell. Dulle, a
right-handed shot, deked to his backhand and beat goaltender Kevin Armstrong
for his third goal of the season.
“That’s my go-to move . . . that one,” said Dulle, a 21-goal scorer last
season. “It’s the same one every time.”
Dulle couldn’t remember specifics but said he has scored one other
penalty-shot goal during his WHL career. That one was with the Saskatoon
Blades.
“Same move,” he said with a laugh.
The Blazers weren’t laughing early on, however, as the Cougars appeared to
have brought their A game. But the hosts were able to weather the storm,
thanks primarily to some great work from Leclerc and a just-about Prince
George goal at 1:18. Leclerc almost had a puck sneak through him — in fact,
referee Steve Papp pointed to the back of the net — but it turned out the
puck hadn’t completely crossed the goal line.
“He kept us in it,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said of Leclerc. “The
first one going through there . . . I don’t know if it went over (the line)
or not but I think it was almost good for him because he went “Ohh, I got
the break I needed’ and he was rock solid from there.”
Smith had been critical of Leclerc’s play in a 6-2 loss to the Hitmen in
Calgary a week ago, criticism the goaltender allowed was warranted because
he was “awful” in that outing.
“We had meetings,” Leclerc said. “He expressed to me how he thought I should
be better. I was forthcoming about saying I’m not playing my best hockey. I
didn’t think Calgary was the only game where I could have been better.
“But, at the same time, I was working hard and trying to do everyhting
right, and maybe I was trying to do too much.”
Despite the early first-period onslaught and another episode early in the
second where the visitors held a 6-1 edge in shots, thanks primarily to two
power plays, the Blazers finished the night having outshot the Cougars,
34-16, including 10-2 in the third period.
“It’s good that the guys stuck with (the game plan),” Dulle, 20, said. “We
started doing the things we had to do . . . getting pucks in deep. We
started to get pucks in their end and started to get on the forecheck. We
started to get chances off our forecheck.
“And Justin was great. We needed him to step up for us and he was great.”
Left-winger Brendan Ranford, with his second goal, increased the Blazers’
lead 64 seconds after Dulle’s penalty shot. When Ranford scored, the shots
were 7-7. And, at period’s end, the home boys held a 13-7 edge.
“Give them credit,” Cougars head coach Drew Schoneck said. “They got their
engine going. I thought they really took control of the second half of that
first period and, deservedly so, came out of it with a 2-0 lead.
“And their goaltender made a couple of key stops in that first 10 minutes to
keep the game where it was.”
Dulle added a second goal 37 seconds into the third period and right-winger
Jimmy Bubnick, with his eighth of the season, upped it to 4-0 at 3:30,
before Cougars defenceman Cody Hobbs somehow squeezed a shot through Leclerc
at 8:12.
Bubnick did lose the WHL goal-scoring lead to Vancouver centre Evander Kane,
who raised his total to nine with a three-goal effort in the Giants’ 7-1
victory over the visiting Kelowna Rockets.
JUST NOTES: Papp and partner Adam Byblow gave the Blazers eight of 12
minors, one of two majors and the lone misconduct. . . . Prince George was
1-for-7 on the PP; the Blazers were 0-for-4. . . . Kamloops D Nick Ross was
hit with a minor, major and misconduct after instigating a fight with RW
Ryan Kowalski, who had just put a hit on Ranford. . . . Smith said that
Leclerc’s play earned him the start tonight against Chilliwack. . . .
Schoneck yanked Armstrong after the Blazers’ fourth goal and sent in Ian
Curtis, who stopped all five shots he saw. Schoneck said he will come back
with Armstrong, who stopped 25 of 29 shots, tonight in Kelowna.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca