Blazers looking for consistency

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Consistency.
Grandma’s lemon meringue pie has it; the Kamloops Blazers don’t.
“Exactly,” Barry Smith, the WHL team’s head coach, said Sunday after
returning from a two-game swing into Alberta. “We’ve got the compete level
up in the offensive zone. Now we’ve got to do it in the defensive zone,
which is always harder to do.”
The Blazers were beaten 6-2 by the Hitmen in Calgary on Saturday, one night
after skating past the host Edmonton Oil Kings, 5-2.
“We played one really good game and we played one just OK game,” said Smith,
whose club is 3-4-0-1 and in fifth place in the 10-team Western Conference.
Still, despite his club having lost four of its last five games, Smith said
he is seeing progress.
“In the first game,” he said, “we did everything we needed to do. Everybody
played well; we got our lines rolling and that.
“In the second game, we competed well and did things but we didn’t get any
goaltending . . . three bad goals.”
Veteran Justin Leclerc went the distance in both games. He stopped 24 shots
Friday and turned aside 34 shots in Calgary.
“(The Hitmen) came out — we knew they were going to come out hard; they’re a
good team, I think they’re a real under-rated team — and they jumped on us,”
Smith said. “We knew we would have to weather the storm. We got back to 2-1
and they get a bad goal. We get it back to 3-2 with a good shorthanded
effort to stay in it. (They get) another bad goal and that just deflates
your guys. It’s hard to keep them going after that.”
Michael Snider, one of three goaltenders with the Hitmen, turned aside 17
shots in his first WHL start. He is a 17-year-old from DeWinton, Alta.
Brandon Kozun, with his team-high sixth goal of the season, Matt Mackenzie,
Keith Seabrook, Carson McMillan, Bostjan Golicic and Brett Sonne scored for
the Hitmen.
"Any time six different guys score goals, it shows how good your team is,"
Kozun told the Calgary Sun. "And if you look at who scored the goals, it
shows we had four lines kicking in."
The Hitmen are 6-2-0-0 and atop the Central Division. They also are 6-0-0-0
at home.
"If you look at the place we play in, it's a hard building to come into,"
Kozun said. "It's a bit intimidating for guys to come in here because it's
the Saddledome and it's the home of the Calgary Flames.
"But we're pretty comfortable here and our record shows that."
Jimmy Bubnick, with his WHL-leading seventh goal of the season, and Kenton
Dulle, shorthanded, replied for the Blazers. Bubnick also has a team-high 10
points in eight games.
The Blazers were outshot 66-37 in the two games, including 40-19 in Calgary.
“We’re not doing as good a job of getting in shooting lanes and doing those
little things,” Smith said. “If you give up a lot of shots, that co-relates
to you chasing around a lot. We’ve done a better job on that but we still
have to work harder at it.
“We have to work harder in our defensive zone, to compete harder.”
Asked about the focus in practice this week, Smith replied:
“We’ve still got to go back to our competitiveness in the defensive zone. We
have to be better there. You look at our goals-against; obviously, we have
to get that down.”
The Blazers have surrendered 36 goals in eight games. That translates into a
4.50 GAA, the second-poorest in the 22-team league. Only the 1-5-0-0 Seattle
Thunderbirds are worse, at 5.17. No other WHL team is allowing more than
3.71 goals per game.
The Blazers, who were off the ice Sunday, return to the practice ice today
as they begin preparations for a Thanksgiving weekend in which they will
play three home games in four days. The Prince George Cougars, who are off
to a 5-1-0-0 start, are here Friday, with the Chilliwack Bruins (2-2-1-1)
visiting on Saturday night. The Prince Albert Albert Raiders (4-3-0-0) visit
on Oct. 13, with game time at 2 p.m.
“It will be a big weekend for us,” Smith said, “but we’ve got (time) to
prepare for it, get ourselves going, get back into our habits and I think
we’ll be fine.”
One player the head coach wants to see more from is defenceman Nick Ross,
who was a first-round pick by the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL’s 2007 draft.
Ross, who has signed a three-year contract with the Coyotes, played Saturday
after serving a two-game WHL suspension.
“He was just OK,” Smith said. “That’s not good enough from Nick Ross. In
games like that, your best players have to be your best players. He has to
step it up . . . and (Saturday) night he didn’t and that’s disappointing.”
JUST NOTES: The Blazers scratched D Linden Saip, D Mark Schneider and F
Uriah Machuga on Saturday. . . . Among Calgary’s scratches was RW Cody
Beach, the 16-year-old brother of Everett Silvertips LW Kyle Beach, who is
in camp with the Chicago Blackhawks. . . . The Blazers were 0-for-4 on the
power play; Calgary has killed off 33 consecutive opposition power plays. .
. . G James Priestner, whom the Blazers traded to Brandon a week ago, made
his Wheat Kings’ debut as the backup in a 4-2 loss to the visiting Regina
Pats on Saturday. Priestner may get the start on Tuesday when the Wheat
Kings meet the Blades in Saskatoon.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca