Masked man steals victory for Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Barry Smith, the head coach of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, has been waiting
for a goaltender to steal a game.
The wait ended Sunday evening.
Justin Leclerc stopped 27 shots and the Blazers struck for two power-play
goals as they beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 in front of 4,078 fans at
Interior Savings Centre.
“I thought Justin played great. He was outstanding,” Smith said. “That was
the best game he’s played all season. They had some good chances early . . .
he held us in there and kept it close.
“That’s the goaltending we need. He didn’t steal the whole thing but he was
a big portion of it.”
A week ago, the Blazers were on a five-game losing streak — although Smith
felt they had played well enough to win three off those games. Now Kamloops
(7-8-0-2) has won three in a row and moved from eighth to fifth in the
Western Conference.
And the Blazers have won all three games, including a 5-2 victory over the
Bruins in Chilliwack on Saturday, with Leclerc in goal.
“I’ve felt good for a few games now,” Leclerc, 19, said after evening his
record at 6-6-0-1. “I’m being square to shooters and not trying to do more
than my job . . . just taking the shots that I should stop and I think
that’s translating into more big saves.”
Leclerc’s biggest save in this one may have come 10 minutes in when he used
his left pad to stone Brandon speedster Scott Glennie, who tried to finish
off a shorthanded breakaway with a deke.
“We had lots of chances. He made some real good saves,” Brandon GM/head
coach Kelly McCrimmon said. “You go back to the first period . . . the
Glennie play. That was a key point in the game.”
Of course, this was more than your average October game to last night’s
goaltenders — Leclerc and Brandon’s James Priestner. After all, they had
been teammates for more than one season.
“It was a little bit more emotional than usual because you were playing
against a former teammate,” Leclerc said. “But I try not to get too
emotional.”
It was obvious early that the Blazers intended on renewing acquaintances
with Priestner, who was dealt to Brandon on Sept. 29. On the game’s first
two shifts, Kamloops centres C.J. Stretch and Scott Wasden crashed the
Brandon crease.
“That’s obviously what their game plan was,” said Priestner, 17, who
finished with 21 saves. “I don’t think it worked very well. In the first
period they were in the crease all the time. But I think I handled it pretty
well.”
Priestner added that he also heard a lot from his ex-teammates.
“From before warmup to during warmup to the game, after the game . . . I
guess that’s expected,” he said. “I knew that going in and told myself,
‘Don’t worry about it.’ ”
McCrimmon certainly wasn’t about to pin anything on his goaltender.
“In the first period they were a better team than us,” said McCrimmon, whose
Wheaties (8-5-1-0) had opened a five-game tour of B.C. with a 3-2 victory
over the Rockets in Kelowna on Saturday. “James kept the game scoreless for
half the game. It was a case where we needed some run support. We needed to
get on the offence a little bit better than we did tonight.”
Indeed, the game was scoreless until Kamloops left-winger Shayne Wiebe, who
just happens to be from Brandon, trailed the play and scored off a Kenton
Dulle pass at 18:11 of a second period that featured eight power plays, six
of them to the Blazers.
Just 49 seconds later, defenceman Giffen Nyren upped the lead to 2-0 on a
power play.
“Penalties certainly hurt us,” said McCrimmon, whose team faced eight power
plays after coming in averaging four a game. “We took a lot more penalties
tonight than what we ordinarily do and put too much pressure on our penalty
kill.”
Jake Trask, on another power play, gave Kamloops a 3-0 lead early in the
third period before Brayden Schenn, on yet another PP, got Brandon’s goal at
10:20 of the third period.
On Saturday, the Blazers got two goals from Wiebe, including one on a
penalty shot, as they beat the Bruins. Wiebe’s second goal, a shorthanded
effort at 16:06 of the second period, proved to be the winner.
Jimmy Bubnick, Nyren and Uriah Machuga, the latter with his third goal in
four games, also scored for Kamloops, with David Robinson and Liam Darragh
replying for the Bruins.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers were 2-for-8 on the PP last night; Brandon was
1-for-7. . . . D Jordan Rowley, who is in his third season with the Blazers,
was back in the lineup Sunday after being a healthy scratch Saturday. . . .
The Bruins are without two key defencemen — Matt Strong (shoulder) and Jesse
Craige (jaw). In fact, they are 0-6 since Craige went down with a broken
jaw. Recently acquired C Evan Fuller (groin) also is out.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com