Victory over Tigers not Dulle

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Kenton Dulle has had more penalty shots this WHL season than most players
get in a career.
Dulle, a 20-year-old forward, scored on his third freebie of the season
Saturday night to help the Kamloops Blazers to a 6-4 WHL victory over the
Medicine Hat Tigers.
Dulle was awarded the penalty shot at 17:56 of the second period when
Medicine Hat defenceman Matthew Konan hooked him as he headed in alone on
goaltender Ryan Holfeld.
Dulle, who was 1-1 in his earlier attempts, promptly beat Holfeld with a
wrist shot to the glove side.
“I’ve been struggling to get the puck in the net,” said Dulle, a 21-goal man
last season who hadn’t scored in seven games. “I just kept it simple and the
puck happened to go in.”
Earlier in the second period, Kamloops winger Tyler Shattock had beaten
Holfeld to the glove side from the right faceoff dot, something that Dulle
noted.
“I read off Tyler Shattock’s goal,” said Dulle, who now has 19 goals. “He
shot glove so when I went in on my penalty shot I put that in the back of my
mind and I went to the same spot.”
Dulle’s goal gave the Blazers a 3-2 lead, which they stretched to 4-2 at
1:24 of the third period when forward Brendan Ranford scored his second goal
in as many games.
However, the Tigers, who were playing their fourth game in five nights and
had been blown out 10-1 by the Rockets in Kelowna on Friday, tied it on two
goals 2:21 apart from forward Linden Vey.
The Blazers, who were outshot 40-30, got the winner from left-winger Shayne
Wiebe, who shot one from Mark Recchi Way at 6:38. Somehow, it got past
Holfeld.
Shattock put it away with an empty-netter at 19:40.
Defenceman Zach Stebner, who also had two assists, had the Blazers‚ other
goal. Sean Ringrose and Tyler Ennis also scored for the Tigers, who are
fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Kamloops had a 9-4 edge in shots at one point in the first period but much
of the last 50 minutes was played in the Blazers‚ zone.
“Yeah, it was,” Dulle said. “We have to tighten it up. (Head coach Barry
Smith) says defence leads to offence . . . we have to be a lot tighter in
our end. Near the end we did a lot better.”
The Tigers, like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, were victimized by
an inability to hit the net.
“We had some chances,” Tigers general manager/head coach Willie Desjardins
said. “I thought the advantage was ours and with seven power plays to two
that makes it easier to win a hockey game and yet. . . .”
And yet the Tigers weren’t able to beat Kamloops goaltender Justin Leclerc
when the game was on the line.
“The first one ends up getting deflected five-hole,” said Leclerc, who made
36 saves to win his 21st game. “You don’t really like to give something like
that up but at the same time it was a deflection.
“The second one, I just moved a tiny bit before (Ennis) shot and it ended up
going five-hole. That was the one I wanted back. Other than that . . .”
Other than that, Leclerc gave his teammates a chance to win. Which they did.
And now they take a two-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game against the
visiting Kelowna Rockets, who are 5-0-0-0 against the Blazers this season.
JUST NOTES: Referees Ryan Bonnett and Steve Papp gave Kamloops nine of 13
minors. . . . The Tigers were 2-for-7 on the PP; the Blazers were 1-for-2. .
. . The announced attendance was 4,159. . . . Like Dulle, F Shane Harper of
the Everett Silvertips has been awarded three penalty shots this season.
Harper is 0-for-3. . . . The Blazers have returned D Daniel Medland-Marchen and F Ryan Hanes to the junior B Kamloops Storm.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca