Blazers know what awaits them

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The task facing the Kamloops Blazers is formidable. But the players know
what they have to do.
“We have to do what they did to us at home,” Kamloops right-winger Tyler
Shattock said. “We have to win two at home. We’re confident we can win at
home.”
The Blazers go into tonight’s WHL playoff game — Interior Savings Centre, 7
o’clock — in something of a hole. Not only do they trail Kelowna 2-0 in the
best-of-seven series, but the Rockets have beaten them 11 straight times
this season. Five of those 11 victories came right in The ATM, where the
Rockets seem to make themselves right at home — eggs over easy; raspberry
jam on the toast is fine.
“We have to harness what we do at the start of the games,” Shattock said.
“We can’t fall off like we have in the last two games.”
In each of the first two games of this series, which Kelowna won 4-2 and 6-1
on Friday and Saturday nights in Prospera Place, the Blazers held an edge in
play in the early going, only to fade when the Rockets found their legs and
began to push back.
“It was more of us just not doing what made us successful at the start of
the games,” Shattock said. “I mean, we were outshooting them (10-1) at one
point (Saturday night). Then we got into penalty trouble and that’s what
happens.”
The Blazers may have played their best 10 minutes of the 11 games against
the Rockets to start Saturday’s game. And only Kelowna goaltender Mark
Guggenberger kept the visitors from a two- or three-goal lead.
“It’s frustrating,” Shattock said of the lack of rewards for their solid
early play, “but we have to realize that sometimes goaltenders are going to
be good and you have to keep putting more pucks on him and eventually
they’re going to go by him.
“He hasn’t played a lot of playoff games so we have to keep getting shots on
him and hopefully he cracks here.”
Guggenberger, a sophomore acquired from the Swift Current Broncos in
January, hadn’t played in a WHL playoff game prior to Friday. Now he is 2-0
and gunning for a third victory tonight.
The Blazers had two wonderful chances on an early first-period power play
Saturday. First, left-winger Shayne Wiebe found himself in too tight to do
anything with a backhand attempt. Then, following a strange bounce off the
end boards, right-winger Jimmy Bubnick was robbed by Guggenberger who dove
across the crease and took away a goal with the paddle of his stick.
“It’s good to get the momentum like that,” echoed Kamloops defenceman Kurt
Torbohm, “and not to score is tough. . . . we can’t lay off and get
frustrated. We have to keep going. It is frustrating but we have to keep
going.”
While the Blazers will be looking forward to playing at home, where they
were 19-14-2-1, the Rockets are 19-14-1-2 on the road. And when it comes to
playing the Blazers, they are rather confident.
“We have to feel confident but we know they’re a good team over there,”
Kelowna defenceman Brandon McMillan said after Saturday’s game. “We have to
go in there with the same mindset we had here and outwork them and outplay
them. But it’s going to be tough and we all know that in here.
“We hoped to win two in our building. But they’re playing us tough and we
have to keep battling hard.”
Kelowna centre Colin Long blamed his side’s two slow starts on “a little bit
of nerves.”
“It took us the first 10 minutes to get going,” he said, adding that he
doesn’t think the Rockets can afford to start slowly on the road.
“I don’t think so. In here we may have gotten away with it a couple of
times, but it something that know we have to change.”
JUST NOTES: When Kamloops D Josh Caron and Kelowna F Lucas Bloodoff duked it
out Saturday, it was their second fight of the season. They also scrapped on
Feb. in Kelowna. . . . In their last 23 games, the Rockets have limited the
oppostion to two goals or fewer on 19 occasions. . . . Kelowna F Mikael
Backlund, who hasn't played since suffering a suspected concussion in
Kamloops on March 13, practised Monday and may play tonight. “Mikael looked
good on the ice (Monday) and it’s in our plans to have him in the lineup
(tonight),” Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska told the Kelowna Daily Courier. .
. . Backlund is likely to play the right side with centre Cody Almond and
Ian Duval, while centre Colin Long plays between Jamie Benn and a rotating
right winger.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com