Blazers saved by the bell

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
If ever you needed proof of the value of one second in a sporting affair governed by a clock, this was it.
The Portland Winter Hawks, trailing 5-2 more than halfway through the third period, scored twice to close within a goal and then had a tying goal denied by the final buzzer that gave the Kamloops Blazers a 5-4 victory before 4,965 fans at Interior Savings Centre on Friday night.
The Winter Hawks scored what they thought — hoped? — was the equalizer from a wild scramble with the clock running down but the four officials huddled and ruled that the puck had entered the net after the final buzzer.
“It’s hard,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said after his club’s fourth straight victory. “You play those big emotional games and you see who’s coming in. . . . there’s that letdown.”
Smith was referring to Wednesday’s 5-1 victory over the visiting Calgary Hitmen, a game in which the Blazers totally dominated the WHL’s overall leader and the No. 2-ranked team in all of the CHL. Those same Hitmen went into Vancouver yesterday, scored four power-play goals and beat the Giants, 4-0.
By contrast, the Winter Hawks are ninth in the Western Conference and would be 21st overall in the 22-team league.
“It’s hard,” Smith said. “I expected it. I thought we played really good early. But the emotion starts to get out and we say, ‘OK, we’ve got it in hand.’
“We did enough right things to get a win. It’s a win. You play the game to win.”
The Blazers got out of the opening 20 minutes with a 2-1 lead and led 5-2 when right-winger Tyler Shattock scored his second of the game, and 28th of the season, at 15:43 of the second period.
One might have excused the Winter Hawks for starting the bus, but they didn’t. Rather, they got third-period goals from defencemen Travis Ehrhardt, at 11:09, and Troy Rutkowski, at 15:08, to make it interesting.
The Blazers won a faceoff in their zone with 16.1 seconds left, only to have veteran winger Kenton Dulle shoot wide in an attempt to hit the empty Portland net from his side of centre ice. That forced another faceoff in the Kamloops zone, this one with 7.3 seconds left. The Winter Hawks gained possession and forward Luke Walker scored, only to have the officials rule time had run out.
Let’s not forget, too, that the Winter Hawks thought they had scored in the second period when freshman forward Ty Rattie, playing his fifth WHL game, got in on Justin Leclerc and put the goaltender and the puck into the net. But the officials ruled the net had come off its moorings before the puck went over the goal line.
Forwards Seth Compton, Shayne Wiebe, with his team-leading 29th, and Brendan Ranford had the other goals for the Blazers, who had a 33-31 edge in shots.
Centre Chris Francis was terrific for Portland, scoring once and setting up two others. Walker, the son of former Kamloops sniper Gord Walker, scored his 24th goal for Portland.
“We get into the playoffs,” Smith said of his postgame message to the players, “there’s going to be that emotional high. And then the next night you have to bring it right back up again. Or there’s going to be that emotional low and you’ve got to bring it up. No one is saying that it’s easy, but that’s when you have to bring it.”
The Blazers may play Sunday without centre Scott Wasden, their captain, after he took a cross-checking major and a game misconduct for a hit on defenceman Joe Morrow at 2:21 of the second period. Wasden, who checked Morrow along the boards in the Portland zone and then brought up his stick up high, is suspended pending a WHL investigation.
Smith obviously watched the video after the period because he was on the bench with 3:30 left in the intermission to discuss the play with referee Colby Smith.
“I just didn’t think it was a major,” Smith explained. “I’m not saying he didn’t come through high but I think there has to be intent to hurt somebody.”
Asked if he felt it was a suspendable offence, Smith replied: “I don’t think so. There has to be intent. If he’s running at him from five feet away with his stick up . . . he followed through high and that was it.”
JUST NOTES: Shattock’s second goal drove Portland G Kurtis Mucha to the bench. He stopped 18 of 23 shots. Keith Hamilton, a freshman from Kelowna who isn’t related to the Hamilton family that owns the Rockets, came on in relief and stopped all 10 shots he faced. . . . Kamloops G Justin Leclerc turned aside 27 shots. . . . Kamloops D Josh Caron didn’t play due to illness, but is expected back Sunday. Smith said Caron could have played had it been a playoff game. . . . The Blazers were 2-for-4 on the power play; Portland was 2-for-7.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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