Wiebe leads Blazers past Bruins

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Tyler Shattock has anything but the Blues after spending a few days in St. Louis.
“It was unreal. It was so much fun,” Shattock said from his Vancouver hotel room Friday before meeting up with his Kamloops Blazers teammates and playing in their WHL opener against the host Chilliwack Bruins.
Shattock returned with a goal — the game-winner — and an assist as the Blazers scored a 4-3 victory over the Bruins before 3,516 fans. The teams meet again tonight, 7 o’clock, at Interior Savings Centre.
Shayne Wiebe added a goal and two assists for the Blazers, who scored once on the power play but gave up two power-play goals and a shorthanded one. Jake Trask and C.J. Stretch also scored for the Blazers.
“It’s a win but I wasn’t very happy with our play,” Kamloops head coach Barry Smith said. “It’s a win on the road but my expectations are higher. We got a little puck luck tonight.”
Jesse Craige, Andy Smith and Kevin Sundher, who cut the Kamloops lead to 4-3 at 11:54 of the second period, scored for the Bruins.
Kamloops goaltender Justin Leclerc stopped 28 shots, as did Marc Friesen of the Bruins.
Smith said he wasn’t sure whether Leclerc or Jon Groenheyde will start tonight against the Bruins.
Leclerc “was good,” Smith said. “He made some good saves early to keep it where it was at. We did a good job of managing and keeping people to the outside, so he didn’t have to be spectacular . . . but he was good.”
As for naming tonight’s starter, Smith said: “I want to think about that. I want to push guys a little bit that good isn’t just always good enough.”
Shattock, the Blazers’ new captain, arrived in Vancouver from St. Louis on Thursday around midnight. He had been with the NHL’s Blues for almost two weeks.
Shattock, a fourth-round selection in the NHL’s 2009 draft, started with the Blues’ prospects team at an eight-team tournament in Traverse City, Mich. Then he, along with Portland Winterhawks defenceman Brett Ponich, moved along to main camp in St. Louis.
“They said that first-year guys don’t usually get invited to main camp but me and Ponich did so that’s a pretty good sign, I guess,” Shattock said.
As for his stint in main camp, which began with him scoring a goal in the first scrimmage game, Shattock, a 19-year-old from Salmon Arm, said: “I played really well I thought.”
He also got some tutoring from veteran defenceman Darryl Sydor, one of the Blazers’ five owners who is in the Blues’ camp on a free-agent tryout.
“He’s good,” Shattock said. “I talked to him quite a bit there. He helped me out.”
Shattock also said that he has been in frequent touch with Boston Bruins forward Mark Recchi, another of the Blazers’ owners.
When he left the St. Louis camp, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Shattock said the staff told him he needed to get bigger and stronger.
“You find out that those guys are all pretty big there,” he said, adding that “you find that they are all pretty much the same size and same strength. But they’re all basically men.”
This was the second year in a row that Shattock spent time in an NHL camp. A year ago, he missed the Blazers’ first two games because he was with the San Jose Sharks. He returned and picked up six points in his first five games. Players who return from NHL camps frequently play at a high tempo and level for a week or two.
“You feel that way,” Shattock said. “Because I was in San Jose I kind of know what to do when I come back.”
JUST NOTES: Wiebe has 12 goals in 18 regular-season games against the Bruins. Last season, he burned the Bruins for 14 points, including 10 goals, in eight games. . . . Kamloops D Tyler Hansen, F Dylan Willick, F Matej Bene and F JC Lipon made their WHL debuts. Lipon earned an assist on the Blazers’ first goal. . . . The Blazers scratched F Dalibor Bortnak (spleen), F Colin Smith (broken arm), F Ryan Hanes, D Brandon Underwood and D Curtis Kulchar. . . . F Ryan Howse, listed on the WHL website as out indefinitely with a knee injury, played for the Bruins. . . . After tonight, the Blazers next play Friday when the Kelowna Rockets come calling. The Blazers play in Kelowna the following night.