Night of poor decisions for Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Just past the midpoint of the second period of Friday’s WHL game at Interior Savings Centre, Chilliwack defenceman Tyler Stahl, his Bruins leading 4-1, checked Kamloops Blazers centre Dylan Willick.
It was a clean hit near the Bruins’ bench, but drew the ire of Kamloops forward Brendan Ranford, who ran at Stahl and instigated a scrap. While Stahl received a fighting major, Ranford, with his team already short-staffed, earned 17 minutes.
Just 20 seconds later, the Bruins notched their second-power play goal of the game and they were well on their way to a 7-1 victory in front of 4,261 fans, some of whom were dressed up, on this Halloween eve, as empty seats.
The Blazers (8-8-2-0) had been 3-0-0-0 versus the Bruins (6-6-1-3). However, this visit turned out not to be the remedy for what now is a six-game losing streak. And the road ahead isn’t any easier as the Tri-City Americans, with the WHL’s best winning percentage (12-3-0-0, .800), come calling Tuesday.
While Ranford’s decision was the poorest made by a Kamloops player on this night, Scott Ferguson, the club’s interim head coach, wasn’t about to criticize one of his players, at least not publicly.
“He was trying to spark the guys and get in there on that fight,” said Ferguson, who replaced the fired Barry Smith on Monday. “Right or wrong, I like to see guys sticking up for each other.”
The difference, Ferguson continued, was that his club wasn’t doing the little things.
“We weren’t coming back to the front of the net and protecting it with all five guys,” he said. “We weren’t chipping pucks out at our blue line. We weren’t getting it deep at their (blue line). Guys just got away from a simple . . . game plan.”
Ferguson and assistant coach Geoff Smith had hoped to implement a strong forechecking game. But that never really happened.
“We weren’t getting pucks deep so we weren’t getting in on the forecheck to create those loose pucks,” he said. “When we did it, I thought we were pretty good at it. But for right now the group is a fragile crew. We have to pull them together and get them pushing in the right direction.”
It also didn’t help that the Blazers fell behind early, with Bruins defenceman Mitch McColm scoring 3:54 into the game, and trailed 3-0 after the first period.
When the second period began, Ferguson replaced starter Jon Groenheyde, who stopped 13 shots, with Justin Leclerc.
“It wasn’t a knock on Jonny. He wasn’t getting a whole lot of help,” Ferguson said. “They scored all three goals from right in front of the net. You have to get five guys in front to help him out.”
At the same time, credit has to be given to Chilliwack, a team that opened this season with nine losses — including two in shootouts and one in overtime — in its first 12 games. Under Marc Habscheid, the veteran who is in his first season there as general manager and head coach, the Bruins exercised patience, made some roster moves and now have 16 points in as many games. They are just one point behind the fifth-place Kelowna Rockets and two back of the Blazers in the Western Conference.
“That was awesome,” said McColm, whose squad beat the visiting Americans 5-2 on Wednesday. “We played well . . . we played really well. And it was nice to score early and get the ball rolling.”
McColm was quick to credit Habscheid.
“Marc has done a great job of giving us structure and we just have to play within that and work and compete,” McColm said. “We’re not the most skilled team, we’re not the most gifted, so it’s about working and competing.”
Roman Horak, David Robinson, Kevin Sundher, Ryan Howse, Tim Traber and Dylen McKinlay also scored for the Bruins. For Traber, a Quesnel kid, it was his first WHL goal.
Kamloops got its goal from Slovakian freshman Matej Bene. That, too, was his first WHL score. But not even that could give the Blazers much of a lift.
While it’s true that the Blazers were without two of their top forwards in C.J. Stretch, who is serving a WHL suspension, and Shayne Wiebe (collarbone) that alone shouldn’t account for a six-goal deficit.
“They were hanging their heads every time something didn’t go right,” Ferguson said. “We have to get away from that. Obviously, we have a lot more work to do.
“We were hoping it would get turned around right away, but realistically we know there’s still a ways to go yet.”
JUST NOTES: Chilliwack G Lucas Gore, who is from Kamloops, left at 9:53 of the second period with an apparent injury to his left arm. Habscheid didn’t seem to think it was serious. . . . Mark Friesen replaced Gore and stopped all 17 shots he faced. . . . Kamloops RW Tyler Shattock had an 11-game point streak end. He had 13 points over that span. . . . D Max Mowat, a 16-year-old from Coldstream, made his WHL debut with the Blazers. Mowat, a list player, had nine points in eight games with the Okanagan Rockets.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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