By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
As the Tri-City Americans celebrated their final goal Tuesday night, The McCoys’ 1965 hit Hang On Sloopy blared over the Interior Savings Centre sound system.
But it was too late for the Kamloops Blazers to do any hangin’ on.
That goal put the exclamation mark on the Americans’ 8-3 WHL victory in front of 3,897 sometimes disgruntled fans.
The Blazers, who are in need of something positive the way a thirsty man needs water, have lost seven straight games. They are 0-3 and have been outscored 27-9 in their last three appearances here.
A team that opened 7-1-2-0 now is 8-9-2-0 and wondering what hit it. The Blazers are 1-8-0-0 since falling 12-5 to the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers on Oct. 12.
The Edmonton Oil Kings (7-9-0-3) are here Friday night.
“Obviously there aren’t any easy answers,” offered Blazers interim head coach Scott Ferguson. “We came out hard at the start of the game. . . . We just seemed to implode for five to seven minutes in each period. We have to play a full 60-minute game.”
Indeed, the home boys played fairly well in the first period. They got in on the forecheck, forced some turnovers, generated a few chances and outshot the Americans, 17-15. (By game’s end, however, the Americans owned a 49-28 advantage.)
The Blazers came out of that first period trailing 2-1, thanks to a last-minute goal by right-winger Tyler Shattock.
Tri-City got its goals from freshman defenceman Drydn Dow, his first WHL score, and veteran forward Kruise Reddick. The latter goal summed up the Blazers’ night, with Reddick getting a breakaway off a Giffen Nyren turnover at the Tri-City line. Nyren chased Reddick into the Kamloops zone and ended up kicking the puck past goaltender Justin Leclerc.
But it all came undone in the opening minutes of the second period as the Americans got three quick goals from Neal Prokop, Dow and Brendan Shinnimin to take a 5-1 lead. This one was over, except for the 50-50 draw.
“We played a great second period,” said Dow, a freshman from Calgary, “and that’s when we took over the game.”
Dow, 17, went into the game with one assist in nine games, then scored twice and set up another.
“It was great,” Dow said. “I’m not getting many this season so it’s nice to get the first couple.”
And what of his first name — Drydn?
“My parents decided to name me without the ‘e’ because they wanted to be original,” explained Dow, adding that he was named after former Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender Ken Dryden.
Defenceman Tyler Schmidt and forwards Adam Hughesman and Jordan Messier rounded out the scoring for the Americans (14-3-0-0) who lead the Western Conference and have the WHL’s best winning percentage (.824).
Winger Brett Lyon, with his first WHL goal in 52 games, 17 of them this season, and centre Jake Trask also scored for the Blazers.
“If you look at the scoreboard,” Ferguson said, “I want to hang myself with my tie. The guys have to stick with it. It’s not 15 minutes a period, it’s 20 minutes . . . for 60 minutes.
“These guys have to look inside themselves now and try to get through this.”
JUST NOTES: Referee Steve Papp, who gave out more warnings than a traffic cop, flew solo in this one. He gave the Blazers 11 of 18 minors, two of four majors and the lone misconduct. . . . Leclerc stopped 41 shots, while Tri-City’s Drew Owsley turned aside 25. . . . The Daily News’ three stars: 1. Dowd — looked like a veteran on the back end; 2. LW Spencer Asuchak, Tri-City — local boy is a big body who made some things happen and drew two assists for his first career two-point game; 3. RW Brooks Macek, Tri-City — perhaps the most creative player out there. . . . Kamloops G Jon Groenheyde (bruised wrist) didn’t dress. G Will Frolek of the junior B Kamloops Storm backed up Leclerc. . . . Kamloops LW Ryan Hanes, who has missed seven games with a concussion, was a healthy scratch after being cleared to play. C Dalibor Bortnak (spleen) is to have a CAT scan on Nov. 23. If all goes well, he could play Nov. 27 against the visiting Kootenay Ice. . . . C Colin Smith (broken arm) is scheduled to play for the first time this season on Friday.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan@blogspot.com
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9 comments:
Greg,
F.Y.I. it's Drydn DOW, not DOWD.
If someone can provide and explanation for me.....on one hand you release a head coach for not taking the team in the right direction, specifically... Bonner - "I particularly disliked our structure and the direction our team was headed, along with the lack of emotion we have shown of late. Since I saw little to suggest that the team was trying to make the adjustments necessary to turn our play around, we had little option but to make a change."
Where do the Blazers go next?
The highlight real is quite telling - players not taking a man when a shot goes on net, players not regrouping and readjusting on the fly.
Penalties - I do not think that the number of penalties reflects the intention of Bonners comment below from same article.
Supplement -
Bonner added, “We want an aggressive type of play. We want an emotional and hard-working team. We want a team that is not standing on their heels.”
My view -
Lack of chemistry on the shuffling lines; coaches need to get a handle on this and build the right structure on Lines 1- 4!
Defence - step up, play harder - get the puck up and out.
Signed -
concerned fan 2009
Bonner wouldn't tolerate the performance on the road, so he fires Smith. So they come home and lose two games by aggregate of 16-4. Looks like Bonner has misjudged his talent, perhaps Smith's overall record of one game over .500, was better than the team he was given. Of course that reflects on Bonner and I am sure he isn't drawing that conclusion.
What do you mean? We aren't losing cause of a lack of talent. Man I hate people who know nothing about the game of hockey try to have an opinion and say silly things like "it's a lack of talent". You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't have any hockey sense it won't matter. And that's the problem we have here. A bunch of really talented kids with no hockey brains to comprehend the game.
Exactly - the talent is here. There is a whole lot of season left to play. The points I raise are not whether Bonner's decision was good or bad. Or if Smith's delivery was good or bad.
I am looking at the lack of translation of the desired style of play into a well executed and disciplined team system approach.
meh.... see what happens Friday
concerned fan 2009
And what's Bonner's part in all this? Hires a bum for a coach, makes ZERO changes as there are some real obvious people that should not even be with the team anymore that are still here.
Nyren is a complete and total disaster, the kid wanted so bad to be a d-man in Moose Jaw yet he shows absolutley zero vision, compete or common sense to be one.
You can say it's early in the season all you want, but we've all seen this movie played time and time again. So far our knights in shining armour have ran this organization even further into the ground than the previous morons. Where's Gaglardi? Haven't heard a peep or a smell from him since last year. When's Bonner going to make some deals to get rid of the dead weight?
Bonner specifically stated a key reason for dumping Smith was that the team was lifeless. How have things changed with a new coach? He lets them skate down the bench and tap gloves after a goal, is that proof of a new philosphy? Perhaps Barry tried to disprove the old adage "you can't beat a dead horse"
Anonymous wrote:
Greg,
F.Y.I. it's Drydn DOW, not DOWD.
November 4, 2009 7:26 AM
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Dear Anonymous,
Please know that Taking Note's author is G R E G G for Mr. Gregg Drinnan. He's too nice to point out the obvious so I will.
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