Blazers too Mucha for Oil Kings

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Kurtis Mucha and the Kamloops Blazers gave their fans a rare treat — a shutout — on Wednesday night.
With Mucha stopping 25 shots, the Blazers blanked the Edmonton Oil Kings 5-0 in front of 3,893 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
It was the first time the Blazers had put up a shutout since March 8, 2008, when James Priestner stopped 35 shots in a 1-0 WHL victory over the Cougars in Prince George.
The last time the Blazers pitched a shutout at home? It was Sept. 30, 2007, when Priestner, making his second career start, stopped 13 shots in beating the Portland Winterhawks, 4-0.
The Portland goaltender that night? Yes, it was Mucha.
Last night’s shutout was Mucha’s second this season — he was making his second start since being acquired from Portland for a 2010 fourth-round bantam draft pick — and the ninth of his career.
And it may have been one of the easier ones, because his teammates were solid in front of him.
“It wasn’t that hard,” said a smiling Mucha, a 20-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., who was never forced into making a desperation save. In fact, his toughest time may have been early in the first period when the Blazers gave up two odd-man breaks.
But the Oil Kings, 8-13-4-4 and with just one victory in 13 games, were stymied on both of them. The Blazers made a forechecking adjustment, getting their third forward more involved, and the Edmonton offence was awfully quiet afterwards.
Rather than focus on the job he did, Mucha preferred to talk about what his teammates did — or didn’t do.
“Look what happens when you don’t take penalties,” he said.
The Blazers, the WHL’s most-penalized team and with the second-poorest penalty killing in the league, killed off the five power plays they faced.
Of course, Edmonton has the WHL’s worst PP and two of the kills were only 16 seconds in duration.
Still . . . the discipline, this time, was a positive.
“We gave ourselves a goal of less than six (penalties) and they bought in,” said Kamloops head coach Guy Charron, after earning his first WHL coaching victory.
Considering that the Blazers had laid an egg in their previous game, a 3-0 loss to the Bruins in Chilliwack on Saturday, Charron admitted to feeling “encouraged” with what he saw.
“We had some good practices (this week) and, as coaches, you have to hope it leads to good things,” he said. “They bought in. I thought the second period was probably our weakest period . . . we gave up too many chances.
“But we came back with a very strong third period.”
All in all, it was a good night for the home boys. They limited Edmonton’s chances, helped in part by staying out of the penalty box. That also allowed them to roll four lines and they got some solid shifts from the fourth line of Mark Hall between Ryan Hanes and JC Lipon.
They also got three goals out of their power play, with C.J. Stretch scoring two of them and Brendan Ranford the other. Defencemen Ryan Funk and Zak Stebner had the even-strength goals.
Stebner’s goal at 2:11 of the third period gave the Blazers a 4-0 lead and drove Edmonton goaltender Torrie Jung, who was making his eighth straight start, to the bench in favor of Cam Lanigan. The two combined for 22 stops.
This was the start of a crucial stretch of games for the Blazers, who are at home to the Tri-City Americans on Friday and the Cougars on Saturday.
The Blazers (12-14-2-2) have won only five times in their last 20 games and are eighth in the Western Conference, one point behind the Bruins and Kelowna Rockets and four points ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Kamloops will play Prince George, which has four victories in 26 games, six times in its next 11 games.
“We’ve got seven games left before Christmas and we need to get the points,” Mucha said.
Charron added: “It’s a step in the right direction. We’re not taking out the champagne yet . . . hopefully, we can continue to climb the ladder.”
JUST NOTES: Referee Trevor Hanson gave the Oil Kings eight of 13 minors. . . . Charron wouldn’t commit to starting Mucha on Friday, saying only that the goaltender would play one of the two weekend games. Jon Groenheyde may get the start against Tri-City on Friday. . . . The attendance was the 16th-smallest regular-season crowd to watch the Blazers at Interior Savings Centre. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Mucha — gives his mates confidence; 2. C Dalibor Bortnak, Kamloops — big body in the middle is always nice; 3. LW Shayne Wiebe, Kamloops — effective on special teams. . . . RW Tyler Shattock was saluted as the Blazers’ player of the month for November. He had 14 points in 11 games and played in Subway Super Series game in Kelowna. . . . As expected, however, Shattock wasn’t one of the 10 WHLers to receive an invitation to the Canadian national junior team’s selection camp. . . . C Mark Hall was named the Blazers’ unsung hero for November. He had three points in 11 games. . . . Blazers general manager Craig Bonner is scouting a showcase tournament in Denver. . . . Edmonton has been shut out three times this season.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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