Did Charron's message get through?

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
Guy Charron, head coach of the Kamloops Blazers, will know soon enough whether the message he sent Tuesday got through to his players.
The Blazers are to take on the Kelowna Rockets in a WHL game tonight, 7 o’clock, at Interior Savings Centre. The teams will meet again in Kelowna on Saturday.
Charron sent a major message to his top two forward lines in a 5-3 home loss to the Everett Silvertips on Tuesday. In the third period of that game, after Kamloops fell behind 5-0, Charron cut back to two lines — Dylan Willick centring Jack Trask and Matej Bene, and Colin Smith between Ryan Hanes and Zak Stebner.
That left C.J. Stretch and his wingers, Brendan Ranford and Jimmy Bubnick, planted on the bench for all but one shift, while the line of centre Dalibor Bortnak, Tyler Shattock and Jordan DePape played sparingly.
Charron is hoping the guys got the message.
“It’s a matter of rewarding the guys who worked hard,” he said, “and giving the other guys the message that it wasn’t good enough and that if an opportunity was given to them again, to make sure to take advantage of it.”
The two lines that did play in the third period Tuesday played well, scoring the game’s final three goals.
That might be the silver lining — Kamloops gained some momentum in the third, and is hoping to carry it into tonight.
“I’m a big believer in taking it a period at a time,” Charron said. “Basically, we lost two periods . . . but we found a way to battle back and win the third period, and that’s what you hope to build on.”
The Blazers have been remarkably inconsistent since Charron took over from interim coach Scott Ferguson in late November — they have not suffered consecutive regulation losses in that time, but also haven’t won consecutive games either.
Kamloops is 6-7-0-2 since Charron was hired, and is 17-20-2-3 on the season. Charron says the record is pretty indicative of how hard the team has been working.
“These guys need to be rewarded with some wins, but the only way they can do that is with consistent effort,” he said. “If we can build some consistency in our effort, then we will be rewarded for our effort.”
JUST NOTES: Smith wasn’t at practice Thursday. Charron said Smith is tired and fighting a cold after returning from the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge in Timmins, Ont., but should be available tonight. . . . F JC Lipon, who also played in Timmins, missed Tuesday’s game because Air Canada lost his gear. He now has the gear, and practised Thursday. . . . F Mark Hall, who has missed the last three games with a concussion, won’t be available for either of this weekend’s games. . . . D Linden Saip has seven points, three of them goals, on a five-game point streak. . . . Bortnak has a goal and six assists on a four-gamer. . . . Stebner, normally a defenceman, has three goals in two games since being moved up front.