Mucha gets victory over former team

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Only time will tell, of course, but this may have been the start of a beautiful relationship.
The Kamloops Blazers, in their first game of the post-Shattock/Bubnick era, did a lot of things right Wednesday night as they dropped the Portland Winterhawks 5-4 in a WHL game played before 4,729 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
The victory was the third in a row for the Blazers (20-20-2-3), who have won three straight games for the first time since the opening three games of this season.
The game was the first for the Blazers since they traded veteran forwards Tyler Shattock, their captain, and Jimmy Bubnick and defenceman Zac Stebner to the Calgary Hitmen.
“We thought they'd come out hard and play hard,” said Travis Green, Portland's assistant general manager/assistant coach. “With new faces, you know they want to put in a good first game, especially at home.
“They played with a lot of energy, and you have to give them credit. They played well. They put pressure on our defence and I didn't think our defence handled that pressure.”
Time after time, especially in the first 45 minutes, the Blazers used their speed to catch the much-larger Winterhawks flat-footed and win loose pucks.
Time after time, the crowd showed its appreciation with applause.
In the end, only three Portland goals in the game's last five minutes made the score close.
“It's a win,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said. “The team played very well. Penalty killing . . . we did a lot of good things. It was a big challenge for us. This is a good hockey team. They got size. They got speed. But we prevailed.
“Hopefully, we did turn the corner tonight.”
It is far too soon to tell if the Blazers are all the way around the corner, but the Western Conference's seventh-place team now is a point out of sixth.
And there were positive signs last night . . . lots of them.
Defenceman Austin Madaisky, who came over from Calgary along with forward Chase Schaber in Sunday's deal, had a goal and an assist. Madaisky almost had a Gordie Howe hat trick, but the linesmen prevented him from jousting with Portland's Spencer Bennett.
The Blazers got solid mileage out of Schaber, and Rhys Dieno, the forward who joined the club from the midget AAA Saskatoon Blazers, showed some terrific speed.
If the night belonged to anyone, however, it was goaltender Kurtis Mucha.
Cast aside by the Winterhawks on Nov. 22, after spending more than four seasons stopping rubber for mostly abysmal Portland teams, Mucha got at least a bit of payback last night. He stopped 30 shots and was the game's first star.
“Unreal,” he said, between bites of two of the biggest slices of pizza you have ever seen and his grin as large as all outdoors. “They got a couple of lucky ones at the end but the team played great.”
Mucha was in a zone for most of this one, as evidenced by a brilliant left pad save on right-winger Ty Rattie, his best buddy on his former team, at 14:30 of the first period. The save, which defused a 2-on-1 break, preserved a 2-0 lead.
If that wasn't proof enough, how about the glove Mucha got on left-winger Brad Ross's wrister on a penalty shot at 11:15 of the second period?
“He goes top glove every time,” Mucha said, adding that he almost out-thought himself. “I figured he'd switch it up because I know that but he didn't.”
The Blazers led 3-1 at the time and the Winterhawks (26-17-1-1) were starting to press, having outshot the Blazers 10-1 to that point in the period. But the Blazers gained some energy from that stop and pushed back.
And then, at 19:02, Kamloops centre Dalibor Bortnak, his side with a 4-on-3 advantage, dipsy-doodled through two Portland defenders and tucked a backhand in behind goaltender Ian Curtis.
Just like that it was 4-1 and the Portland driver left to start the bus.
“Yeah, there were a few key saves,” Mucha said, “and after making some of them the team used it to get going. In other games, I haven't seen that.”
Green felt Mucha's night was far too calm.
“We wanted to create more shots and get pucks and bodies to the net,” he said. “We didn't do enough of either.”
Centre Colin Smith, right-winger Jake Trask and defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer also scored for Kamloops, which led 2-0 and 4-1 at the breaks.
Portland got its goals from Luke Walker, Oliver Gabriel, Rattie and Nino Neiderreiter, the latter three scoring in the game's last five minutes.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers were 2-for-5 on the power play; the Winterhawks were 0-for-5, including a 32-second 5-on-3 advantage with Kamloops leading 3-1 in the second period. . . . Kamloops LW Dylan Willick left five minutes into the second period after taking a puck in the face when Ross flipped it into the air a split second after an offside whistle. Willick, who took a few stitches in what was a deep gash, returned for the start of the third. . . . The Daily News three stars: 1. Mucha, was in control; 2. Bortnak, three points as he learns to use his size; 3. Trask, great energy and good decisions. . . . The Blazers celebrated First Nations Night by having Fred Sasakamoose, the first Canadian aboriginal to play in the NHL, on hand for a ceremonial faceoff. Former NHLer Gino Odjick was to have been on hand to sign autographs, but a representative called late in the afternoon to say he couldn't make it. . . . The Blazers are at home to the Red Deer Rebels on Friday, 7 p.m. . . . Former Blazers G Justin Leclerc, 20, has been saluted as the MJHL's player of the week. He was 2-0 with a 2.83 GAA and a .923 save percentage last week. Overall, he is 3-0-0-1, with all three victories coming in overtime. And in the shootout loss he gave up one goal in seven rounds.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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