Mucha robs Sundher, Bruins

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
First, the Kamloops Blazers’ fans saluted goaltender Kurtis Mucha on Friday night.
Then he paid them back by making like a bandit and stealing a game from the Chilliwack Bruins.
Mucha, who set the WHL’s career record for most minutes played by a goaltender on Wednesday during a 4-2 loss to the Winterhawks in Portland, stopped 29 shots as the Blazers dropped the Bruins 4-3 before 4,431 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
The victory lifted the Blazers (23-22-2-3) into sixth place in the Western Conference, a point ahead of the Bruins (22-23-1-5).
Mucha, a 20-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., was appearing in his 229th regular-season game, tying him for second with Jeff Calvert (Moose Jaw, Tacoma, 1989-94) on the career list. Mucha, who will start again in tonight’s rematch in Chilliwack, needs four more appearances to equal the career record held by Kyle Moir (Swift Current, 2002-07), whose minutes played record he broke Wednesday.
Last night, Mucha was downright larcenous in the second period, when he stopped 13 shots and allowed his teammates to take a 3-2 lead into the third. He made at least five dynamite saves and also got help as Bruins wingers Ryan Howse, who has 35 goals, and Jamie Crooks each hit iron.
However, Mucha saved his best for the very last.
The Bruins had already scored once with goaltender Lucas Gore on the bench for the extra attacker and they were pressing again. Chilliwack centre Kevin Sundher, who always is a force in this building, found himself alone on top of the crease to Mucha’s left. And, yes, the puck was on Sundher’s stick.
“If he had just whacked it, would it have gone in?” asked Marc Habscheid, Chilliwack’s general manager and head coach.
We’ll never know but . . .
“You don’t have time to think in those situations,” Mucha said as he savoured his 17th victory of the season. He is 8-4-0-2 since the Blazers acquired him from Portland on Nov. 22. “I had to get over there in desperation. I think it hit me in the shoulder and popped down and I was able to cover it.”
The clock showed 7.9 seconds remaining.
“He came across and made a really nice play,” said Sundher, whose 21st goal gave his mates a 2-1 lead late in the first period. “I tried to wait him out but he made a really nice play and stayed with it. Unfortunately for us, I couldn’t get it over him.
“I was going to wait for him. I usually make patient plays like that but he made a really nice play.”
The Blazers, now 5-2-0-0 against the Bruins, seemed to have this game under control until early in the third period. At one point in the first period, the Blazers had a 7-1 edge in shots on goal. By game’s end, Chilliwack led, 32-31.
“I saw it in Portland when we had a really young team,” Mucha said. “This is just a young team. It’s mental. It’s (a lack of) experience.”
Centre C.J. Stretch had two of the Blazers’ goals, with winger Brendan Ranford, the home team’s best skater in this one, drawing assists on both of them. Centre Dalibor Bortnak and left-winger Ryan Hanes, with his second of the season, also scored for the Blazers.
Centre Roman Horak, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Howse, and Crooks, at 17:22 of the third, had the Bruins other goals.
JUST NOTES: Referees Jeff Ingram and Brett Montsion gave the Blazers eight of 15 minors, three of six majors and a misconduct. . . . That included a triple minor to Chilliwack D Zach Habscheid after a particularly nasty whack job on Kamloops RW Dylan Willick midway through the third. . . . The Bruins were 0-for-7 on the PP; the Blazers were 0-for-6. . . . The Daily News’ Three Stars: 1. Mucha — credit him with this victory; 2. Ranford — he led the way up front; 3. Willick — set the tone for the penalty-killers. . . . The Blazers are back home Tuesday, 7 p.m., against the Spokane Chiefs. . . . Kamloops native Casey Pierro-Zabotel is on the move from the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers to the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, who selected him in the third round of the 2007 draft, made the move Friday. Pierro-Zabotel, 21, had 33 points in 38 games with the Nailers. He won the WHL scoring title last season when he put up 115 points with the Vancouver Giants.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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