Blazers captain in a real Funk

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Ryan Funk sat high in the back row of the lower bowl at Interior Savings Centre and watched his Kamloops Blazers teammates practice Tuesday afternoon.
It was hard to tell what was more painful — the watching or his injured right ankle which was encased in a removable boot.
“Come on, guys,” Funk, the Blazers’ captain, muttered as Guy Charron’s whistle blew sharply and the head coach exploded with: “You’re awful today. . . . Wake up, boys.”
Funk, one of the team’s veteran leaders, would much rather have been on the ice sharing in the head coach’s wrath than sitting in the stands as an interested observer.
Funk, a 20-year-old defenceman, hasn’t played since Friday, when he sprained the ankle during a scrap with winger Mitchell Callahan of the Kelowna Rockets. Funk missed two weekend games and won’t play tonight against the visiting Spokane Chiefs.
General manager Craig Bonner said he hopes to have Funk back on March 5 when the Vancouver Giants are here. The WHL playoffs begin on March 19.
“I’m confident in Toledo,” Funk said, referring to Colin Robinson, the team’s veteran athletic therapist. “It feels better every day so that’s good.
“It could have been a lot worse. I felt it when I went down. When I felt my leg go behind me . . . I was a little worried. But it’s something you can treat; it’s not like a broken leg.”
After missing the last 48 games of the 2006-07 season with an ugly pelvis/abdominal/groin problem while with the Saskatoon Blades, Funk had been remarkably durable. In fact, he went into Friday’s game having missed only four games over the last three seasons.
While the Blazers played weekend games in Kelowna and Kennewick, Wash., Funk watched on the Internet. Tonight, he likely will watch from the catwalk.
On the Internet or in person, watching is watching and it doesn’t sit well with him.
“I watched enough when I was 17,” Funk said, referring to that 2006-07 injury. “It’s no fun watching your team play.”
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Blazers G Kurtis Mucha, who is expected to start tonight, recently established the CHL record for career minutes played (13,301) and the WHL record for career games played by a goaltender (237). That leaves him two games shy of the CHL record held by Ryan Mior of the QMJHL’s P.E.I. Rocket and Gatineau Olympiques (2003-08).
Mucha also is within reach of the WHL record for most career saves. Mucha passed Steve Passmore (Tri-City, Victoria, Kamloops, 1988-94) last weekend and now has made 6,712 saves, leaving him 246 stops short of the record (6,958) held by Danny Lorenz (Seattle, 1986-90).
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Blazers RW Jordan DePape won’t play tonight, either. He is believed to have some sort of rib/nerve injury that sometimes causes numbness in one arm, and won’t play until he gets medical clearance.
DePape, who last played Friday, will speak at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation corporate breakfast at the Kamloops Curling on March 4. DePape lives with type 1 diabetes.
The breakfast runs from 7-9:30 a.m. For more info, send an email to Shianne at kamloops@jdrf.ca.
JUST NOTES: Game time tonight is 7 o’clock. . . . Kamloops F Rhyse Dieno, 16, has been credited with an assist on a goal by Funk in Friday’s 5-3 loss to the Rockets. That goes into the books as Dieno’s first WHL point. It came in his 10th game. . . . The Blazers are four points shy of clinching a playoff spot. . . . If the Blazers were to finish in seventh place, they almost certainly would play the Vancouver Giants in the first round of the playoffs. As B.C. Division leaders by 13 points over the Kelowna Rockets, the Giants are slotted second in the Western Conference. . . . D Darryl Sydor of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, who is one of the Blazers’ five owners, was to have skated with the team yesterday. But he ran into travel problems and didn’t get to Kamloops in time. . . . The Giants have lost F Lance Bouma, their captain, for up to six weeks with a knee injury. He isn’t expected to accompany stayed home when the team left for its East Division swing that opens in Saskatoon on Friday.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com

SCOUTINGREPORT
SPOKANE CHIEFS at KAMLOOPS BLAZERS
Today, 7 p.m., Interior Savings Centre (Radio NL 610)

SPOKANE (35-20-3-1) — The Chiefs have won their last two games in OT, with F Kyle Beach scoring the winner in both games. . . . He had three goals in a 4-3 victory over the visiting Tri-City Americans on Saturday and two more Monday as the host Chiefs beat the Everett Silvertips, 3-2. . . . Beach has a career-high 42 goals. He has 13 goals over his last 10 games. . . . Spokane has won four in a row — and seven of nine — and is sixth in the Western Conference, one point behind the Portland Winterhawks and two behind Everett. . . . F Mitch Wahl had three assists Monday, after setting up two others Saturday. He has 15 points, 14 of them assists, over his last six games. . . . Wahl’s 53 assists are one off the WHL lead. . . . F Tyler Johnson has goals in four straight games and six of seven. . . . The Chiefs are fifth in the Western Conference, two points behind the Everett Silvertips and three behind the Portland Winterhawks. . . . Injuries: F Matt Marantz (leg, out).
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KAMLOOPS (27-28-2-4): The Blazers last played Sunday when they lost 3-1 to the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash. . . . That was their third game in as many nights — they went 1-2-0-0. . . . Tonight is the first of three home games in four nights. The Seattle Thunderbirds are here Friday, followed by the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday. . . . The Blazers have only four road games remaining in the regular season, three of them on a road swing into Alberta next week. . . . Kamloops closes out the regular season in Vancouver against the Giants on March 13. . . . D Linden Saip, who scored his ninth goal on Sunday, had gone 17 games without a goal. . . . C Colin Smith has three assists in his last 15 games. . . . C C.J. Stretch had a nine-game point streak snapped Sunday. He had 15 points, including six goals, over those nine games. . . . The Blazers are 1-2-0-0 against Spokane. The losing team hasn’t scored more than once in any of the three games. . . . The Blazers whipped the Chiefs 8-1 here on Jan. 26. . . . Injuries: D Ryan Funk (ankle, out); F Jordan DePape (ribs, doubtful).
— GREGG DRINNAN