Blazers trying to find consistency

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Reporter
Like Indiana Jones hunting for the Ark of the Covenant, the Kamloops Blazers’ search for consistency continues.
Head coach Guy Charron is hoping that his team found its trail in Alberta on the weekend where it posted two straight victories, including a 6-3 triumph over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday.
The Blazers hadn’t won in Medicine Hat since Dec. 12, 2003, a stretch of five games during which time they were beaten 5-3, 7-3, 7-0, 6-1 and 4-0 in the Gas City.
“With the last games you have (before playoffs),” Charron said Sunday, “you are hopeful that you get some consistency in your play because that will lead to the playoffs. We were inconsistent; now we played a real strong game.”
The Blazers took a 3-2 lead into the third period, only to have freshman forward Emerson Etem tie it with his 34th goal of the season at 5:04.
The score stayed that way until late, when the Tigers had two players — forwards Linden Vey and Taylor Gal — penalized for checking from behind less than a minute apart.
Kamloops centre C.J. Stretch scored on the 5-on-3 at 18:08 — it held up as his ninth game-winner of the season — and forwards Chase Schaber and Jordan DePape added empty-netters.
The goal was Schaber’s third of the game, as he enjoyed his first WHL hat trick in his 165th game. It was his 23rd game with the Blazers, who acquired him from the Calgary Hitmen on Jan. 10.
Schaber has three multi-goal games in his 165-game WHL career, two in his last four games.
“We are very fortunate to pull out a win like this," Schaber told the Medicine Hat News. "The Tigers are just a great hockey team. They are a run-and-gun team. They can score goals. We knew we had to be ready coming into tonight’s game.
"All we did was put pucks on net and good things happened."
DePape, meanwhile, had a goal and two assists, and now has 10 points in five games since he missed three games with a rib injury.
Mark Hall also scored for the Blazers, getting his second goal of the season and ending a 34-game drought in the process.
Zdenek Okal and Gal also scored for the Tigers.
“Our last two games on the road were two wins,” said Charron, whose club had scored a 4-3 overtime victory over the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Friday. “Now we’re at home; if we can establish something good, something positive to lead into the playoffs . . . That’s our goal.”
The Blazers began the Alberta trip by losing 5-1 to the Oil Kings in Edmonton, after which Charron said he was “annoyed” with his players, who paid a price the next day at practice.
“Our thing was,” Charron explained, “if you’re not going to work in the games, you’re going to have harder practices. And they responded. This team . . . has always practised hard. It was a harder practice, more skating than usual, but they responded and they pushed themselves.”
Charron also said the Blazers got a strong effort from goaltender Jon Groenheyde, who stopped 26 shots. Groenheyde, who was outstanding in Friday’s victory in Lethbridge, has won two straight starts for the first time since Sept. 19 and 25.
The Blazers returned home immediately after Saturday’s game and will meet the Everett Silvertips here on Tuesday. Game time is 7 p.m.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers scratched D Ryan Funk (ankle), who missed his eighth straight game, and F Jake Trask. Funk skated by himself late last week but has yet to practice with his teammates. . . . The Blazers are 12-21-1-1 on the road with one game left away from home, that on March 13 in Vancouver. . . . Sometime after Friday’s game in Lethbridge, at least three scoring changes were made to Blazers goals. Schaber was given an assist on his club’s first goal. D Travis Hansen lost his assist on the team’s second goal, as it went to D Austin Madaisky. As well, F Colin Smith was given an assist on DePape’s game-winning goal. . . . Madaisky finished with three assists in what was the second three-point game of his WHL career. . . . For Smith, it was his first two-point game since the first game he played this season on Nov. 6 after returning from a broken arm suffered in training camp.