Funk blooper wins one for Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Lethbridge Hurricanes arrived in Kamloops on Saturday, about 1 a.m.,
albeit only from Kelowna. However, they had been on the road since Monday,
had lost three games since then and had been outscored 23-5 in the process.
The Kamloops Blazers, on the road since Tuesday, got home Saturday at 6 a.m., having lost 5-1 to the Chiefs -- and, some would have you believe, referee Steve Papp -- in Spokane on Friday.
So when the Hurricanes and Blazers met Saturday night at Interior Savings Centre, well, if you wanted to watch chip-and-chase hockey, you got it.
And, in the end, the Blazers chipped and chased and got it deep just a little bit better as they beat the Hurricanes 2-1 in a ragged WHL game played in
front of 4,386 fans.
It seemed only fitting that the winning goal should come on a knuckleball from 75 feet, Kamloops defenceman Ryan Funk having his shot glance off Lethbridge defenceman Mike Reddington and past the catching mitt of a startled Brandon
Anderson, the Lethbridge goaltender.
“Blooper . . . it was a blooper,” said Lethbridge general manager/head coach
Rich Preston, whose charges limped home on an eight-game losing skid. “(Anderson) thought it was coming a lot harder than it was.”
“I’m not sure what it went off,” said a smiling Funk of his sixth goal this season and the 14th of his career, and his first game-winner in 272 regular-season games. “When it was coming to me, it was kind of behind me so I was off-balance. I was just focused on getting it to the net. I saw it go up and it looked like it changed direction. It definitely wasn’t a bullet, I’ll tell you that much.”
The victory improved the Blazers’ record to 26-25-2-4 and kept them in seventh place in the Western Conference. They are two points behind Kelowna (28-25-2-2), the Rockets having won their eighth straight game Saturday, 1-0 over the Bruins in Chilliwack.
Kelowna will meet the Silvertips in Everett on Wednesday and then will go home-and-home with the Blazers, starting here Friday and finishing Saturday in the Little Apple.
Before then, the Blazers will play the Cougars in Prince George on Wednesday and head coach Guy Charron let goaltender Jon Groenheyde know late Saturday that he will start.
“He has earned that right,” Charron said after Groenheyde stopped 22 Lethbridge shots in only his fifth start of 2010.
“Our goaltender was good,” Funk, the team captain, said. “He’s a big part of our team. He’s not getting as many starts . . . but when we need him he’s solid. It was good that we got a win for him because he deserved it.”
The Hurricanes opened the scoring at 1:48 of the second period when forward Carter Bancks beat Groenheyde off a 2-on-1 break after a neutral zone turnover that came as the Blazers tried to make a line change.
Lethbridge was able to nurse that lead for almost 20 minutes, before defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer pulled the home boys even on a power play just 45 seconds into the third period.
By that time the Hurricanes, who had dressed only 15 skaters for what was a 3-2 loss in Kelowna on Friday, were running on fumes. Even the return of defenceman Daniel Johnston, who suffered a skate cut to one leg during an 11-1 loss to the Vancouver Giants in Langley on Wednesday, and forward Graham Hood (shoulder) weren’t enough. Hood took a bump in the first period and didn’t play a lot after that.
Lethbridge held a 13-10 edge in shots on goal in the first period and, at one point in the second, each team had 18 shots. By game’s end, the Blazers held a 34-23 advantage.
“We can’t score. We must be leading the league in one-goal games and a lot of them are 2-1 and 3-2 games,” said Preston, whose club is 8-10-3-2 in one-goal games. “We’ve only got one 20-goal scorer. But some of these guys have another year under their belts and they’ll score next season.”
Of course, the Blazers weren’t any fresher, but they did have 18 skaters and home-ice advantage.
“We were on the road for a couple of games and that took a lot out of us,” said Funk, whose squad had beaten the Winterhawks 4-3 in Portland on Wednesday. “Our start wasn’t what we wanted it to be. But it showed a lot of character in our group that we came back in the third.”
Charron agreed.
“It was a nerve-wracking one for sure,” he said. “We didn’t seem to be able to do anything good. But it was a good indication that we were able to regroup . . . to stay with the program. We had to keep plugging away. This team is starting to believe in itself.”
JUST NOTES: Kamloops was 1-for-1 on the power play; the Hurricanes were 0-for-5. . . . The Blazers are 12-2-2-4 in one-goal decisions. . . . Kamloops C Chase Schaber likely has a sore left hand after blocking a shot in the second period, while F Jordan DePape took a couple of stitches in the mouth after being cut as he decked Lethbridge D Reid Jackson with a hard check four minutes into the second period. . . . Blazers D Brandon Underwood was left stumbling around 11 minutes into the third period when one of his skates had its blade fall out. . . . Kamloops D Josh Caron sat out with a one-game WHL suspension. Caron was hit with an instigating penalty Friday for a first-period scrap with Spokane Chiefs D Corbin Baldwin. That was Caron’s third instigating penalty this season and that carries with it a one-game sentence. . . . The Blazers are down to one account executive (Ashley Neuls) following the resignation of Nathan Froese.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com