Bene, Hall spark Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The playoff plot thickens.
The Kamloops Blazers know they’ll be playing when the WHL playoffs begin on March 19. They just don’t know where they’ll be.
In fact, there even is a chance that they could open at home.
The Blazers, who skated to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars on Sunday before an announced crowd of 5,542 at Interior Savings Centre, know that they will finish sixth, seventh or eighth in the 10-team Western Conference.
Should they meet up with the Tri-City Americans, Vancouver Giants or Everett Silvertips in the first round, the Blazers will play Games 1 and 2 on the road on March 19 and 20, returning home for games March 23 and 24.
However, should the Blazers match up with the Spokane Chiefs, the series would open here with games March 19 and 20. That’s because Spokane’s home facility is booked for NCAA basketball action.
Of course, the Chiefs presently are fourth, four points behind Everett and Tri-City, so some things would have to happen in the regular season’s last week for them to climb into the top three.
But, hey, this is the WHL and stranger things have happened.
The Blazers (32-32-2-4) strengthened their hold on seventh place last night.
They trail the Kelowna Rockets (33-30-2-4) by two points and now are four points ahead of the Chilliwack Bruins (30-32-1-5).
The Blazers and Cougars will play here again Friday before Kamloops concludes its regular season in Vancouver on Saturday.
Kamloops forward Chase Schaber, the best skater on the ice Sunday, broke a 2-2 tie with his 18th goal of the season at 8:34 of the third period.
But it was freshman forward Matej Bene and veteran centre Mark Hall who stole the show.
Bene, hardly a regular penalty killer, scored two shorthanded goals and Hall, who not so long ago went 34 games without scoring, ran his goal-scoring streak to four games.
Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said he asked Bene, who is a Slovakian, if he had killed penalties back home. When Bene replied in the positive, Charron said he decided to “experiment.”
Some mad scientist the head coach turned out to be!
“The experiment turned out to be pretty good,” Charron said. “He’s got so much speed.”
The Blazers got a big game from their penalty killers — Bene and fellow Slovak Dalibor Bortnak, in particular.
“We probably killed a lot more than we should have,” Charron said in a thinly veiled shot at referees Ryan Benbow and Graham Skilliter, who were far more involved than they needed to be. “Fortunately for us, they are a team that struggles on the power play.”
As Prince George head coach Dean Clark put it: “Our power play gave them momentum.”
The Cougars now have lost 54 games, including 13 in a row.
“We’ve invented a lot of ways to lose games,” Clark said.
Hall, meanwhile, now has five goals on the season, whereas he had one through Feb. 26.
“A lot of it is confidence,” Charron said. “As I tell the players, ‘Sometimes if you do something to get the coaches’ attention, if we’re smart enough we’re going to use you when you’re playing well.’ I thought he had a great game tonight.”
How hot is Hall? He has seen power-play time in two straight games and his goal last night came on a quick shot while on the PP.
Asked when was the last time he scored a PP goal, Hall, 19, laughed and said: “Me? Oh, geez . . . in bantam!”
Having Bene and Hall come through was especially important, because it became evident early that the club’s leading scorers, C.J. Stretch and Brendan Ranford, were having one of those nights. Stretch especially had a lot of chances, but simply couldn’t finish.
“It’s always good to have guys who can pitch in on the offence when they’re not going,” Hall said.
Hall, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, has been a good foot soldier, doing what has been asked of him with nary a complaint.
“I’ve worked for the opportunity. It didn’t just get handed to me,” he said. “I’ve been shooting the puck and going to those areas where I need to to score goals.”
Former Kamloops forward Alex Rodgers had a goal — his 20th — and an assist for the Cougars, and now has 13 points in nine games against the Blazers.
Forwards Jaroslav Vlach and James Dobrowolski also scored for the Cougars.
As he headed for the exit, equipment bag over his shoulder, a smiling Rodgers looked at Hall and said: “You’re just a scoring machine.”
To which Hall responded: “Things have changed around here.”
Haven’t they!
JUST NOTES: The Blazers are 6-3-0-0 against the Cougars, including 4-0-0-0 here, where they also have a 19-7 edge in goals. . . . The Cougars were 1-for-8 on the PP; the Blazers were 1-for-6. . . . The game was delayed for 16 minutes at 15:24 of the third period when a shot by Prince George D Taylor Orser shattered a pane of glass behind the Kamloops net. . . . Unfortunately for the Cougars, the delay came just 35 seconds after Dobrowolski scored their third goal. . . . Kamloops G Kurtis Mucha made 24 saves, while Prince George’s Kyle Jahraus stopped 30 shots. . . . This was the largest announced crowd of the season, surpassing the 4,977 fans who watched the Blazers beat the Cougars 6-1 on Dec. 27.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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