Blazers-Giants notebook: It's a WHL record!

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
VANCOUVER — The Kamloops Blazers may not want to remember Saturday night's loss to the Vancouver Giants at Pacific Coliseum, but the WHL record book will.
The Blazers lost 6-3 to the Giants to fall behind 2-0 in a best-of-seven first-round WHL playoff series. Games 3 and 4 will go Tuesday and Wednesday, both at 7 p.m., at Interior Savings Centre.
According to the WHL guide, the Blazers and Giants set a WHL record for fastest three goals by two teams in league playoff history.
Vancouver's Craig Cunningham scored 3:58 into the third period to make it 5-2 for the Giants, and his teammate, James Henry, made it 6-2, 16 seconds later. Seven seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Blazers forward Dalibor Bortnak found the twine at 4:21, giving the teams three goals in 23 seconds.
The old record, set in the Brandon Wheat Kings' 10-3 victory over the visiting Calgary Wranglers on April 3, 1980, was 25 seconds. Two of those three goals — scored five seconds apart by Brandon's Dave Chartier and Calgary's Glen Merkosky — also are a WHL record.
———
Cunningham, who led the Giants with 97 points during the regular season, went nine games without a goal before the playoffs started.
Through two playoff games, he leads the WHL in points (7) and goals (4).
Cunningham plays between wingers Brendan Gallagher, who has five points through two games, and Lance Bouma, who returned to the Giants lineup on Friday after missing the last 14 games of the regular season with a knee injury.
Cunningham credits the return of Bouma, who has two assists in the series, for the turnaround.
“I honestly think the biggest difference is having Bouma back on my line,” said Cunningham, a 19-year-old Trail native. “The guy's the unsung hero every night — he creates so much energy for us on the forecheck. Every time I dump the puck into his corner, I know he's going to get it back.”
———
Saturday's game drew 7,082 fans to Pacific Coliseum, despite several competing events in Vancouver, most notably the NHL's Canucks taking on the Detroit Red Wings at GM Place.
Also going on at the same time was the provincial AAA boys basketball final, right next door to the Coliseum at the Agrodome. Only minutes before the Giants-Blazers game started, the Paralympic wheelchair curling final was ending.
The Coliseum had parts of the upper deck curtained off, allowing for seating for about 8,000 people. Everyone who showed up at the game was given a white towel and a pair of thundersticks.
———
Saturday's victory was the 93rd playoff victory in Giants head coach Don Hay's career.
Hay, a former Kamloops junior and a Blazers coach from 1986-95, is second in WHL history in playoff head-coaching victories, nine back of Ken Hodge, who spend time as head coach of the Edmonton Oil Kings (1973-76) and Portland Winter Hawks (1976-1993).
Hay coached the Blazers to 35 victories — and two WHL championships and Memorial Cups — between 1992 and 1995. He also won seven games with the Tri-City Americans during the 1999 playoffs, and picked up his 50th victory with Vancouver on Friday night.
———
Linden Saip wasn't the only member of the Saip family to perform Friday.
Whitney Saip, a cousin to Linden, a second-year Blazers defenceman, performed O Canada prior to the game.
Whitney's father, Dale, is the Giants' vice-president of business operations.
———
If the Giants have been around the block experience-wise in the playoffs, you could say that the Blazers are barely out of the driveway.
Kamloops entered Friday's Game 1 with a combined 99 games of playoff experience, led by forward Chase Schaber, who had taken part in 26 games entering the series.
The Giants, on the other hand, have a ton of postseason experience. Their two biggest playoff participants — Bouma (49 games entering the series) and Cunningham (42) had nearly as much as the entire Blazers roster, more if you factor in that both of them played five games in the 2007 Memorial Cup, which the host Giants won.
mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca