Playoff preview in Kamloops on Friday?

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
If you follow hockey, you might be excused for thinking that the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks are on the longest road trip in history, or at least since Marco Polo left Venice for China.
But while the Canucks will play 14 straight road games by the time their trek is done, they did have a two-week timeout in the middle of it for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The Vancouver Giants, meanwhile, haven’t played in their home rink, the Pacific Coliseum, since Jan. 3 when they beat the Kelowna Rockets, 6-3.
The Giants have been away for so long that goaltender Derek Tendler, who joined them early in January from the SJHL’s Estevan Bruins, has yet to see their home rink.
“I couldn’t tell you how to get to the Coliseum,” Tendler told Steve Ewen of The Province earlier this week.
Tonight, Tendler and his mates will get a look at the Interior Savings Centre as they meet the Kamloops Blazers. Game time is 7 o’clock.
Since Jan. 3, the Giants have played 24 games — they are 14-8-1-1 — and will play three more on the road before finally returning home. They did play six ‘home’ games at the Langley Events Centre, going 4-1-0-1 there.
During all of this, the Giants clinched their fifth straight B.C. Division pennant, while the Blazers, Rockets and Chilliwack Bruins battle beneath them. Division placings don’t matter a whole lot come playoff time, although the pennant winner is assured one of the Western Conference’s top two seeds.
Were the playoffs to begin tonight, the Giants, as the No. 2 seed, would meet the No. 7 Blazers, who are two points behind the Rockets and two ahead of the Prince George Cougars.
The Rockets, who were 3-2 shootout winners over the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday, have five games remaining, including one each against the abysmal Seattle Thunderbirds and Prince George Cougars.
After tonight, the Blazers will have only three games left in their regular season and two of them will be against the visiting Cougars.
The Bruins, meanwhile, have six games remaining — two in Prince George and four against four of the conference’s top five teams.
The best matchup for the Blazers might very well be the Giants, who appear headed for the second seed because they are 10 points behind the U.S. Division-leading Tri-City Americans. In fact, the Everett Silvertips (89) and Spokane Chiefs (85) both have more points than the Giants (83), while the Portland Winterhawks are even with Vancouver.
As well, the Blazers are 1-2-1-2 against the Giants this season; although, in these seasons of loser points, the Giants hold a 5-0-0-1 edge in the series that concludes March 13 in Vancouver.
At the same time, the Blazers are 0-4 against Tri-City, 0-4 against Everett and 1-3 against Spokane. The Blazers are 2-1-1-0 against Portland but the chances of that matchup are remote.
JUST NOTES: After tonight, the Blazers will have two regular-season home games remaining, both against Prince George. The Cougars are here Sunday, 6 p.m., and March 12, 7 p.m. . . . Kamloops will wrap up the regular season in Vancouver on March 13. . . . The Blazers have signed F Lyndon Martell, 16, a list player who started the season with the major midget Cariboo Cougars and then moved up to the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Martell had 23 points in 10 games with the Cougars and 31 points in 44 BCHL games. The Spruce Kings named him their rookie of the year. Martell practised with the Blazers yesterday and will stay with them through the end of the regular season. . . . Blazers D Josh Caron and F Randy McNaught of the Saskatoon Blades remain tied for the WHL lead in fighting majors (20). McNaught picked up a double minor for roughing, but no fighting major, in a 5-3 loss to the Wheat Kings in Brandon Wednesday. Hot on their heels are F Dylan McIlrath of the Moose Jaw Warriors, with 19, and F Cody Beach of the Calgary Hitmen and F Mitchell Callahan of the Kelowna Rockets, each with 18.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com