Shattock has special feeling these days

From Monday's Kamloops Daily News . . .

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
BRANDON — A tingle runs up Tyler Shattock’s spine whenever he turns on a computer and logs on to the WHL website.
Because there at the top of the home page — right at the very top — is an image taken the night of May 7, moments after Shattock and his Calgary Hitmen had won the WHL championship.
That photo shows Shattock, a 19-year-old forward from Salmon Arm, laying on the ice, surrounded by teammates, his right index finger raised in a ‘We’re No. 1’ salute, and the Ed Chynoweth Cup in front of him.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s definitely pretty cool,” Shattock said Saturday afternoon before making his MasterCard Memorial Cup debut by scoring the winning goal at 18:42 of the third period as the Hitmen got past the QMJHL-champion Moncton Wildcats, 5-4. “I never really expected to be there. Every time I look at it I have a special feeling.”
Shattock began his WHL career with the Kamloops Blazers, who selected him with the sixth pick of the 2005 bantam draft. He spent three-plus seasons with the Blazers, before he — along with defenceman Zak Stebner and forward Jimmy Bubnick — was dealt to the Hitmen on Jan. 10, for defenceman Austin Madaisky and forward Chase Schaber.
It was a classic case of one team, the Hitmen, dealing for today, with the other, the Blazers, looking down the road.
Shattock, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound power forward, was the Blazers’ captain at the time off the trade.
His role with the Hitmen, he said, has been “pretty much” the same as it was with the Blazers, although he has seen more time on the penalty-killing unit.
He also feels there is “a lighter load on me for scoring . . . because we have a lot of depth at forward. That has been a good thing for me.”
Shattock finished the season with 78 points in 72 games. With Calgary, he had 28 points, eight of them goals, in 30 games.
After going 0-12 with a grand total of three points in three first-round playoff appearances with Kamloops, he put up 17 points in 21 postseason assignments with Calgary. He sat out two third-round games with a concussion but said he is “good now.”
He proved that with his play Saturday. Like most, if not all, of his teammates, it took half the game to get his feet moving. After that, the Hitmen were the better team, with Shattock drawing an assist on the tying goal, by linemate Kris Foucault, at 16:29.
(Bubnick drew assists on each of the last two goals, Stebner had an assist and Nyren scored his club’s third goal. Combined, the four ex-Blazers had two goals and four assists, and were plus-3.)
The Hitmen had gone into the playoffs with the WHL’s best regular-season record, then survived a first-round scare, needing seven games to get past the Moose Jaw Warriors.
“I have a lot of respect for Moose Jaw,” Shattock said. “They played really well. It wasn’t a case of us playing badly. They took our game and played it exactly the same — they were really physical. They definitely gave us a run for our money.
“But once we got to (goaltender Jeff) Bosch, the series turned in our favour. Still, it was definitely a scare for a lot of people in our room.”
The Hitmen then motored past the Medicine Hat Tigers, Brandon Wheat Kings and Tri-City Americans and now find themselves in Brandon vying for major junior hockey’s championship.
“It’s been surreal almost,” he said. “I knew that we had a good chance at getting here but, even though you have that in the back of your mind, you never really expect to get here.
“It’s been a good experience through the playoffs and I think it’ll be nothing short of that this week.”
The Hitmen are back in action here tonight when they meet the tournament’s other unbeaten team, the Windsor Spitfires.
Shattock got his Memorial Cup experience off to a superb start by signing his first professional contract, a three-year deal with the St. Louis Blues, who selected him in the fourth round of the NHL’s 2009 draft.
“It’s been ongoing the whole playoffs,” Shattock said of the deal negotiated on his behalf by Kurt Overhardt and Joe Oliver of KO Sports Inc. “They wanted to get it done before I came to the Memorial Cup. It was nice to get it done . . . kind of a weight off the back.”
While he wears Calgary colours now, Shattock admitted there is at least a tiny piece of him that wishes he could be playing in the Memorial Cup while wearing a Blazers jersey.
“When I went into Kamloops,” he said, “I definitely wished I could have been the guy to turn that around. But it wasn’t to be. A piece of me definitely wishes that I could have helped them.
“But I have a new team here and a new group of guys I’m helping win. Even though I’ve been here half a year, it feels like I’ve been here for three or four years. They’re definitely welcoming and it’s been a good experience.”
It didn’t start out that way. Shortly after the trade was announced, Shattock, Bubnick and Stebner had to make their way east through some miserable January weather.
Shattock’s Pontiac Grand Am, which he said is “1996, I think . . . or ’98” and is “a piece of work,” got the job done. Still, he said, it was quite a ride.
Of course, that ride paled with the one he now is experiencing.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com