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| Tim Bozon (15) and Colin Smith (9) of the Kamloops Blazers work to control a bouncing puck on Saturday night in Everett. (Photo by Christopher Mast) |
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| Tim Bozon (15) of the Kamloops Blazers is unable to beat Everett goaltender Kent Simpson from in close on Saturday night. (Photo by Christopher Mast) |
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| Defenceman Josh Caron of the Kamloops Blazers carries the puck out of danger while goaltender Cole Cheveldave takes a deep breath. (Photo by Christopher Mast) |
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| Matt Needham (14) scored two power-play goals to key the Kamloops Blazers' 5-2 victory over the Silvertips in Everett on Saturday. (Photo by Christopher Mast) |
The Blazers, who lost their season-opener 1-0 to the visiting Prince George Cougars, now have won four straight games.
Last season, the best the Blazers were able to muster was a pair of three-game winning streaks. The end result was that they didn’t qualify for the playoffs,
The Blazers will try to make it five in a row when they play host to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Monday afternoon. The Blazers last won five straight Jan. 8-16, 2010.
Kamloops, which is 4-1-0, last opened 5-1-0 in 2009-10. That season, the Blazers began the season 8-2-2, and then lost seven in a row.
The Silvertips (1-2-2), who are home Tuesday night to the Prince Albert Raiders, got a goal and an assist from F Josh Birkholz as they took a 2-1 lead late in the second period.
Kamloops F Matt Needham scored two PP goals late in the second period — at 17:02 ad 19:52 — to put his side out front
Dylan Willick, who got his first of the season early in the first period, added another goal at 17:11 of the third period for the visitors, and Jordan DePape iced it with an empty-netter.
Kamloops G Cole Cheveldave, the AJHL’s rookie of the year with the Drumheller Dragons last season, stopped 17 shots as he improved his record to 2-0-0.
Everett G Kent Simpson turned aside 33 shots.
F Jesse Mychan had Everett’s other goal, banging home a rebound after a shot had hit a post to forge a 1-1 tie in the first period.
The Blazers were 2-for-6 on the PP; the Silvertips were 1-for-2.
"Our efforts away from the puck weren't very good," Everett head coach Mark Ferner told Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald. "We have to make sure we're working hard back, make sure we're on the right side of the puck, make sure we're not just sitting here trying to be a one-dimensional hockey team where we just worry about scoring goals. In this time and age it doesn't work like that. If you want to have an opportunity to move on and make a living out of (hockey), you have to be accountable for your actions."
Ferner wasn’t at all happy with his club’s play, especially after a 4-2 victory over the visiting Portland Winterhawks just 24 hours earlier.
"There was no accountability whatsoever. Absolutely none," Ferner told Patterson. "We always had an excuse for what went wrong, and you can't have that, that's not what good teams do. I'll take some of the responsibility. If they were unsure what we're supposed to be doing, then that's my fault. But I don't know how that changes from one night to the next."
The Blazers have scored 25 goals in the four games since their opener and really have played just one poor period, that being the third in a 6-4 victory over the visiting Spokane Chiefs on Friday. Kamloops led that one 5-1 in the third period, then watched as the Chiefs got to within one at 5-4.
"I thought we played hard," Kamloops head coach Guy Charron told Patterson. "We came strong in the first period and their goaltender made some really key saves to keep it 1-1. We knew to be successful we had to maintain that level of play for 60 minutes, and fortunately for us we were able to sustain that effort and consequently we got the win."
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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