Short on defenders, Blazers doing fine on road

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
When the Kamloops Blazers headed into the WHL’s Central Division a week ago, their defensive brigade had more holes in it than a pair of old work socks.
Austin Madaisky and Brandon Underwood, who had evolved into their shutdown defensive pairing, both were gone with long-term injuries.
And while they were in sole possession of the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, they only had a one-point lead on the Chilliwack Bruins and were six back of the Prince George Cougars.
Tonight, as the Blazers (27-31-4) prepare to face the Tigers (38-17-6) in Medicine Hat, they still are eighth, but now they are five points ahead of Chilliwack and the Seattle Thunderbirds. Not only that — Kamloops is just one point in arrears of the seventh-place Cougars.
That’s what happens when you go on the road and earn five of a possible six points in three games.
The Blazers won in Edmonton, beating the Oil Kings 4-3 in overtime, then lost 4-3 in OT to the Rebels in Red Deer. And, on Wednesday night, the Blazers surrendered 3-0 and 4-1 leads before beating the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-4 in OT.
Kamloops played in Lethbridge without another veteran defenceman, Josh Caron having been hit with a three-game suspension for a hit from behind on Red Deer forward Josh Cowen, who suffered a broken hand and will miss at least three weeks.
So, you’re wondering, what’s been going on?
“Corey Fienhage has really stepped up his game,” offered assistant coach Scott Ferguson from Medicine Hat on Thursday. “He’s been playing really well.”
Fienhage, a 20-year-old in his first WHL season, was plus-3 in Lethbridge. He is plus-7 in nine February games, after going into the month at minus-15.
Fienhage has been partnered a lot with Brady Gaudet, 16, who is deep into his freshman season.  Gaudet was the 10th overall selection in the WHL’s 2010 bantam draft.
“Gaudet has really benefited from the icetime,” Ferguson said. “He’s playing beyond his years right now.”
Gaudet, from Redvers, Sask., had a Gordie Howe hat trick in Lethbridge, scoring his fourth goal, picking up his sixth assist, and getting into his third scrap of the season.
Ferguson also pointed to veteran Bronson Maschmeyer, 19, as a guy “who has always been back there for us.”
“Those three guys,” Ferguson stated, “have really stepped up their games, and that isn’t taking anything away from (Tyler) Hansen and Caron. All of them have really stepped up their games.”
Ferguson played three seasons with the Blazers before going on to a pro career that included 218 NHL games. He remembers being forced to play extra minutes.
“There were times when I had to play every other shift,” Ferguson recalled. “I didn’t mind it. When you’re doing it, you keep it simple. You know you’re going to get out there and you try to limit your mistakes. But you’re not worried about making mistakes because you know you have to play.
“It was just a matter of knowing you’re going to get back out there, so keep it simple and keep your shifts short. You tend to get into a game a little bit quicker that way. Sometimes it can be beneficial.”
And that, he thinks, is pretty much what is happening with the Blazers right now.
That, along with forwards who have become more conscious of their defensive play and goaltender Jeff Bosch, who has been more than solid. Bosch is expected to make his 15th straight start tonight.
“I really believe defence is a five-man unit,” he said. “As a team we’re really focused on the defensive side of it to help out the back end. The forwards are doing a good job of coming back, and Bosch has been playing really well.
“That’s why I love hockey. It’s a team game . . . it’s all six guys on the ice.”
And it’s also special teams.
The Blazers’ much-maligned penalty killers, who have had the WHL’s worst success rate through most of the season, haven’t been torched once on this road trip. They are 16-for-16, the second time this season they have been perfect for three games in a row. (Coincidentally, the first time they had this success also was in the Central Division, in October.)
Of course, they’ll need all they help they can get again tonight as they play the Tigers and again Saturday when this swing wraps up in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice (39-18-4). The Ice and Tigers are tied for third in the Eastern Conference.
The suspended Caron won’t be available for either game, which means right-winger Jordan DePape will be back on defence. He spent most of Wednesday’s game there, moving up only on the power play and in OT, when he scored the winning goal.
DePape, who is from Winnipeg, played some on the back end during his minor hockey days. And when the Blazers ran into penalty problems during an exhibition game, they moved him back.
“It has been a good challenge for him,” Ferguson said. “He’s a smart player. I think he has learned to appreciate the defensive responsibilities.
“He looks fairly strong. He skates backwards well, he reads the ice well, he’s not shy to go back for pucks and take a hit to make a play. He’s a big, physical guy who skates well and sees the ice well.
“He’s done a good job.”
JUST NOTES: The Blazers continue to be without F Chase Schaber (leg), who now has missed 17 games in a row and 19 of the last 21. . . . The Tigers are showing four players as being out with concussions — D Jace Coyle, D Matt Konan, D Scott Ramsay and F Sam Dezman — while D Patrick Parkkonen (shoulder) also is out. . . . Coyle and Konan are day-to-day, Dezman is indefinite, and Parkkonen and Ramsay will be out another week. . . . The Blazers are at home Wednesday when the Kelowna Rockets are scheduled to pay a visit. . . . F Cole Ully, who made his WHL debut with the Blazers on Wednesday, has returned to the midget AAA Calgary Flames. A post-game scoring change Wednesday gave him his first point, an assist on the Blazers’ fourth goal.

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Defenceman Brandon Underwood (left) of the Kamloops Blazers,
here battling Vancouver forward Greg Lamoureux on the night the
visiting Giants forgot their jerseys, will miss up to six weeks
with a knee injury. (Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

The Kamloops Blazers confirmed Monday that they have lost two 18-year-old defencemen to long-term injuries.
Austin Madaisky’s WHL season is over, thanks to a fracture to the seventh cervical vertebrae in his neck, while Brandon Underwood has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and could be gone for up to six weeks.
Both players were injured during Friday’s 2-1 victory over the visiting Chilliwack Bruins.
Madaisky, a fifth-round selection of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL’s 2010 draft, has been fitted for a cervical collar and has returned home to Surrey. He won’t play again this season, not even in the playoffs, should the Blazers qualify.
According to the Blazers, Underwood “is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks.”
“It’s a little sore,” Underwood said Monday, adding that the knee is in a brace. “I’m resting it, not doing too much.”
For now, he said, the prescription is rest and “try to stay off it a little bit.”
Underwood was injured on his second shift of the first period when he stepped up by the Blazers bench to hit a Chilliwack player.
“Right as I went to make contact I think the outside of his knee hit the outside of mine,” Underwood recalled. “It bent inward. Right away, I felt it. I knew right away it wasn’t good.
“I couldn’t even walk on it. It hurt really bad. I knew right away something was wrong.”
This is the first knee injury of Underwood’s career  and he admitted to having thoughts of Mark Hall, a former Blazers forward who missed all of the 2008-09 season with a knee injury.
“I was pretty scared at first,” said Underwood, who has nine assists and 97 penalty minutes in 51 games. He also is zero in the plus-minus department, which is rather impressive on a team that has surrendered 50 more goals than it has scored.
“Me and Madaisky kind of became the shutdown pair over the last couple of weeks,” Underwood said. “We were playing quite a bit. We were starting to really jell and feeling pretty good playing together. We were both playing pretty well. It’s really disappointing that we both not only are out but probably for the season.”
The Blazers have 16 games remaining in the regular season, which ends March 20. It would seem that in order for Underwood, who is from Carlsbad, Calif., to have any chance of returning this season, the Blazers will have to make the playoffs.
Without Madaisky, who had 27 points and 104 penalty minutes in 55 games, and Underwood, the Blazers are down to five defencemen and, with the trade deadline long gone, there won’t be anyone riding in on a white horse to save the day.
Between the two of them, Madaisky and Underwood were playing around 40 minutes per game. Those minutes now will have to be spread among the survivors and perhaps a forward or two, like right-winger Jordan DePape, who could be rotated back there on occasion.
Two of the five remaining defenders — Corey Fienhage, 20, and Brady Gaudet, 16 — are in their first WHL seasons. Fienhage, in fact, played a total of 51 games over the previous three seasons while with the USHL’s Indiana Ice and the NCAA’s North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
This will mean an increased workload for veteran Bronson Maschmeyer, 19, and sophomore Tyler Hansen, 17, who was a healthy scratch for a game last week.
It also means that Josh Caron, who sat out 41 games with a broken collarbone, won’t be afforded the luxury of being gradually reintroduced to a heavy role.
The Blazers’ protected list included nine defencemen, as of Feb. 1. Two of those — Landon Cross of the midget AAA Brandon Wheat Kings and Max Mowat of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers — have some experience with the Blazers.
Madaisky and Underwood both were missing Saturday, when the Blazers lost 4-3 to the Bruins in Chilliwack. The next test comes Wednesday against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Blazers are 23-30-3 and have won two of their last four games, but have just three victories in their last 14 games. They are clinging to the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. Kamloops is one point ahead of the Bruins (22-26-4), who hold four games in hand, and two up on the Thunderbirds (19-26-9), who are 1-8-1 in their last 10 outings.
The Thunderbirds halted a nine-game losing streak with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Silvertips in Everett on Friday. Seattle welcomed back veteran defencemen Travis Bobbee and Ryan Button from shoulder injuries for that game. Those two have combined to play in 537 regular-season games.
With Bobbee out, the Thunderbirds were 1-9-1. Without Button, they were 0-6-0.
Madaisky and Underwood have played in a combined 310 regular-season games. That experience will be impossible to replace at this time of the season.
JUST NOTES: After Wednesday’s game, the Blazers next will play Saturday when they meet the Vancouver Giants in Whitehorse. . . . The Tri-City Americans make their first visit of the season to Interior Savings Centre on Feb. 15, after which the Blazers will go into the Central Division for five games. . . . The Blazers’ Dash for Cash promotion on Friday night raised $2,140 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kamloops.
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Everett defenceman Brennan Yadlowski chases Kamloops winger
Ryan Hanes behind the Silvetips net on Wednesday night.
(Photo by Murray Mitchell/Kamloops Daily News)

 By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor

Ouch! That one hurt!!
“Yes, it did,” confirmed Kamloops Blazers defenceman Austin Madaisky. “Especially against a team we’re battling with for the eighth spot right now.”
The Blazers, needing points the way the Kardashians need attention, dropped a 3-2 WHL decision to the Everett Silvertips before 4,428 fans at Interior Savings Centre on Wednesday night.
While the Silvertips (22-23-7) won for the fourth straight game and pulled into a tie for sixth place in the 10-team Western Conference, the Blazers (22-29-3) have lost six of seven and remain in eighth, four points behind Everett and one in front of the Chilliwack Bruins.
The Blazers and Chilliwack (21-25-4) go home-and-home this weekend, playing here Friday and there on Saturday.
Intentionally or not, the offensively challenged Silvertips played rope-a-dope in this one, relying on goaltender Kent Simpson to keep them close while they awaited scoring chances.
In the end, it was centre Tyler Maxwell, with 35 of his club’s 133 goals, who won it with his second goal of the game. He broke a 2-2 tie at 16:29 of the third period, taking advantage of a perfect screen set up by linemate Parker Stanfield and whipping a wrist shot past goaltender Jeff Bosch, off a post and in.
“They do a good job of that,” Madaisky said. “They send two guys to the net on their power play and try to walk a guy across the slot. It was a tough one for Bosch.”
Maxwell’s WHL-leading 11th game-winning goal came on Everett’s fourth power-play opportunity of the game.
Strangely, Maxwell, who had given Everett a 2-1 lead at 1:16 of the third, didn’t feel he played very well over the first two periods.
“The first two periods didn’t go as well as I wanted them to,” said the 19-year-old from Manhattan Beach, Calif., who has nine two-goal games and a four-goal effort this season. “I had a little talk with myself between the second and third periods.”
The Blazers pretty much dominated the first two periods, outshooting the visitors 29-15, including 21-6 over the first 20 minutes. But they couldn’t solve Simpson, 18, who is from Edmonton.
“He’s a good goaltender, for sure,” Kamloops forward Dylan Willick said. “We needed to get a few more bodies in front. There were a lot of rebound chances we just couldn’t get our sticks on.”
Madaisky added: “(Simpson) played great for them. I don’t know how many shots we had . . . we had some good power plays. We were getting the chances but he was there to shut the door.
“It would have been nice to get more traffic in front of him . . . or something.”
Despite being outshot badly, Everett got out of the first period with a 1-0 lead, thanks to a goal by wunderkind Ryan Murray, the defenceman from White City, Sask., who will be an early, early selection in the NHL’s 2012 draft.
It wasn’t until 15:46 of the second period that Kamloops was able to pull even, Dalibor Bortnak getting Simpson out of position and then feeding defenceman Corey Fienhage for the empty-net score.
After Maxwell restored Everett’s lead, Kamloops centre Colin Smith wristed a shot through traffic and past Simpson at 7:50 of the third.
All that did, though, was set the stage, again, for Maxwell.
Willick, for one, was quick to give Everett some credit.
“They battled hard,” he said. “There was adversity there, too. They’re on a four-game winning streak. They’re stringing something together right now. Give them a lot of credit. We need to take a page out of their book.”
At the same time, he liked what he saw from his teammates.
“I applaud the effort the guys put out tonight,” he said. “There isn’t a guy in there who I don’t think worked hard.”
Despite the fact the Blazers have just three victories to show for their last 14 games, Madaisky said the confidence is still there. But, with only 18 games remaining in the regular season, he knows time is running out.
“We feel good in practice,” he said. “Even the effort tonight, I thought it was a good effort. The guys battled . . . that’s really all you can ask for.
“But it gets to a point where you can’t keep saying, ‘Aww, we just didn’t get the bounces,’ or ‘Aww, we played well but, you know what, it just didn’t go our way tonight.’ ”
JUST NOTES: Referees Trevor Hanson and Jeff Ingram gave Everett five of nine minors. . . . The Blazers were 0-for-5 on the PP. . . . The Silvertips won the season series, 3-1. . . . Everett has won four in a row for the first time since opening the season with four straight victories. . . . Everett’s Craig Hartsburg now has worked 493 OHL and WHL games as a head coach. He has spent 491 games as an NHL head coach. . . . Everett F Landon Ferraro didn’t play in either of the Silvertips’ games in Kamloops this season. He had hernia surgery Friday in Detroit, so didn’t play last night. On Nov. 14, he missed the Blazers’ 3-1 victory due to an upper body injury. . . . With Ferraro out and F Ryan Harrison serving a one-game WHL suspension, the Silvertips brought in F Zach McPhee, 17, from the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers. . . . The Daily News’ three stars: 1. Simpson — Gave his guys a chance; 2. Murray — Best 17-year-old defenceman in CHL; 3. Fienhage — a goal and kept it simple.
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Blazers trim roster to 24

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The WHL’s Kamloops Blazers trimmed another body off their roster Tuesday and now are carrying 24 players.
Forward Rhyse Dieno, 17, was designated for assignment. From Saskatoon, he is likely to join an SJHL team.
Dieno, an undrafted list player, joined the Blazers late last season and had one assist in 16 games. He was a healthy scratch from the first two games of this regular season.
With Dieno gone, the Blazers’ roster now features two goaltender, eight defencemen and 14 forwards.
The Blazers (1-1-0-0) next play Friday when they meet the Silvertips (2-0-0-0) in Everett. Kamloops then stops in Chilliwack for a Saturday night engagement with the Bruins (1-1-0-0), who beat them 5-2 at Interior Savings Centre on Saturday.
———
D Corey Fienhage, who returned to Kamloops from the camp of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres on Sunday, practised with the Blazers on Tuesday. Fienhage, who was held out of practice Monday, will make his WHL debut Friday in Everett.
A third-round pick by Buffalo in the NHL’s 2007 draft, Fienhage spent the last two seasons at the U of North Dakota.
Missing from Tuesday’s practice were D Josh Caron (collarbone) and F Jordan DePape (shoulder). Caron, who was injured Saturday, won’t play again until mid-December, at the earliest.
DePape may be back today. He is expected to play Friday.
———
RW Luke Walker, 20, has signed a three-year deal with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche. He spent the last three seasons with the Portland Winterhawks. Walker is the son of Gord Walker, who played for the Winterhawks and Blazers (1982-85). Gord put up 134 points in 66 games with the 1984-85 Blazers.
Luke, a fifth-round pick by the Avalanche in the NHL’s 2010 draft, got a US$140,000 signing bonus and was assigned to the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters.
In 202 regular-season games with Portland, Walker, who is from Castlegar, had 130 points, including 65 goals, and 271 penalty minutes.
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Souto fights for playing time with Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The WHL game was into its last minute Saturday night at Interior Savings Centre, the Kamloops Blazers were losing 5-2, and Chase Souto didn’t know who it was who had just slashed him.
“No, I didn’t. I dropped my gloves and went ‘oh-oh!’ ” the Kamloops Blazers’ freshman right winger said after Monday’s practice at Interior Savings Centre.
The whacker turned out to be Chilliwack defenceman Zach Habscheid, whom the Bruins list at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. (Yes, he is the son of Marc Habscheid, the Bruins’ general manager and head coach.)
The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Souto, who won’t turn 16 until Oct. 8, poked Habscheid, 18, with one right hand and then reloaded and drilled him with a straight right to the jaw. Habscheid went down as though he was a heavy bag and the chain holding it up had been cut.
Habscheid likely woke up Sunday with a headache. Souto was left with a sore thumb.
Souto, a fifth-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft, is from Yorba Linda, Calif. He arrived in the Blazers’ camp prepared to do anything to stay, and now that he is on the roster he wants to continue with that approach.
At his size, it’s not like he’s a scrapper, but he is scrappy.
“We weren’t allowed to fight in my league but I did a couple of times,” he said, when asked about his ring record last season.
So what happened Saturday?
“They were having guys kind of run us all game and they were beating us in our own barn,” Souto explained. “I just wanted to send a message for Saturday when we play them again.”
The Blazers open a two-game swing Friday in Everett against the Silvertips. Whether Souto plays in that game has yet to be decided, but you can bet he will be in the Kamloops lineup for the rematch with the Bruins on Saturday in Chilliwack.
“I like to be a high-energy player . . . to get the boys going and stuff like that,” Souto said. “I thought I played pretty well. You can always be better but I didn’t think I did that bad.”
Souto had been a healthy scratch Friday, missing the Blazers’ season-opening 5-2 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars.
“He competes and has a passion for the game,” Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said of Souto.. “Now he needs to learn the game.”
Souto said he found Saturday’s game to be “really fast-paced and lots of fun.”
“There were,” he added, “a lot of big boys out there, too.”
But Souto, like so many Davids before him, found out that, indeed, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
———
The Blazers had three players miss practice yesterday.
D Josh Caron (broken collarbone) won’t need surgery but will be out for up to two months.
Caron, 19, was injured during the second period of Saturday’s game, but wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the injury and tried to play in the third. He left after one shift, doubled over in pain, following a light bump in the neutral zone.
“He’s in pain,” Charron said. “They don’t immobilize it. The problem is the muscles around it. But once it heals, it heals well. He’s young and the bones knit together really well.”
D Corey Fienhage, who arrived back from the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night, was sore from blocking a shot during the NHL team’s camp so was given the day off.
Charron also indicated that he is prepared to cut the team’s pro campers some slack for a day to two.
“When they come back,” Charron said, “emotionally, they’re drained. We only had four defencemen for practice but (I decided) maybe a day off would be better value.”
All Charron asked was that Fienhage “watch practice and realize what we’re trying to do.”
RW Jordan DePape (shoulder) was held out strictly as a precautionary measure. He is expected to be back on skates today or Wednesday and is scheduled to play in both weekend games.
“It’s a muscle thing and he would only aggravate it by practising,” Charron said.
JUST NOTES: The Blazers next play at home on Oct. 6 when the Spokane Chiefs are in town. . . . D Brandon Underwood was back practising after missing the Blazers’ first two games with a concussion incurred Sept. 18. . . . Charron said that, depending on how practice goes this week, he plans on starting G Jon Groenheyde on Friday in Everett, with G Jeff Bosch to make his Blazers debut Saturday in Chilliwack. Bosch was acquired from the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sept. 17 but has been slowed by a sprained ankle. . . . The Blazers made scoring changes to two Friday goals. The first goal, originally credited to Dylan Willick, has been credited to Linden Saip, with assists to Colin Smith and DePape. As well, Austin Madaisky has been given an assist on Brendan Ranford’s goal, the Blazers’ fourth of the game. . . . Former Blazers captain Jared Aulin was released from his tryout with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers on Monday. He has been offered a tryout with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. . . . D Brendon Nash of Kamloops, who had a goal and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens in an NHL exhibition game on Sunday night, has been assigned to the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
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