Rest won't hurt Kamloops

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
To the victors go the spoils.
In this case, the victors are the Kamloops Blazers and the spoils are eight days off before they resume their WHL playoff schedule.
The Blazers, who completed a four-game sweep of the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday night, will begin the Western Conference final against the Winterhawks in Portland on April 19 and 20.
Games 3 and 4 are to be played at Interior Savings Centre on April 23 and 24.
After Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the visiting Rockets, Kamloops head coach Guy Charron said his players would be given “a couple of days to themselves.”
He added that the players would “be back on Saturday,” although he said he didn’t think they would skate.
“We have plenty of time,” Charron said. “We want to make sure they’re rested and ready.”
The time off also will be good for the walking wounded.
Centre Colin Smith suffered a suspected concussion early in the second period of the first game against Kelowna on Saturday and missed the last three games. He skated on Wednesday morning but there never was a chance that he would play in Game 4.
However, Smith, who led the Blazers with 106 points in the regular season, should play in Game 1 in Portland.
Bozon, however, is a different story.
The Swiss sophomore is sporting a cast after suffering a fracture in his right hand during a game-ending melee against the host Victoria Royals on March 26. The recovery time for such injuries normally is in the area of four weeks. If all goes well, that could put Bozon on track for a return late in the series against Portland.
Smith, who also had a team-high 41 goals, finished behind only Portland linemates Brendan Leipsic and Nic Petan (each 120 points) and Ty Rattie (110) in the regular-season scoring race. Bozon was tied for eighth, with 91 points, including 36 goals.
As well, centre Dylan Willick, the Blazers’ captain, went down awkwardly late in Wednesday’s game and left the ice in some discomfort. The rest can only help him.
“It’ll be all good,” Charron said of Willick.
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The Rockets, playing their sixth game in nine nights, could have rolled over on Wednesday and no one would have raised an eyebrow.
They didn’t, though, as they erased a 3-1 third-period deficit before eventually losing to an overtime goal by Kamloops right-winger Kale Kessy.
“We had it all season,” Ryan Huska, the Rockets’ head coach, said. “We were a resilient team all season. We weren’t surprised that we didn’t roll over. We fought through a fair amount of things. We expect (our players) to push.”
The Rockets started this season 2-7 and found themselves well behind the Blazers, who went on an early-season 14-game winning streak. However, Kelowna recovered and finished 52-16-4, good enough to place them atop the B.C. Division. But, in the opening round, the Rockets ran into a determined bunch of Seattle Thunderbirds, who had finished 50 points behind them. The Rockets lost the first three games to Seattle, then won the last four to take the series, 4-3. Five of the games, including the last two, went into overtime. And the last two were played on back-to-back nights in different cities.
There’s not much doubt that the Rockets, who at times had seven players scratched, were a tired bunch by the time Wednesday’s game ended. But Huska was having none of that.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “Kamloops was the better team in this series.”
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Referees Chris Crich and Devin Klein handed out 12 minor penalties on Wednesday, each of them resulting in a power play. The Rockets took 11 of those minors – the first six and the last five.
Asked about the penalties, Huska took a moment, measured his words and replied:
“I find it sad . . . when in this type of a game the calls are 11-1. And I find it even sadder that it was a televised game where people see that type of officiating. . . . No discredit to (the Blazers) for what they did on the other side, but if you look back at this series, it was sad.”
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When F JC Lipon scored at 3:43 of overtime to give the Blazers a 5-4 victory in Game 3 on Tuesday, it was the first time Kamloops had won an OT game on home ice since April 6, 1996. On that occasion, F Jarome Iginla’s power-play goal at 13:23 gave the Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans in Game 2 of a best-of-five conference semifinal that Kamloops woud win, 3-2.
Of course, the Blazers then won a second straight OT game at home on Wednesday. Kessy’s goal, at 2:42 of OT, allowed the Blazers to wrap up a playoff series at home for the first time since April 11, 1996, when they beat the Americans, 5-1. The Blazers had trailed 2-1 in that series, before winning 6-1 in Kennewick, Wash., on April 9. The Blazers then lost the conference final to Spokane in six games.
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JUST NOTES: Lipon leads the WHL playoffs in assists (16) and points (21). He is the only WHL player with at least a point in each of his team’s games. . . . Rattie and Kessy lead with 11 goals. . . . Rattie has 19 points, leaving him tied with Kamloops F Brendan Ranford, who has 13 points in his last five games. . . . The Blazers scored three power-play goals on Wednesday, including Kessy’s winner, on the power play. That’s a 27.2 per cent success rate, which is excellent in any coach’s opinion. . . . Iginla finished the 1996 playoffs with 16 goals in 16 games. Kessy is the first Kamloops skater since then to reach double digits in goals.

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By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Dan Russell isn’t sure what the future holds.
What he does know is that he’ll be a free agent when his contract at Vancouver radio station CKNW runs out on Aug. 31.
“I have absolutely no plans,” said Russell, prior to Wednesday’s WHL playoff game between the Kelowna Rockets and Kamloops Blazers at Interior Savings Centre. “I have a commitment to finish out my contract at CKNW.”
Tom Plasteras, CKNW’s program director, revealed in mid-March that Russell’s contract won’t be renewed.
For now, Russell continues as the host of Sportstalk, the station’s nightly three-hour show that is heard throughout B.C. He has been behind that microphone for 21 of the past 22 years.
These days, Russell also is doing the play-by-play of WHL games for Shaw TV.
When the WHL season is over, he said, “I’ll focus on the next step. Who knows? I may have to re-invent myself and, if that’s the case, I’m looking forward to it.”
Russell, 52, is married with three children.
“The youngest is six,” he said, “so I’m too young for retirement.”
He also admitted to feeling some excitement over the uncertainty.
“I don’t know where it’s going to take me,” he said.
Russell admitted he would prefer to stay on the Lower Mainland but that he isn’t opposed to leaving the area.
“If the right opportunity comes along . . .,” he said.
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On April 6, 1996, F Jarome Iginla scored at 13:23 of OT to give the host Blazers a 4-3 victory over the Tri-City Americans.
On April 9, 2013, F JC Lipon scored at 3:43 of OT to give the Blazers a 5-4 victory over the visiting Rockets.
In between those two games, the Blazers lost seven consecutive OT games on home ice. (Interestingly, the Blazers lost each of the series in which they were beaten in OT at home.)
On March 29, 1998, F Jarrett Smith got the winner in a 4-3 victory by the Prince George Cougars.
On May 5, 1999, F Jordan Krestanovich scored in triple OT to give the Calgary Hitmen a 4-3 victory.
On March 30, 2005, F Dale Mahovsky scored at 1:25 as the Kootenay Ice won, 3-2.
On March 23 and 24, 2007, the Cougars won in OT, thanks to goals from F Nick Drazenovic and F Devin Setoguchi.
On March 24, 2009, F Cody Almond gave the Rockets a 3-2 OT victory.
On March 23, 2010, F Brett Breitkreuz scored in OT to give the Vancouver Giants a 5-4 victory.
Over that same time period, the Blazers were 4-6 in OT games on the road.
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Goaltender Dustin Butler, who holds the Blazers’ single-season shutout record, made his NHL debut last night with the Vancouver Canucks.
The 25-year-old Butler, who has played five seasons with the U of Calgary Dinos, was on the bench in support of starter Roberto Luongo after Cory Schneider became ill.
Butler, who is from Calgary, set the Blazers’ single-season shutout record with seven in 2006-07.
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Former Blazers F C.J. Stretch has joined the AHL’s Oklahoma City Barons for the second time this season.
Stretch, 23, put up 62 points in 60 regular-season games with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign, then added five points, all goals, in four first-round playoff games.
Earlier this season, he had six points in 10 games with the Barons.
The Reign is between series, having swept the Utah Grizzlies in a first-round series. Stretch set a franchise single-game record with four goals in a 7-2 victory in Game 2.
The Reign, which finished off the Grizzlies on Saturday, won’t play again until April 19, so Stretch may well be back by then.

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(This column appears in the Dec. 21 edition of the Kamloops Daily News)

The Kamloops Blazers’ season, to quote one-time linemates Simon and Garfunkel, appears as though it may be slip sliding away.
As the WHL team’s players headed home Sunday for tobogganing, Facebooking and other Christmas season fun, they had lost four straight games and tumbled into last place in the 10-team Western Conference.
This is the same conference in which things have been as tight as sardines in a tin, with nine teams separated by three points at times. Now, however, the Blazers find themselves five points out of a playoff spot which, in this world of three-point games and loser points, is a large mountain to climb.
Craig Bonner, the Blazers’ general manager, didn’t sound overly concerned Monday afternoon. He was with the team for its last three losses and felt the results didn’t mirror the effort.
But should Bonner be content with trying to get what to this point has been a less-than-mediocre team into the playoffs, even if it means being the seventh or eighth seed? That, of course, would quite likely lead to another first-round playoff exit for a franchise that hasn’t seen the second round since the spring of 1999.
Or, with the trade deadline arriving on Jan 10, should he begin selling off older assets for young prospects and draft picks in the hope of having a championship-calibre team three years down the road?
At this point, it seems likely that he will do neither.
Bonner said he isn’t prepared to be a buyer or a seller. He said he likes his roster and expects better results in the new year. In fact, he said, he expects to be “quiet” at the trade deadline.
Bonner likes the youth on his roster and is prepared to await the arrival of more young players, all of which is part of the five-year plan he drew up when he moved into the GM’s office prior to the 2008-09 season.
But when you look around the stands at Interior Savings Centre you have to wonder if it matters what he does, if anything.
The Blazers have been a big part of this community since they arrived, as the Kamloops Jr. Oilers, over the summer of 1981. But, as time goes on, they are playing a smaller and smaller role, to the point where they now are averaging 4,014 fans per game, down 262 from the same point last season and down 773 — that works out to 27,828 over the course of a season — since Vancouver-based businessman Tom Gaglardi, along with NHLers Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor, all of them ex-Blazers, purchased the team over the summer of 2007.
Of course, it was only a year ago when it appeared that Guy Charron would be the answer to the question: Who will be the coach to lead the Blazers out of the wilderness?
He became the fourth head coach in the Gaglardi group’s history, following Dean Clark (fired), Greg Hawgood (fired) and Barry Smith (fired).
Charron, a former NHL player who is a true veteran of the coaching game, brought a cheery disposition and a softer touch into the Blazers’ dressing room. So impressed was the ownership group that, before last season ended, it rewarded Charron, 61, with a two-year contract that runs through 2011-12.
But, of late, Charron’s feather duster has been replaced by a sledge hammer as he has shown signs of frustration.
From stripping the letters off five alternate captains following a 10-1 loss to the Chiefs in Spokane on Nov. 24 to publicly criticizing goaltender Jeff Bosch and left-winger Brendan Ranford, who leads the WHL in goals and points, on Radio NL after a 3-2 loss to the Cougars in Prince George on Friday night, Charron has shown he no longer is prepared to be patient.
But if you have watched this team from the start of the season, you knew it was only a matter of time before the team found itself in this predicament.
When you combine this team’s lack of discipline (it leads the WHL in penalty minutes) with its inefficient penalty kill (it is easily the poorest in the league and has allowed by far the most power-play goals) with spotty goaltending, well, it was only a matter of time before the bottom fell out.
If improvement in those areas isn’t evident in the eight games left before the trade deadline, Bonner may be forced to alter his plan.
Consider, too, that the Blazers are 7-16-1 in games against Western Conference opponents and 8-2-1 against teams from the east. Of their 37 remaining games, 29 are against western teams.
In the meantime, Blazers fans are left to wonder just what has happened to this once-proud franchise and why it is unable to fix the things that are holding it back.
As one member of the organization was heard to say the other day: “You’d think there was a curse over us, or something.”

(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan.)

Monday . . .

A veritable potpourri for you to enjoy with your morning coffee . . .

THE MacBETH REPORT:

D Ryan Jorde (Tri-City, Lethbridge, Moose Jaw, 1997-2002) signed a one-year contract with Gap (France Ligue Magnus). He had no goals and four assists in 20 games with the Hull Stingrays and Newcastle Vipers (both UK Elite) last season.
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It’s true.
Penn State, the home of Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions, is going to have an NCAA Division 1 hockey team.
And it’s primarily because of a man named Terry Pegula, who has given US$88 million to the university, which is located in State College, Pa., to fund the construction of a new arena.
Ray Parrillo of the Philadelphia has that story and lots of Pegula right here. It turns out he fell in love with hockey because of the Broad Street Bullies.
And there’s more on that story right here, including speculation on possible conference realignment down the road.
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The Spokane Chiefs have gotten D Brenden Kichton, 18, back from the camp of the Detroit Red Wings. But he’ll miss up to six weeks with a broken finger. He was injured while playing for the Detroit team at the prospects tournament in Traverse City, Mich. . . . Earlier on the weekend, the Chiefs got veteran F Levko Koper, 20, back from the camp of the Atlanta Thrashers. He is preparing for a fifth season with the Chiefs. . . . Spokane also has reassigned F Connor Chartier, 16, to the midget AAA ranks in Alberta. He was a second-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft. . . . The Chiefs are down to 25 players, including three goaltenders and 14 forwards.
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When writing earlier about Swiss F Roman Wick, I noted that he had played with the Red Deer Rebels. It turns out he also played in Lethbridge. As noted by Ryan Ohashi, the Hurricanes’ efficient director of communications:
“Roman Wick actually spent two seasons in the WHL and the better part of the second one he played here in Lethbridge.
“The interesting side note to that is that years later when we drafted a then-little known Swiss D-man named Luca Sbisa, Wick ran into him in Switzerland and told him all about what a great experience he had here and in the WHL. Luca was sold and came over unranked then went in the first round of the (NHL) draft that year.
“The extra side note is that the same family that billeted Roman also billeted Luca -- we have decided it has to be something in the food.”
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The Edmonton Oilers trimmed 20 players from their training camp roster on Monday. Among the players assigned to junior teams are G Tyler Bunz (Medicine Hat), F Drew Czerwonka (Kootenay), D Brandon Davidson (Regina), F Curtis Hamilton (Saskatoon), D Martin Marincin (Prince George) and F Kristians Pelss (Edmonton). . . . D Dallas Ehrhardt (Moose Jaw) and F Chase Schaber (Kamloops) were released from tryout agreements and are headed back to the WHL. Ehrhardt didn’t see much ice time with the Oilers as he suffered a knee injury while the prospects were in Penticton, B.C. World from the Warriors camp is that he will be out for up to six weeks with a strained MCL in his right knee. A torn MCL in that same knee cost him almost two months of last season.
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The Phoenix Coyotes have returned F Evan Bloodoff, 20, to the Kelowna Rockets, and D Justin Weller, 19, to the Red Deer Rebels.
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The San Jose Sharks have signed D Curt Gogol, who turns 19 today (Sept. 21), to a three-year NHL contract. The Saskatoon Blades acquired Gogol last season from the Kelowna Rockets. The website CapGeek.com reports that the deal is worth US$530,000, $555,000 and $555,000 in the NHL, and $50,000, $55,000 and $60,000 in the AHL. The contract carries with it an annual $30,000 signing bonus. . . . Gogol had six assists and 120 penalty minutes in 35 games with Kelowna and one goal and 29 penalty minutes in eight games with the Blades last season. In 2008-09, he had five points and 144 penalty minutes in 63 games with the Rockets. . . . He wasn’t selected in the NHL draft.
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The Detroit Red Wings have returned F Mitchell Callahan (Kelowna), F Landon Ferraro (Everett), F Antonin Honejsek (Moose Jaw) and F Brooks Macek (Tri-City).
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The Kootenay Ice is down to 26 players after assigning five 16-year-old players -- F Levi Cable (midget AAA Yorkton Harvest); F Colby Cave (midget AAA Battlefords Stars); D Jeff Hubic (midget AAA Tisdale Trojans), F Jared Iron (midget AAA Beardy’s Blackhawks) and D Mike Simpson (junior B Delta Ice Hawks). . . . Cave was the 13th overall pick in the 2009 bantam draft, while Hubic was taken in the fourth round, Simpson in the sixth and Iron in the eighth. . . . The Ice still has two players in NHL camps -- D Brayden McNabb (Buffalo) and F Steele Boomer (Chicago).
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The Chilliwack Bruins got down to 26 players on their roster by assigning F Zane Jones, 16, and D Brett Cote, 16, to undisclosed destinations. Cote was a third-round pick in the 2009 bantam draft; Jones was taken in the fifth round. . . . The Bruins are carrying three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 15 forwards. . . . They also have three players in NHL camps -- D Roman Horak and D Brandon Manning (both New York Rangers) and F Kevin Sundher (Buffalo).
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Greg Harder of the Regina Leader-Post has penned a three-part series on the Parker family’s ownership of the Regina Pats. Part 1 is right here.
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The Montreal Canadiens have returned F Brendan Gallagher to the Vancouver Giants. He was a fifth-round pick in the 2010 NHL draft.
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The Brandon Wheat Kings are down to 32 players after returning F Daniel Asham to the midget AAA Winnipeg Wild and D Dylan Kuczek to the midget AAA Winnipeg Thrashers. Kuczek was a second-round pick in the 2009 draft, while Brandon took Asham in the eighth round. . . . As well, D Josh Elmes, 17, is off to join the MJHL’s OCN Blizzard. He was an eighth-round pick in 2008.
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The Wheat Kings continue to prepare for the opening of the season with five goaltenders among the 32 players still on their roster. GM/head coach Kelly McCrimmon was believed to be planning on opening with one of two 20-year-olds -- Andrew Hayes or Jacob DeSerres -- and Liam Liston, 17. . . . However, he hasn’t been able to move either of the veterans -- there are a number of 20-year-old goaltenders in the league and two of them (Morgan Clark, from Swift Current to Prince George, and Jeff Bosch, from Moose Jaw to Kamloops) already have been on the move. . . . But McCrimmon also has Ty Rimmer, 18, and Corbin Boes, 17, on his roster. Ironically, Rimmer made the roster a year ago as Hayes’ backup, but was sent to junior A after DeSerres was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds. . . . Brandon opens at home to the Regina Pats on Friday. . . . Rob Henderson of the Brandon Sun also reports that Brandon still has three players -- F Scott Glennie (Dallas), F Brayden Schenn (Los Angeles) and F Mark Stone (Ottawa) -- in NHL camps. As well, F Jens Meilleur, 17, suffered a broken hand in an exhibition game Saturday so is out for a while. . . . Brandon did get F David Toews (New York Islanders) and F Michael Ferland (Calgary Flames) back from NHL camps. Both players practised in Brandon on Monday, although neither skated with their NHL teams because of injuries. Henderson reports that Toews, 20, was diagnosed with a torn labrum in one shoulder, but later was found not to be badly injured. “It was really, really frustrating not to be able to get to play out there,” Toews told Henderson. “I was being pretty negative on myself for a few days there but I was lucky enough to get a second look at it and get a couple doctors opinions and I’m lucky that it’s not as severe as we thought it was at first. So that’s a good thing and I’m taking the positive out of the fact that I don’t need to get surgery and that I can keep playing here is huge for me.” . . . Ferland, 18, has been out for two weeks with a twisted knee. He didn’t take part in contact drills on Monday.
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The Prince Albert Raiders are down to 25 players after releasing C Troy Gasper, 18. He plans on returning to the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos. . . . The Raiders, who open Friday in Saskatoon, are carrying two goaltenders, nine defencemen and 14 forwards. . . . The Blades visit Prince Albert on Saturday. . . . D Ryan Button, 19, is in camp with the Boston Bruins. . . . John MacNeil of the Prince Albert Daily Herald reports that four players are injured -- D Mathew Berry-Lamontagna (wrist), F Shane Danyluk (ankle), F Tyler Paslawski (head) and F Igor Revenko (leg). Danyluk, who was injured Aug. 28, won’t play for a while, while Revenko, who was hurt Saturday, may be back on the ice Tuesday.
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A note from Howie Stalwick, a veteran WHL observer, from the Kitsap Sun of Bermerton, Wash. . . .
Top 10: All-time best NHL players developed in the major junior WHL — 10. Jarome Iginla, RW (Kamloops). 9. Cam Neely, RW (Portland). 8. Clark Gillies, LW (Regina). 7. Grant Fuhr, G (Victoria). 6. Mike Modano, C (Prince Albert). 5. Mark Recchi, RW (Kamloops). 4. Scott Niedermayer, D (Kamloops). 3. Joe Sakic, C (Swift Current). 2. Bryan Trottier, C (Swift Current-Lethbridge). 1. Bobby Clarke, C (Flin Flon). Note: Players who made token appearances in the WHL, like Hall of Fame C Mark Messier (Portland), were not considered.
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