The Giants Way too much for Blazers

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Vancouver Giants have played 24 games this WHL season; they have been beaten once in regulation time.
Do the math . . . and you realize that computes to three regulation-time losses over the course of a 72-game regular season.
One.
Two.
Three.
The Giants’ most-recent non-loss came Saturday night when they skated to a 6-1 victory over the Kamloops Blazers before 4,826 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
Like a youngster dissecting a grasshopper, the Giants, who are what most teams want to be when they grow up, methodically took apart the Blazers. It was evident that the home team wanted to be aggressive from the get-go, but the Giants scored on two of three first-period power-play opportunities and that took care of that game plan.
“I don’t want to use (the word) domination but we played our game . . . we played Giants hockey,” offered Vancouver defenceman Jon Blum, who scored twice as his club won its sixth straight and for the 13th time in its last 14 outings. “That’s what we can do when we’re rolling four lines and using all six defencemen. . . . Our strength is in our systems even when we’re missing one of our top defencemen and our top scorer.”
The Giants, who erased a 3-1 first-period deficit and beat the Blazers 6-4 in Vancouver on Friday night, are playing without defenceman Mike Berube (broken arm) and centre Evander Kane (heel), who has 37 points in 21 games.
“I thought we got off to a great start,” Vancouver head coach Don Hay said. “Jon Blum has been playing really, really outstanding all season long. He got us going.
“Kamloops came out and tried to play aggressively. The power play gave us life early in the game and we took advantage of it.”
Blum, a 20-year-old from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., who is the team captain, got his club going with a power-play goal at 5:20 of the first period. Kamloops centre Alex Rodgers blocked the first shot, only to have the rebound land on a tee and Blum hammered it past goaltender Jon Groenheyde.
“That,” said an NHL scout, “was an NHL shot.”
Blum later added a second goal, using his left skate to kick a pass into shooting position, then putting the puck through Groenheyde to give the visitors a 4-0 lead. It was Blum’s 11th goal of the season, to go along with 19 assists.
Asked where Blum rates among the numerous world-class defencemen he has coached, Hay referenced a couple of former Kamloops players: “People like Scott Niedermayer and Darryl Sydor are right there . . . Jon is right there, too. They’re all really intelligent and really competitive.
“People don’t give Jon enough credit for his competitiveness. It was the same with Niedermayer. Scotty came to this league because he wanted to play against the best. Jon is the same way. He works hard. He competes hard. He wants to win and I think that’s a really important factor in his success.”
Blum, who was selected by the Nashville Predators with the 23rd pick of the 2007 NHL draft, shrugs it off. The key, he said, is the systems.
“We come every day to the rink wanting to have fun and learn,” he said. “Don has us playing systems and whenever you combine these sorts of systems you’re going to have success and that’s why we’ve been one of the top teams the past four years.”
It is the Giants way.
“It wins championships,” added Blum, who has been part of 47, 45 and 49 victories in his first three regular seasons. This time around, the Giants already are 20-1-0-3. Blum also has appeared in 50 playoff games in three springs; by comparison, the Blazers have been in 52 over the last 10 seasons.
The Giants way also involves the passing of the torch.
“My first year,” Blum said, “my defensive partner was Mark Fistric and he was also the captain. My second year Brett Festerling was the captain. I learned a lot from those two guys. . . . I looked up to them . . . they taught me a lot of stuff. Now it’s my turn to teach guys like (Bronson) Maschmeyer and (Neil) Manning the little things of the game that can really help them . . . what the coaches expect day in and day out, what management wants.
“We have high expectations here in Vancouver and whenever you can have the young guys following the leaders it has to be good for the team.”
Young guys like forwards James Wright, 18, and Brendan Gallagher, 16, both of whom scored Saturday. Defenceman Brent Regner and right-winger Garry Nunn also scored for the visitors, who got 28 saves from goaltender Jamie Tucker, 17, who ran his record to 6-0-0-1.
The Giants also got three assists from centre Casey Pierro-Zabotel, the Kamloops minor hockey product who now is one point out of the WHL scoring lead.
“I’m much more comfortable,” said Pierro-Zabotel, 20, who joined the Giants a year ago from the BCHL’s Merritt Centennials. “It seems I’m playing with a lot more confidence. I just try to work hard for Don every day.”
Ever since arriving in Vancouver, Pierro-Zabotel said, “I have worked on my defensive game and puck protection down low. We work on that in practice every day and it’s really helped and paid off for me. I have learned so much from Don and the rest of the coaches.”
“What he’s done better,” Hay said, “is really improve his competitive level. His tempo was slow when he came to us, not because he didn’t work but because he was used to playing a lot of minutes and he took long shifts. We’re really pushing him to go shorter shifts, go harder, work at both ends of the ice . . . improve his game.
“He is so strong with the puck . . . he really makes good plays all the time.”
Which was the case Saturday night and Pierro-Zabotel enjoyed every minute of it.
“I love coming here,” he said, “and winning.”
Right-winger Brady Calla was credited with the Blazers’ goal, which came in the third period with his side down 5-0.
JUST NOTES: Referee Matt Kirk gave the Giants six of 11 minors and one of two majors. . . . Vancouver was 2-for-3 on the power play, with all three opportunities coming in the first period. The Blazers were 0-for-4. . . . Groenheyde made 36 saves and oftentimes could have sued for nonsupport, which has been the case in each of his last three starts. He is 0-5-0-1 in his last six starts. . . . LW Brett Lyon, acquired Nov. 10 from the Giants, was a healthy Kamloops scratch.

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca