Reaction to Derkatch column . . .

The column on Dale Derkatch that appeared here Friday brought back some memories for a few people. It’s always good to get reaction and it’s terrific when it’s positive and anecdotal.
Fred Nicholson, who is one of the Kamloops Blazers’ off-ice officials, was working the scoreclock in Memorial Arena in May of 1984. He remembers that Canadian Tire was preparing to open a Kamloops store and had supplied fans with a couple of boxes of plastic toy rats — grey rats with long tails.
The fans of the Junior Oilers had a grand time, Nicholson says, tossing rats in honour of Derkatch, whose nickname was Rat.
It was all in good fun, of course. (Try that today and you would get tossed from the premises for having too much fun.)
Of course, as Bill O’Donovan points out, Kamloops fans didn’t start tossing rats until after fans in Regina threw beach balls in the direction of Junior Oilers goaltender Daryl Reaugh. (O’Donovan, the news anchor at CJFC-TV in Kamloops, was doing play-by-play in those days. He later would move to Regina and work for CKCK-TV before returning to Kamloops.)
Another hockey veteran swears that then-Kamloops head coach Bill LaForge, who had coached the Pats earlier in his career, was responsible for the hot water having been turned off in Regina’s dressing room sometime late in that seven-game series. And he also swears that LaForge had something to do with someone canceling a bus that was supposed to have met the Pats at the Kamloops airport.
Oh, those were the days. . . .
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I also heard from Greg Evtushevski, who played for the Junior Oilers in those days and now operates a Source for Sports outlet in Kelowna.
“I loved that (story),” Chevy writes. “Dale is a great guy. Man, reading the article was so cool. Blood started pumping . . . those two games are the most memorable games ever. I often replay and think about them, probably because of the great feeling it was. Like Dale said, they had a strong team.
“I wonder if other guys float off into the past and think about those games.”
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And then there was this from Charlie McGeehan, a veteran of the junior hockey wars who now lives in Red Deer. In 1984, he was helping LaForge and the Blazers . . .
“I absolutely loved your article today on the 1984 WHL final. It sure brought back a lot of memories for me.
“Bill LaForge had asked me to join the team for the playoffs that year. My job was to sit upstairs and note how the other team was playing and we would make changes between periods. . . . .I had been doing that for the Kelowna Wings when Bill, who was upstairs in the press box in Kelowna after a game, asked to see my report on the Junior Oilers. He asked me that night to join the team. In Kamloops, I used to watch from the end of the arena, where the organ was. . . . (there were nice young men and their Dads playing the organ back then).
One night when we were in Regina, before Game 5, Bill and I were sitting killing time and talking about the two teams. Bill really felt the Pats were a better team on paper. We went through both rosters and the number of championships (at all levels of hockey) that the members of the Pats had won was staggering, and our total was very small. However, so many guys stepped up during that time . . . different guys on different nights . . . and, of course, the back end including Daryl Reaugh was solid.
At the Memorial Cup, there were a lot of memories . . . for our team not so much although the way we came back in Game 1 versus Kitchener was remarkable. Ottawa had perhaps the best defence I had seen in junior (at least up to that time) as Brad Shaw, Mark Patterson and Bruce Cassidy were unbelievable at the tournament. Mario Lemieux was with Laval and was playing not to get drafted by the Penguins.
Anyway . . . thanks for another great story.”
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The Derkatch piece twigged a memory for Glen Erickson, who used to live in Saskatoon and now calls Kelowna home. He also does a lot of writing for Hockey’s Future.
“I just got off the phone here with Greg Evtushevski,” Erickson wrote, “talking about the minor team he coaches in Kelowna. We did talk about the WHL, 1980's style, and I asked him about that game in Kamloops . . . the late goal in the final series. I just remember it as a fan back in the day. He just laughed and said, ‘Hey, you gotta read this story Gregg Drinnan wrote.’
“Anyway . . . it would have been during Derkatch's last season in midget AAA (he played for the Notre Dame Hounds). I was sitting in the rink in Wilcox for the second game of the provincial championship . . . Saskatoon Blazers and the Hounds, two-game, total goal. Winner goes to Halifax for the national championship. First game in Saskatoon was tied. The game in Wilcox was also tied. So . . . on to overtime. In the second overtime, Derkatch had a 2-on-1 . . . dished it over to Gary Leeman, who scored and of course, the place went nuts. . . . The goalie for the Saskatoon Blazers? Jamie Reeve.
“Gotta love the memories . . .”
Isn’t that the truth.