Rockets lend helping hand

By MARK HUNTER
Daily News Sports Reporter
The Kelowna Rockets, apparently engulfed in the Christmas spirit, reached
out to their fellow men Friday.
Whether that continues tonight . . . well, that's unlikely.
The Rockets went out of their way Friday to help the Kamloops Blazers, one
of their biggest WHL rivals. This, despite the fact the two teams meet
tonight in Kelowna in their first game back after a 10-day Christmas break.
The Blazers are scheduled to return home Sunday to play the Prince George
Cougars (5 p.m., Interior Savings Centre).
On Friday, the Rockets and Blazers put aside their rivalry, at least for a
few hours, in helping a few stranded players get home.
With four Blazers and head coach Barry Smith stuck at Vancouver
International Airport -- provincial flights out of the airport were cancelled
due to snow -- Rockets president/GM Bruce Hamilton lent Kamloops a hand.
Since the Rockets were sending their bus to Vancouver to pick up eight of
their players, they offered to allow the Blazers players to hop in.
"Kelowna was terrific," said Blazers general manager Craig Bonner, from the
Kamloops airport, where his Friday flight to Calgary was delayed. "Mr.
Hamilton phoned this morning and said if we needed anything, they were
sending their bus up. They were very gracious with that and helped us out a
lot."
The Blazers players -- goaltender Jon Groenheyde, centre C.J. Stretch and
defencemen Linden Saip and Brandon Underwood -- and Smith took the Rockets'
bus to Merritt last night, before catching a lift to Kamloops from there.
All are expected to be ready for tonight's game, although they missed a
Friday practice.
"They're a little later than anticipated," Bonner said.
The missing Rockets were goaltender Adam Brown, defencemen Tysen Dowzak,
Tyson Barrie and Collin Bowman, and forwards Colin Long, Spencer Main, Kyle
Verdino and Mitchell Callahan.
Rockets vice-president of business development Gavin Hamilton rode the bus
and helped pick up the players at the airport, which was in a state of disarray.
"What a gong show," he told Doyle Potenteau of the Kelowna Daily Courier.
JUST NOTES: Bonner was heading to Calgary to scout the Mac's midget
tournament. . . . Blazers F Dalibor Bortnak, who went home to Slovakia for
the holidays, made it safely back to Kamloops. . . . His countryman, D
Michal Siska, is in Ottawa for the World Junior Championship. . . . The
Slovaks open the tournament today against Latvia. . . . The WHL, which has
been off since Dec. 17, has all 22 teams playing tonight. . . . The Rockets
have three players at the World Junior Championship -- F Stepan Novotny is
playing for Czech Republic, while F Jamie Benn and D Tyler Myers are with
Canada.