Blazers work OT for victory

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers’ seven-game losing streak flu away Friday night.
The Blazers erased a 4-1 second-period deficit and beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 6-5 in overtime before 4,295 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
The Blazers (9-9-2-0), who also had lost three straight at home, play here again tonight, this time against the Kelowna Rockets.
Right-winger Jimmy Bubnick, who had gone nine games without a goal, scored the winner at 2:05 of extra time, taking a pass from left-winger Brendan Ranford and cleanly beating Edmonton goaltender Cam Lanigan.
The 17-year-old Lanigan, who finished with 31 saves, was making a third straight start for the first time in the WHL. That’s because starter Torrie Jung, 20, is recovering from the flu.
For the Oil Kings’ previous two games, Jung worked out of a separate dressing room than his teammates but didn’t take the warmup.
Jung and forwards Robin Soudek and Cameron Maclise, who also have been ill, flew into Kamloops yesterday rather than ride the bus. Maclise, however, didn’t dress.
As well, the Oil Kings (7-11-0-3) left their leading sniper, right-winger Tomas Vincour, who has 10 goals, and equipment manager Rogan Dean at home.
But head coach Steve Pleau refused to use any of that as an excuse.
“No. I don’t think so. Not at all,” Pleau said. “If you put that gear on you have to be ready to go.
“I give (the Blazers) credit.”
In the end, the Oil Kings were done in by Edmonton natives Colin Smith, who was playing his first game this season, and Ranford.
Smith, who suffered a broken arm during an Aug. 26 practice, and Ranford, who had a goal and two assists for the first three-point night of his career, lined up alongside right-winger Tyler Shattock, who also had a goal and two helpers. They were too much for the visitors to handle for most of the night.
“I thought we were exposed wide all night,” Pleau said. “They did a good job off the rush of taking the puck wide and doing smarter things with it than we did.”
Smith, who finished with two assists, said any weariness he may have felt was taken care of by the excitement of playing in a game. He and Ranford were teammates in bantam hockey and live together, along with freshman forward JC Lipon.
“Obviously, (Edmonton) is our hometown team and it gets us pumped up more,” Ranford said. “But it was (Smith’s) first game . . . he was back and we were all pumped up in the house.”
On the ice, Ranford said, “We sort of play similar. We’re both hard-working and really shifty. He’s maybe got a little bit better hands than I do but I think my finish is a little bit better than his. But we work well together.”
As Smith, who had two assists and hit a post, put it: “It’s pretty easy to play with those two guys.”
Still, the home boys fell behind 4-1 when Edmonton defenceman Mark Pysyk scored on the power play at 1:09 of the second period.
“We got behind the 8-ball early and the guys showed some resiliency,” Blazers interim head coach Scott Ferguson said. “They could have gotten down on themselves but they pulled through. They get the credit tonight. They put forth a solid effort.”
Defenceman Bronson Maschmeyer and centre C.J. Stretch scored PP goals — the Blazers were 3-for-4 with the man advantage — to get the locals to within a goal going into the third period.
Left-winger Shayne Wiebe tied it at 2:06 of the third and Ranford, on the PP, shot the Blazers into the lead at 6:29.
But the Oil Kings, with Lanigan on the bench, forced OT when centre Brent Raedeke, who hit the cross-bar with 3:40 to play, redirected a Pysyk point shot with 36.1 seconds left.
Devin Balness, Michael St. Croix and Soudek also scored for Edmonton, which got three assists from defenceman Tyler Hlookoff.
Kamloops goaltender Justin Leclerc stopped 27 shots and didn’t get a whole lot of help in the early going as his mates struggled to clear traffic.
“The first three goals . . . I don’t know how much he saw of two of them for sure,” Ferguson said. “Defencemen have to do a good job of clearing guys out in front so he can see the puck.”
None of Leclerc’s stops was bigger than the sprawling pad save he made off Edmonton’s Brett Breitkreuz with 20 seconds left in the second period. A goal there may have killed the Blazers’ momentum while giving the visitors quite a lift.
“He made some big saves in the second period or it could have been ugly for us,” Ferguson said. “He battled through like everybody else.”
JUST NOTES: Referee Derek Zalaski gave each team seven minors. . . . Edmonton was 2-for-4 on the power play. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Ranford — a real Energizer Bunny in this one; 2. Smith — the Blazers’ magic man is back; 3. Pysyk — a horse back there. . . . With a sore wrist keeping G Jon Groenheyde from dressing, the Blazers had Jacob Mattes, 16, of the major midget Thompson Blazers backing up Leclerc. . . . The Blazers’ third goal in Tuesday’s 8-3 loss to the visiting Tri-City Americans has been changed. Originally credited to Jake Trask, with assists to Ranford and Maschmeyer, it has been given to Ranford with assists to Dylan Willick and Maschmeyer.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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