By GREGG DRINNAN

Daily News Sports Editor

Like the Hatfields and McCoys, Cleveland and LeBron, and the Red Sox and Yankees, the Kamloops Bruins and Chilliwack Bruins flat out don’t like each other.
If that wasn’t evident before, it certainly became crystal clear with the events of Saturday when the teams combined for 110 minutes in penalties during a WHL game at Prospera Centre in Chilliwack.
The Blazers won the game, 5-1, and 74 of those penalty minutes were dished out in the game’s last two minutes six seconds.
That included referee Andy Thiessen swinging Chilliwack forward Blair Wentworth around like a sack of dog food and the Blazers claiming that defenceman Brady Gaudet had been bitten during a late altercation.
The Blazers will be hoping to take a bite out of the Bruins tonight as the teams resume their rivalry at Interior Savings Centre. They meet again Saturday in Chilliwack. Game time both nights is 7 o’clock.
“It’s kind of been that way right from the get-go, right from the situation at the start of the (season) with (Chase) Souto,” offered Kamloops defenceman Brady Gaudet. “There’s been some bitterness between us.”
Wentworth was given a double minor for checking from behind for a hit on Souto as the visiting Blazers won 6-1 on Oct. 2 in what was the second meeting of the season between the teams. Wentworth was given a two-game suspension; Souto missed seven games with a concussion.
In the first meeting, on Sept. 25 in Kamloops, Souto had dropped Chilliwack defenceman Zach Habscheid in a late-game bout.
In five games, the Blazers have taken 236 of the 423 penalty minutes that have been handed out. (Kamloops remains the WHL’s most-penalized team, with 1,201 minutes; the Bruins are fourth, at 1,113.)
“They’re a really good hockey team and they work hard every night, and we do, too,” Kamloops left-winger Brendan Ranford said. “When two hard-working teams play against each other there are going to be some confrontations. That’s just how hockey is. We’re battling for a playoff spot, if confrontation comes up we have to battle through it.
“It’s almost like a playoff game every night playing against them. That’s playoff hockey. There are a lot of battles out there. It’s fun hockey.”
Gaudet found himself in the middle of the fun on Saturday, and it resulted in his second career scrap, this one with forward T.C. Cratsenberg. Gaudet emerged claiming he had been bitten.
“I was pretty certain it was a bite,” Gaudet said. “Where my hand was at the time, I knew it was in that region of his mouth and I felt something awfully sharp.”
There wasn’t any real proof, however, so the WHL wasn’t able to act on Kamloops’ complaints.
“That’s right,” said Gaudet, who received a game misconduct for being involved in the second fight during the same stoppage of play.
A big part of the rivalry, at least at this point of the season, may have something to do with the standings.
The Blazers (22-29-3) are in sole possession of the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, one point ahead of the Bruins (21-25-4) and two up on the Seattle Thunderbirds (18-25-9). Kamloops is four points behind the Prince George Cougars and Everett Silvertips, who are tied for sixth.
The race for eighth, however, has turned into more of a walk-a-thon. Kamloops, Chilliwack and Seattle are a combined 5-22-3 in their last 30 games.
The Blazers, who lost 3-2 to visiting Everett on Wednesday, have won two of their last 12 games. The Bruins, beaten 6-4 by the Rockets in Kelowna on Wednesday, have lost six straight.
“Since I’ve been here, every single game has been an absolute battle,” Blazers defenceman Austin Madaisky offered. “We’ve had games where there has been more than 200 penalty minutes.
“Chilliwack . . . you could really see last game when we got up a few goals they started looking for that. They’ve got a few guys who love to get under the skin of opposing players.
“We’re just going to have to go back in that building and play just like we did last time, and same with the game here at home.”
JUST NOTES: Kamloops F JT Barnett was in the penalty box for high-sticking when Everett F Tyler Maxwell scored the winning goal Wednesday. It was only the sixth time in 54 games that Barnett has been responsible for an opposition PP and the first time a goal has been scored while he was off. . . . The Blazers continue to without F Chase Schaber (leg) and G Cam Lanigan (concussion). . . . The Bruins are without F Steve Oursov (concussion) and F Jesse Pauls (leg), while veteran D Jeff Einhorn (leg) is listed as day-to-day. . . . Joe Renney, the father of former Blazers coach Tom Renney, died Tuesday night in Cranbrook after a long illness. Tom, the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, left the NHL team for a few days in the fall to spend time with his father. A funeral service is scheduled for Tuesday, 11 a.m., at McPherson’s Funeral Home (2200 2^nd St. South) in Cranbrook.

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers were double losers on Wednesday night - they lost a hockey game and their leading scorer no longer leads the WHL point parade.
The Medicine Hat Tigers, who skate as well as any team in the league, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and went on to a 4-1 victory over the Blazers before 3,857 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
Medicine Hat centre Linden Vey had a goal and an assist, giving him 67 points on the season, one more than left-winger Brendan Ranford of the Blazers, who was held off the scoresheet.
“I don't think it's something you worry about,” Vey, a 19-year-old from Wakaw, Sask., said of a potential scoring title. “It just happens. You go out there and focus on winning. At the end of the day, they don't remember who wins the scoring race; they remember who wins the championship.”
The Tigers (27-12-2) kept pace with the top bunch in the Eastern Conference - they are fourth, a point out of third - while the Blazers (20-22-2) remain tied for seventh in the Western Conference, two points out of sixth and one ahead of the Chilliwack Bruins.
Kamloops leaves today at 9 a.m., for Kennewick, Wash., and a Friday night date with the Tri-City Americans. Kamloops is at home to the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday night.
The Blazers had their chances last night - they outshot the visitors, 28-17 - but were done in by a wonky power play and the goaltending of Medicine Hat's Tyler Bunz.
“I thought we had chances,” offered Kamloops right-winger Jordan DePape, who said he isn't concerned over an offence that has two goals in its last two games, both losses. “We hit a couple of posts. We just needed a couple of bounces to go in.”
The Blazers ended up 1-for-7 on the power play, the goal coming off the stick of left-winger JT Barnett with the Tigers ahead 3-0 midway though the second period. The Kamloops power play also was torched for a shorthanded goal, as Vey set up the speedy Emerson Etem for the team's WHL-leading 12th such score.
That goal rounded out the night's scoring.
“Again, we generated some chances,” DePape said of a power-play unit that is ranked sixth in the WHL. “But we have to be better, especially defensively. They scored a shorthanded goal and we can't let that happen.”
The Blazers started OK but Medicine Hat's first goal, winger Tyler Pitlick's 17th just 5:43 in, seemed to set them on their heels. Even though the Blazers came out of the period with a 10-7 edge in shots, the Tigers dominated play.
“They came out with a lot of intensity,” Vey said. “Right off the bat they were after us. But we got pucks in and then we stuck to our game plan. We played simple, got pucks on net, got a few breaks and ended up with the win.”
It wasn't quite that simple, but that about sums it up.
Cole Grbavac, who began his WHL career with Kamloops, got his eighth goal in typical garbageman fashion, with the Tigers piling into the crease and hacking away until the puck got behind goaltender Jeff Bosch.
That would stand up as Grbavac's first game-winner this season.
The visitors went up 3-0 at 6:34, as winger Kellan Tochkin, acquired Monday from the Everett Silvertips, found Vey alone on the right side of the Blazers' zone. He zigged and zagged and beat Bosch for his 27th goal this season.
Not quite 10 minutes later, Bosch made a blocker save on Vey. As often happens, the play moved into the Medicine Hat zone and Barnett was able to shovel the puck under Bunz.
That goal gave the Blazers a lift, as did a glove save by Bosch on Medicine Hat captain Wacey Hamilton on a late Tigers' power play.
However, Kamloops wasn't able to put any more pucks behind Bunz, who finished with 27 saves in winning for the 20th time this season.
“He's played real well,” Vey said of Bunz, 18, who was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL draft. “He gives us confidence.
“We capitalized on our opportunities. We tried to keep pucks to the outside and our goaltender played well for us. He's played well the whole season and is a big part of the reason why we're winning.”
The Blazers had centre Chase Schaber back after their captain missed two games with a leg injury. But he obviously is still hurting and wasn't nearly as effective as he normally is.
And they welcomed back defenceman Josh Caron after a 41-game absence. Against a Medicine Hat team with tremendous speed, Caron was used sparingly as he returned from a broken collarbone suffered in the second game of the season.
JUST NOTES: Referee Steve Papp gave Medicine Hat seven of nine minors. . . . The Tigers were 0-for-2 on the power play with the first of those lasting just 11 seconds. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. D Sebastian Owuya: The 6-foot-4 Swede was a tower of power back there; 2. Bunz: 20 victories; 3. Barnett: Had some chances. . . . Oilers head scout Stu MacGregor was upstairs, no doubt watching Bunz and Pitlick, both of whom were 2010 Edmonton draft picks.

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After further review, Blazers win

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
JT Barnett admits that he was starting to wonder if he would ever score again.
But not only did he score one goal Tuesday night, he set up two others, as his Kamloops Blazers skated to a 4-3 overtime WHL victory over the Regina Pats in front of 3,802 fans at Interior Savings Centre.
Still, it wasn’t until an interminably long video review that a winner was declared.
The Blazers started OT on the power play and fired four shots at Regina goaltender Damien Ketlo before finally beating him. They did that when forward Dalibor Bortnak dived and chipped the puck over a prone Ketlo. The goaltender, who finished with 38 saves, reached back and caught the puck.
Referee Pat Smith, positioned by the Regina net, immediately and emphatically waved it off. He then skated to the penalty box and asked for the phone that connects to the video review booth.
The question, then, was with the position of Ketlo’s glove relative to the goal line when he caught the puck.
The length of the review was due to a fuzzy picture upstairs, but Jason Rende, the video goal judge, over-ruled the call on the ice. The game was televised by Shaw and its picture confirmed Bortnak’s seventh goal of the season.
The victory lifted the Blazers (12-11-1) out of the Western Conference’s basement, past three teams and into a tie for sixth place. Nine of the 10 teams now are separated by only five points.
With linemates Brendan Ranford and Chase Schaber, their two leading scorers, and winger JC Lipon serving WHL-issued suspensions, the Blazers knew they would need someone to step up in this one.
Little did they know it would be Barnett, a 21-goal man last season with the Vancouver Giants who had gone 10 games without a goal.
“I was still getting chances,” the 18-year-old Barnett said. “I just wasn’t capitalizing on them.”
So who better to talk with than a couple of veteran hockey men?
“I sat down with (head coach Guy Charron),” Barnett said, “and said, ‘Look, I know I’m not playing as well as I can and I know I need to play better. What are some of the things I need to focus on?”
Barnett also talked with his father, Michael, who once was Wayne Gretzky’s agent and also was GM of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. He now is in the New York Rangers’ front office.
“You just have to look back and ask, ‘What was I doing when I was playing well, or when I thought I was playing well?’ ” the younger Barnett continued.
So he looked back at video of when things were going better and “tried to do that tonight and it worked out.”
He scored the goal, his sixth of the season, at 12:25 of the second period to forge a 2-2 tie. As his backhander dented the twine, Barnett looked to the heavens.
It was, he said, a look that signified “a little bit of relief.”
Which is what the Blazers felt when video review confirmed Bortnak’s goal. This was the first of four games in five nights for the home boys, who left last night for Spokane, where they are to meet the Chiefs tonight.
“We needed a strong team effort and we felt that (goaltender Cam) Lanigan would have to be strong . . .  which he was,” Charron said.
With starter Jeff Bosch (concussion) sidelined, Lanigan stopped 30 shots in a solid performance.
Also turning in a strong effort was sophomore forward Dylan Willick, who forced overtime with a tremendous goal. He beat defenceman Ricard Blidstrand along the right boards in the Regina zone and then out-muscled forward Trent Ouellette behind the net, before beating Ketlo on the playgrounder.
The Blazers, at the time, were just 4:26 from tasting defeat.
Centre Matt Needham, the Blazers’ first-round pick in the 2010 bantam draft, scored his first WHL goal, snapping a long rebound past Ketlo in the first period to open the scoring.
Chandler Stephenson, Carter Ashton and Myles Bell replied for the Pats (7-13-5), who now are 1-0-2 on a B.C. Division tour that continues tonight in Kelowna against the Rockets.
With Kamloops missing Ranford and Schaber, the Pats needed a big game from their top line, which features Jordan Weal between Ashton and Thomas Frazee. But the visitors didn’t get anything close to that from those three.
“If you play disciplined and play good defence you allow yourself to win hockey games,” Charron pointed out.
JUST NOTES: Referees Steve Papp and Smith gave Regina eight of 12 minors and one of two majors. . . . Regina was 1-for-2 on the power play; the Blazers were 1-for-6. . . . Regina wore its third jerseys which salute the 1924 Pats. . . . The Daily News Three Stars: 1. Barnett: Three points, finally; 2. Ketlo: Gave his guys a chance to win; 3. Kamloops F Dylan Willick: Hard work rewarded with a goal. . . . Bosch may return as the backup to Lanigan on Friday night. . . . The Blazers left for Spokane immediately after last night’s game. . . . Needham returned to Penticton after the game, while F Aspen Sterzer, who was solid in his WHL debut, and G Troy Trombley were on the bus to Spokane. . . . Ranford will be eligible to play tonight.
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Barnett eager to meet up with Giants again

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
JT Barnett can’t wait for Dec. 27.
It’s not that he is in a hurry for Christmas to come and go. Rather, he eagerly anticipates another meeting with the Vancouver Giants.
Barnett, a right winger from Scottsdale, Ariz., was acquired by the Kamloops Blazers from the Giants on July 30 for a second-round pick in the 2011 WHL bantam draft.
From the moment he was traded, Barnett had Oct. 9 and 11 on his calendar. Those were the dates of the first two of eight regular-season clashes between his new team and his old one.
The Blazers beat the host Giants 5-4 in overtime on Saturday night, then dropped a 5-4 decision at Interior Savings Centre on Monday.
“There was a lot of emotion behind it,” Barnett said of his weekend. “I’m glad that we got the win in Vancouver, but I would have liked to have the win here, too.
“No, I’m not glad they’re over. I’m excited for the next one.”
The next one is Dec. 27 when the Blazers open their post-Christmas schedule in Vancouver.
“It was different,” Barnett said of playing for the visiting team in Pacific Coliseum. “It was different dressing in the away locker-room. But I loved it. I liked it a lot.
“There was tons of emotion and it was probably one of the more exciting wins I’ve had.”
The Blazers got off to a good start Saturday, opening a 2-0 first-period lead and then having to come from behind to win in overtime on a goal by defenceman Linden Saip, who also started his WHL career with the Giants.
On Monday, the Blazers again got off to a good start but this time, while they outshot the Giants 8-0 in the early going, they weren’t able to score and soon found themselves trailing, 3-0.
“We were fired up for both games,” Barnett said. “Before both games, everybody was good in the locker-room. In the first game, we got off to a quick start with two goals in the first period.
“(On Monday), we got off to more of a slow start. As soon as (Vancouver) got the first one it kind of put us on our heels.”
With the Blazers (3-4-0-1) going into Kelowna to play the Rockets (2-4-0-0) tonight, Barnett knows that discipline will be a factor.
“We got a lot of penalties (Monday),” he said. “We have to really try to hold off on taking penalties. We just shoot ourselves in the foot. Really, we do.”
That, of course, has been an ongoing problem with the Blazers, who led the WHL last season in penalty minutes and power-play opportunities faced.
And guess who is leading the parade again this season? The Blazers have put up 252 minutes in eight games and only three other teams are over 200 — Vancouver, 235 in nine games, the Lethbridge Hurricanes (201/7) and the Prince Albert Raiders (201/9).
The Blazers have faced 49 opposition power plays, the fifth-highest total in the WHL. But their penalty-killing unit is ranked 19th, at 75.5 per cent. They have given up 12 power-play goals, a figure topped only by Prince Albert’s 13.
Against the Giants, the Blazers frequently found themselves tangled up in scrums near their goal.
“The Giants’ mentality is to go to the net . . . go to the net really hard,” Barnett said. “They do a good job on that and we have to make sure that we don’t take any penalties in front of the net which is where most of the penalties came (on Monday).”
As the Blazers go into Kelowna, Barnett finds himself playing on the Blazers’ No. 1 line, on the right side with centre Chase Schaber and left-winger Brendan Ranford.
Barnett, a 21-goal man last season, has seven points, including three goals, in eight games. His point total leaves him third on the team, behind Ranford, who has 12 points, and Schaber, who has 11.
The Rockets, meanwhile, have won their last two games, both in overtime, after opening the season with four straight losses.
Kelowna is coming off a weekend in which it played three games in as many nights and went 2-1-0-0. The Rockets lost 4-1 in Vancouver on Friday, beat the visiting Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 in OT on Saturday, and then came back from a 3-0 third-period deficit to beat the Silvertips in Everett 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday.
Tyson Barrie, voted the WHL’s top defenceman last season, has played only two games because of hamstring problems, while forward Shane McColgan, who had his tonsils out during training camp, has one assist in three games. Last season, Barrie led the Rockets with 72 points, while McColgan, then a 16-year-old freshman, had 69.
JUST NOTES: Blazers GM Craig Bonner said yesterday that it is “doubtful” that either RW Jordan DePape (shoulder) or RW Chase Souto (concussion) will play tonight. Both have missed four games. . . . The Blazers’ next home game is Friday against the Portland Winterhawks. Game time at Interior Savings Centre will be 7 p.m. . . . The Blazers have had 21 fights in the first eight games of the regular season. . . . Through five home games, the Blazers are averaging 4,022 fans. After five home games last season, the average was 4,309.

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