By Les Lazaruk
It was another example of “the first game home after a long road trip” blues, this time the Saskatoon Blades were victimized by them.
The Kamloops Blazers rolled over the Bridge City Bunch like monster truck tires over an unsuspecting creature Saturday evening to the tune of 4-1 in front of 4,024 fans at SaskTel Centre.
Nobody has a good reason why home teams stumble and bumble in the first game at home after a long time away. Heck, the Blades blanked the Winterhawks 4-0 last Sunday at the Moda Center after Portland breezed through the Central Division with a 5-0-1 record.
“Actually, it’s really difficult because the bus (ride home from the U.S. Division road trip) is 20 hours, so we’re still feeling that,” explained Saskatoon defenceman Libor Hajek, who broke Dylan Ferguson’s shutout bid with 8:39 remaining in the third period. “We had a couple of days off, but… we didn’t play a good game. We were soft. It wasn’t very good.”
Hajek’s goal came with Kamloops leading 3-0 on goals from Luc Smith, Luke Zazula and Nick Chyzowski. Saskatoon product Garrett Pilon finished the scoring into an empty Blades’ net.
“In the first period, we just kept turning the puck over and over and over again,” said Blades’ Head Coach Dean Brockman. “Eventually, it’s going to hurt you and it certainly did. With a minute left, you never like to give up a goal like that. It was a tough game for us. We just couldn’t find any legs.”
Kamloops outshot Saskatoon 29-26, were 2-for-4 on the power play and killed off all four Bridge City Bunch man advantages, as the Blazers won for the first time on their six-game East Division road trip. They opened Friday by letting a 4-2 third period lead slip away in a 6-5 shootout loss in Prince Albert. Kamloops improved to 14-15-1 for the season while Saskatoon fell to 11-16-3, remaining six points back of the Raiders for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. P.A. moves into SaskTel Centre for their first visit of the season Sunday afternoon at 2:05. It’s the Blades’ annual Teddy Bear Toss game.
Pacman Points – The Blazers have won six consecutive head-to-head meetings with the Bridge City Bunch…dating back to a 3-2, home-ice setback on November 23, 2012.
The victory was the 734th in the career of Kamloops head coach Don Hay, leaving him eight back of all-time leader Ken Hodge’s mark of 742 wins.
Chyzowski’s goal, on a second period power play, snapped a run of 14 consecutive, successful penalty kills for the Blades.
The Blazers won 25 of 49 faceoffs with Pilon leading the way by capturing possession for his team on seven of nine draws. Dryden Michaud was tops for the Blades, winning five of eight trips to the dot.
The busiest individual shooters overall were Pilon for Kamloops and Cam Hebig for Saskatoon…each with five shots on goal.
The Bridge City Bunch had 18-year-old Hunter Arps on the bench backing up Nolan Maier as the 16-year-old made his ninth consecutive start in goal for the Blue and Gold. Arps was acquired Friday from Victoria for fellow 18-year-old Joel Grzybowski.
The Blades scratched 17-year-old defenceman Randen Schmidt while three other deletions were injury-related. Goaltender Ryan Kubic (19) missed nine games with a knee injury, left winger Gage Ramsay was out for a third game with a groin problem while right winger Caleb Fantillo is sidelined with a knee hurt. Kubic’s status is day-to-day, Ramsay isn’t expected to return until after the Christmas break while Fantillo is out anywhere from six-to-eight weeks. Saskatoon has lost 74 man-games due to injury or illness this season.
All three Blazers’ scratches were coaches decisions. Defenceman Sean Strange, left winger Travis Walton and right winger Keltie Jeri-Leon. Kamloops has lost just 24 man-games to injury or illness so far.
