Blazers downed by Pats; Home cooking not so sweet

Coming into Tuesday night’s game the Kamloops Blazers had won their last two. The Regina Pats had lost their last three, all on the road against British Columbia based teams. In both team’s cases they would be looking at this game as winnable. Regina came in second last in the Eastern Conference and Kamloops last in the West.

Early in the first period it was evident the Blazers wanted to play physical against a tired Regina team in their fourth game of a road trip. Breaking the deadlock early with his 15th of the season was forward and leading scorer Zane Franklin. The Marwayne, Alberta native finished off a nifty backhand pass from speedster Orrin Centazzo. The goal was hotly contested from the Regina bench as Head Coach and Assistant GM Dave Struch were adamant the play was offside. Upon video review, it looks like it was, of course there are no coache’s challenges in the WHL.

Close Offside Play

The second period belonged to Regina, the shots were close, 11-10 for the Pats. The play was not. The ice was decidedly tilted towards overage goaltender Dylan Ferguson. 2000-born d-man Marco Creta opened the scoring for Regina five minutes into the frame. Regina continued to push the Blazers and broke through again with 16 seconds left in the period. Jake Leschyshyn found teammate Nick Henry in the slot and he made no mistake knocking Ferguson’s water bottle nearly over the back glass. Regina had another close opportunity right at the horn but failed to score. 2-1 the score after 40 minutes.

Nine minutes into the third Regina forward Riley Krane scored his third of the season by crashing the net and banging a puck home. Ferguson was not happy as he was bumped in the process. The refs came together to discuss the play, but ultimately the goal stood. To Kamloops’ credit they didn’t quit. They came in waves in the second half of the period and were able to score with six minutes left in the game. 16-year-old Kyrell Sopotyk pounced on a rebound from a Montana Onyebuchi shot to cut the deficit to one. The Blazers continued to push but failed to find the equalizer. Regina took the two points in a game the Blazers will be kicking themselves over. After the game, head coach Serge Lajoie was visibly disappointed “The game plan was very clear, it was not complicated. It comes down to wanting the execute the game plan. Combine that with consistent work ethic and pride in outworking your opponent. I thought the third period we saw glimpses of it.” He went on to talk about their troubles at home “I don’t know what it is at home, we look for pretty, and sexy instead of simple and safe.”

“we look for pretty, and sexy instead of simple and safe” – Serge Lajoie

It’s clear Lajoie knows his team has more to give “We are passing up opportunities to take a step forward… When I can’t say confidently that we are a better team than we were at the beginning of the game thats what really gets me disappointed. We are no where near where we could be… I’m disappointed for the guys, I think they sell themselves short. I think they need to out down their guard, be vulnerable, and let us push them… We can get these guys to where we are one of the better teams in the WHL.”

One positive note for Kamloops was their penalty kill. The Blazers went 3-for-3 down a man bringing their season percentage up to 71.6% – good for 18th in the league. Lajoie talked about the uptick in the PK after the game “That’s something that I have relinquished, Dan Kordic is now the voice behind the PK and he’s doing a fantastic job. We have simplified it and the guys are buying in.” Three games ago they were dead last.

Kamloops will need to forget about this one quickly if they hope to make hay on a tough two game road trip to the US division.