Blazers out-play league leaders to get back to .500

By Matthew Gourlie

The Kamloops Blazers weren’t shy about making their pleasure known Friday night.

The Blazers’ celebrations were a little more vocal than usual for a mid-season game, but then again it’s not every night that you beat the top-ranked team in the Western Hockey League in their own barn.

As happy as the Blazers were with their 5-2 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors, they were even more pleased to raise their record to 16-16-0-1.

While reaching .500 may not seem like a huge feat, when you start the season 0-9, it’s a long road back.

Jermaine Loewen

“It was really important for us to get back to .500 on the year,” said Blazers forward Jermaine Loewen who scored a pair of insurance goals in the third period. “It’s been quite a ride, but it was big for us to get the win tonight.”

“That adversity in the beginning of the season is making us stronger right now. We’ve worked really hard and I think we’ve found our team identity which is being hard on the other team and being hard on the forecheck.”

The Blazers were hard on the Warriors all night in both ends of the rink and were able to set a physical tone.

“We tried to focus on getting on them as a group and being physical. We wanted to make sure we got back and picked up guys coming through the neutral zone,” said Loewen who was born in Jamaica and didn’t play his first organized hockey game until he was 10.

“We’re a bunch of hard-working, blue collar guys and we have big guys like me and (Luc Smith) who like to get on the forecheck and put some fear into the opponents. That was critical for us tonight.”

For the Warriors (26-6-1-1), it was their second regulation loss in their last 20 games. Still, they were decidedly unhappy with their effort on the night.

“We’ve got to get a lot better in that room and it starts with the older guys — myself included — we were all real bad tonight,” said Warriors leading scorer Brayden Burke.

“We didn’t break one puck out clean tonight, defence weren’t getting to pucks, forwards weren’t getting back to help them and when you have that it’s a pretty big recipe for disaster.

“We got what we deserved tonight.”

Brayden Burke

Burke conceded that with two games left before the break they might have been caught looking ahead a little. That’s not a unique problem, but when asked if, over 72 games, a night like the one they just had wasn’t to be expected from time to time, he wasn’t willing to accept that.

“If we can focus and come into the rink with the right attitude we should never have these games,” Burke said. “We’re the top team. We should be coming into every game thinking we want to win and show what we are. If we come out like that, we’re not going to beat anyone in this league.

“We shot ourselves in the foot. This was probably the worst game we played in 34 games. It’s pretty bad for us to come out that way, especially with two games left before Christmas. We’re pretty disappointed in that room, but it is what it is. We can only move forward.”

The Warriors were without defencemen Josh Brook and Jett Woo and captain Brett Howden who made the Canadian world junior team Friday night.

The Warriors have dressed four rookie blue liners often this season, but Friday was a rare night where they looked like rookies. Two defensive giveaways sent Blazers in clean for goals and a defensive zone breakdown left Luc Smith all alone in front for a power-play goal.

Kamloop’s Brodi Stuart opened the scoring 1:34 into the game before Moose Jaw’s Tanner Jeannot tied the game.

Adam Evanoff has been outstanding to start his rookie season. He had won his first seven starts in the WHL, but was caught off-guard on a wrap-around by Blazer Carson Denomie to give Kamloops a 3-1 lead. Evanoff settled back in and made 30 saves on the night.

Burke finished off a two-on-one with Tanner Jeannot with 33 seconds left in the first period to cut the Kamloops lead to 3-2. In the final two periods, the Blazers out-shot the Warriors 24-8 as they locked down the Moose Jaw attack. Loewen finally added an insurance goal with 4:50 left before scoring into an empty net.

Kamloops was able to clamp down on the Warriors in their zone, but Burke said they have to fight through that attention.

“We have to play through it. We’re faster than them, we have more skill, if we can play the way we should we wouldn’t need the power plays,” Burke said. “When we stop skating and are a little hesitant to get to pucks, then we’re playing their style and they’re probably going to beat us.”

The Blazers’ physicality on the forecheck was evident all night and the Warriors’ struggled to break out of their zone and make clean passes to start their transition game.

“Obviously we knew that Moose Jaw was a potent offensive team and we came in and tried to limit them to as few chances as possible. I thought we did an excellent job tonight and in the third period we shut them down,” Loewen said.

Kamloops goalie Dylan Ferguson only had 15 saves to make, but he did rob Burke alone in front early in the third period to preserve the Blazers’ lead.