(All photos courtesy of Mick White/Kent Valley Sports)
The Kamloops Blazers rode into Kent looking to redeem themselves from last weekend’s 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the Seattle Thunderbirds at Interior Savings Center. Since that loss, the Blazers had lost to the Spokane Chiefs and Everett Silvertips, and were sorely looking to regain some of their footing. The T-Birds, on the other hand, had won 4 out of their last 5 games and were back home, looking to keep that momentum going. Seattle put Calvin Pickard in net, while big Jon Groenheyde (all 6’4” of him) manned the post for Kamloops.
Right from the opening face-off, this was a physical game, with lots of pushing, shoving and hard hits. About halfway through the first, T-Birds D-man Steve Chaffin took a hard hit that slammed him into the boards awkwardly. He fell face-first onto the ice and did not move for several seconds. A trainer rushed over and finally, more than a minute later, he and Pickard helped Chaffin skate off the ice toward the locker room. I couldn’t tell what was wrong, but Steve seemed to be favoring his left side. Kamloops Captain Tyler Shattock went to the box, then, after an exchange with the ref, was sent packing. He yelled angrily at the ref, threw his stick at the wall and stormed off to a chorus of cheers and boos from T-Birds’ fans. He was given a 5 minute major for boarding, a 10 minute misconduct and a game misconduct.
The ensuing long power play saw Sena Acolatse working hard to keep the puck in the Blazers’ zone. No matter where the puck went, Sena was there, slapping it back in. One of his shots hit Kamloops goalie Groenheyde in the gut. Groenheyde cleared it, but it quickly came back down to Kamloops’ end, courtesy of some great set up work between Prab Rai and Lindsay Nielsen. Nielsen scored at 15:16 (PP), with help from Rai and Charles Wells. The Blazers answered immediately. Shayne Wiebe shot one past Pickard at 15:55 (SH) to tie things up. As the first period wound down, Kamloops went to the box again, as Matej Bene was called for hooking at 18:16. The period ended in a 1-1 tie. SOG: Kamloops 5, Seattle 16.
The second period was as aggressive as the first. The hits were hard and the game moved quickly from end to end. The Blazers fired more shots at Calvin Pickard this period, but could not find a way past him. There were even a couple of shots where the puck SHOULD have gone in—but took very lucky T-Birds bounces, and one clanged very loudly off the left post. Lindsay Nielsen and Prab Rai teamed up again for Seattle’s second goal of the game at 15:17. Rai fed Erik Fleming, who passed to Nielsen, who fired it past Jon Groenheyde. On the next series of plays, Calvin Pickard withstood an onslaught by Blazers players, who converged around him and tried to jam the puck in. Again, he held them off.
The final 5 minutes of the period passed very quickly, again with hard hits but only one penalty, to the Blazers’ C.J. Stretch (slashing at 16:57). One player also sent the puck flying into the stands. It looks as though someone caught it (and not with their face). The second period ended with the T-Birds up 2-1. SOG: Kamloops 10, Seattle 10.
The third period is where things got very ugly right from the start. Kamloops was playing much more aggressively and Seattle was not backing down. This meant more hard hits, pushing and shoving, a few scuffles and lots of penalties. In fact, the third period saw 13 penalties; 9 to Kamloops (tripping, slashing, checking from behind, 2 roughing calls, 2 boarding calls, and 2 10-minute misconducts). 4 went to Seattle (Stefan Warg: checking from behind; Lindsay Nielsen: delay of game; Brendan Rouse: unsportsmanlike conduct and roughing). The T-Birds found themselves on the power play a number of times in the third but only capitalized once. Sena Acolatse fired one past Groenheyde at 14:22. Jeremy Schappert and Jonathan Parker got the assists. Just as Sena scored, Groenheyde somehow went down. I don’t know if he was hit or lost his footing, but he fell awkwardly and took a few minutes to get back to his feet. A time out was called and he went to the bench, but returned to net when the time out ended.
Pickard was in top form the rest of the 3rd, keeping the Blazers from scoring. The crowd counted down the final five seconds of the period and erupted into cheers at the final score: Seattle 3, Kamloops 1. SOG for the third: Kamloops 7, Seattle 8. Total SOG: Kamloops 22, Seattle 34. The “Three Stars of the Game” came as no surprise: 1. Lindsay Nielsen, 2. Prab Rai, 3. Sena Acolatse
After the game, T-Birds Captain Lindsay Nielsen talked about the chemistry he has with Prab Rai, saying that having someone as talented as Rai setting up shots for him, it was only a matter of time before they scored. He also said this is a long, 72-game season and that he’s happy that the team seems to be gelling better now than they were at the start of the season, and that he’s optimistic that they’ll only continue to play better.
Seattle Head Coach Rob Sumner was a little more cautious, telling play by play guy Thom Buening, “We were decent tonight. There were things we could have done better. We had the benefit of many power plays to get shots on net. There’s no such thing as a bad win, but we can play better than we did tonight.
Sumner also said he liked some of the combinations he played in the last few games, saying it’s giving him a better look at some players, but his main focus was on fixing some of the mistakes he saw and working to get the puck back and control it for longer periods of time. The T-Birds will get that chance tonight, as they welcome the Everett Silvertips to ShoWare Center. The puck drops tonight at 7:05. You can find more information about the Seattle Thunderbirds by clicking here.
As I said, this was a very physical game that could have deteriorated more than it did. Tempers ran very hot and there were several times when referees had to step between players at either end of the ice. Both goalies (Pickard & Groenheyde) were run into and knocked down several times. Charles Wells fell in front of Kamloops’ net and the momentum carried him into Groenheyde, who went down and knocked the net off the mooring. I alluded to the penalties in this game. Because there were so many, I’ve listed them below, by period:
First Period:
1:09 Brendan Ranford (Kamloops) – hooking (2 min)
8:14 Jonathan Parker (Seattle) – hooking (2 min)
12:11 Tyler Shattock (Kamloops) – major boarding (5 min)
12:11 Tyler Shattock (Kamloops) – 10-minute misconduct
12:11 Tyler Shattock (Kamloops) – game misconduct
18:16 Matej Bene (Kamloops) – hooking (2 min)
Second Period:
16:57 C.J. Stretch (Kamloops) – slashing (2 min)
Third Period:
1:52 Jake Trask (Kamloops) – tripping (2 min)
5:14 Tyler Hansen (Kamloops) – boarding (2 min)
10:39 Stefan Warg (Seattle) – checking from behind (2 min)
11:17 Jimmy Bubnick (Kamloops) – slashing (2 min)
11:17 Lindsay Nielsen (Seattle) – delay of game (2 min)
12:26 C.J. Stretch (Kamloops) – roughing (2 min)
12:26 Shayne Wiebe (Kamloops) – roughing (2 min)
13:20 Linden Saip (Kamloops) – roughing (2 min)
13:20 Brendan Rouse (Seattle) – unsportsmanlike conduct (2 min)
13:20 Brendan Rouse (Seattle) – roughing (2 min)
16:44 Brett Lyon (Kamloops) – checking from behind (2 min)
20:00 Jimmy Bubnick (Kamloops) – 10-minute misconduct
20:00 Mark Hall (Kamloops) – 10-minute misconduct
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