Blazers defeat Hitmen in shootout

Calgary struggles to ‘close’

Ona night when Canadian fans were focused on hockey in Calgary, the junior teams did supply a dash of excitement.

But the drama took place across town from that rink in the ski hill’s shadow.

At the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Kamloops Blazers needed a shootout to edge the Calgary Hitmen 3-2 in Western Hockey League action Tuesday.

With a wicked deke on Hitmen goalie Chris Driedger, Brendan Ranford provided the decisive strike for the visitors, who won their fourth straight. Already counting in the shootout had been Calgary’s Victor Rask and Kamloops’ Colin Smith.

Despite seeing his boys fritter away a two-goal lead, Hitmen coach Mike Williamson wasn’t doing any post-game griping.

“I thought we played well,” said Williamson. “I thought we had a good start. Obviously when you have a 2-0 lead, you’d like to get that next one or close them out.

“Overall, it was two good teams. We know we have to find a way to win that hockey game. But we didn’t. And now we have to get ready for Red Deer (on Wednesday).”

The game against the Rebels happens to be on the road, where the Hitmen have put together a dandy 11-1-1 log.

At home, however, they’ve had their troubles — only 9-63. But the skipper is convinced that things are looking up.

“Pretty much start to finish, we were solid,” said Williamson. “The effort we had, I think I’ll take. That will lead to our share of wins. It didn’t (Tuesday), but most times I think it will.”

Some of that might have to do with Smith.

The league’s leading scorer — undoubtedly fuelled by his non-invite to the national junior camp (unlike linemate JC Lipon, who is at WinSport this week) — was dominant in the second half.

By scoring twice — fouron-four in the second period, power-play conversion 19 seconds into the third — Smith helped to force overtime.

As a capper, he buried a shootout beauty.

“Your awareness certainly has to be good,” Williamson of Smith. “On his first goal, we have key guys on the ice and he gets lost and gets the clear look in the slot. That can’t happen. We lost coverage and it ended up in our net.”

The Hitmen did have their own potential differencemakers.

Pavlo Padakin had the best chance to crack the third-period stalemate, but his closerange attempt clanked harmlessly off the post.

In overtime, Rask, too, ripped one off the iron.

Managing to connect for the hosts were Zane Jones, who, dipsy-doodling around Tyler Hansen, opened the scoring at 13:09. Brady Brassart extended the Hitmen lead when he rapped a power-play shot past Blazers netminder Cole Cheveldave in the second period.

“I believe we worked for basically almost a full 60 minutes,” said Jones. “But we should’ve had that locked up.”

The Hitmen, too, weren’t oblivious to the guests’ profile.

Being able to stare down the Blazers, who had started this season 16-0-1, and knock them down a peg would have been nice.

“It was a big challenge for us,” said Jones, “like a marker, ‘Can we beat the best team in that division?’ I think we played good enough to do it. But we couldn’t close.”

Because, again, the Saddledome hasn’t been kind to the Hitmen.

“We’re still trying to find that issue — what it is at home,” said Brassart. “Maybe being too comfortable or being a little laid back ... but it’s something we have to address because it’s a long season. You want to have your best hockey at home.”