In this photo: Nick Chyzowski of the Kamloops Blazers ended Mitchell Walter’s night with this right hand. The Portland Winterhawk was shaken up and unable to return to action at Interior Savings Centre on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Allen Douglas/KTW
In a season that has been filled with slow starts, the Kamloops Blazers flipped the script on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at Interior Savings Centre.
Kamloops (15-24-3-3) scored four unanswered goals in the first period, with Ryan Rehill, Deven Sideroff, Matt Needham and Collin Shirley doing the damage, and went on to beat the Portland Winterhawks 6-2.
“I don’t think we’ve had many starts like that, where we’ve been able to get three or four goals,” Blazers head coach Don Hay told reporters after the game.
“It was key to the game. We didn’t give them a lot to get going.”
Portland goaltender Adin Hill looked shaky on Rehill’s marker, a point shot that found its way into the net at 1:44 of the opening frame.
Sideroff benefited from the nifty handy work of linemates Cole Ully and Matt Needham, each of whom worked to free the puck behind the Winterhawks’ net.
The 17-year-old from Summerland accepted a pass in front and fired a shot over Hill at 7:01.
Mitchell Walter took a cross-checking penalty at 13:55, hitting Blazer defenceman Michael Fora from behind.
Needham made Walter pay on the power play, pouncing on a rebound and sending it home at 14:25.
Shirley rounded out the first-period scoring with a shot that beat Hill from a bad angle.
Hill was pulled and replaced Evan Johnson after the first period, which saw Kamloops netminder Connor Ingram stop all seven shots that came his way.
The middle stanza was a good one for the visitors, who pulled two goals back, with Dominic Turgeon and Alex Schoenborn lighting the lamp at 6:07 and 13:12, respectively.
“We stopped checking,” Hay said of his team’s second-period effort. “We stopped looking after the puck and doing the things that made us so successful in the first period.
“They gained momentum. They gained hope.”
Walter and Nick Chyzowski squared off in a fight at 3:37, a scrap that ended when the Kamloops kid landed a heavy right and dropped his Winterhawk opponent, who did not return to the game.
Ingram made what was likely his most-important stop near the end of the second period, a sprawling left-pad save that preserved the home team’s two-goal lead.
Portland (23-19-0-3) outshout Kamloops 12-8 in the second period.
Any momentum the Winterhawks gathered evaporated when Needham cut to the middle of the ice and fired a wrist shot upstairs past Johnson at 1:30 of the third period.
Needham finished the game with two goals and four points.
“We were able to regroup and play a real solid third,” Hay said.
Ully notched the game’s last goal on the power play at 17:12. It was the Calgary product’s 200th WHL point.
The Blazers will be looking for their 10th home win of the season when the Vancouver Giants visit ISC on Saturday, Jan. 17. Game time is 7 p.m.
“It’s nice to have the music back on and guys feeling good about each other,” Hay said on Wednesday night.
“You work hard, you get rewarded. We were rewarded tonight.”
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