Blazers play back-to-back against Vancouver this weekend (Image Credit: Allen Douglas / Kamloops Blazers)

By Chad Klassen

BLAZERS' DOMINANCE

Blazers embrace little adversity in Kelowna amidst dominant start to season

Nov 12, 2021 | 5:12 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Blazers have been dominant through 13 games this season. They’ve outscored their opponents 67-28, an average of 5-2 every game.

The Vancouver Giants have been victims of it twice — shut out 5-0 in the first meeting on Oct. 16 and then defeated 7-4 six days later.

“We’ve got good goaltender. That’s going to keep you in most games. So that’s part of it,” said head coach Shaun Clouston on the dominance of the team. “We’ve got a veteran group on the backend. You look at our top guys back there — [Quinn] Schmiemann and [Viktor] Persson being 20 and [Ethan] Brandwood and [Marko] Stacha being a 19 year old — so we’ve got a veteran group. That’ll give you some stability.”

Even when the Blazers don’t feel like they play their best, like in the 3-2 loss Wednesday in Kelowna, they keep games close. It speaks to the depth of talent on the roster.

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“We have a really good roster. Obviously you need that to be a good team, but I feel like we’re well-coached and when we play our game and play within our structure that we play with, then that’s what makes us so dominant,” said Blazers netminder Dylan Garand.

The structure was missing on Wednesday against the Rockets. Associate coach Mark Hollick said after the game there were too many passengers. While only one loss, dropping the Blazers to 11-2, a little bump in the road, even for a talented team, can be a good thing at the beginning of the year.

“I feel like no matter how good you are, there’s always going to be adversity throughout the whole season. It’s definitely a long year,” noted Garand. “We kind of had a good start and now we hit that little bump last Wednesday. It’s definitely a good wake-up call for our group. We know that we can be a lot better than how we played on Wednesday. It’s good to get refocused and get back to what makes us good and get that hunger back to keep winning games.”

Kamloops gets Vancouver back-to-back this weekend, starting tonight at the Sandman Centre. The Giants are second in the B.C. Division at 7-3-1 — seven points back of the Blazers for first.

“They’re probably looking for a better effort [than the first two meetings]. I don’t know if revenge is the right word, but just some payback,” noted Clouston. “I think this is a tough league. If you want to have success, you have to get yourself ready and you have to play your game. I think Vancouver’s going to be a real good team tonight.”