Kamloops Blazers racking up wins, hoping that will soon translate into a packed arena

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Surely the Kamloops Blazers would be filling the Sandman Center bleachers if they could.

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The Blazers have one of their best teams in years, going 13-2-0-0 to the Western Hockey League season. Its Home Health region has stricter restrictions than other areas in the province due to growing concern over the COVID-19 case, and as a result, the Blazers are only allowed to fill the Sandman Center to 50 percent capacity. hockey specific to 5,914.

Friday’s 6-1 fight over the Vancouver Giants marked the fifth time in as many starts at home this season that they have peaked at 2,957.

“Speaking to the higher ups, we probably would have had more than 5,000 in the building yesterday if it was allowed,” said Blazer general manager and head coach Shaun Clouston after a 2-1 win over the Giants before a crowd. of 3,542 at the 5,276-seat Langley Events Center on Saturday. “It is disappointing, but I hope it is not much more.

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“I think people are excited (about the team). People are excited to come to the games. Right now, we have to turn people away. “

Last spring, the WHL put truncated seasons at the centers. The Blazers were 18-4-0-0 playing alone against BC teams in empty stadiums in Kamloops and Kelowna. Then there was no playoffs.

“The 2,900 that we can have are completely different from the hub. It’s still really nice to have the fans cheering for you, ”said Clouston.

The average attendance announced by the Blazers in 2019-20 was 4,179. The Blazers were sitting at 41-18-3-1 and apparently destined for a playoff run when the WHL closed the season due to COVID-19 with five games remaining on Kamloops’ regular season roster.

That was the second season for general manager Matt Bardsley, who had been hired out of the Portland Winterhawks, where he had been an assistant general manager. It was the first season in Kamloops for Clouston, a former Bank Chief of the Medicine Hat Tigers.

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Bardsley resigned as GM of Blazer in May. GM’s tariffs were added to Clouston’s portfolio in July.

The Blazers are one of the historic WHL franchises, winners of the National Memorial Cup championships in 1992, 1994 and 1995. That final team, which included Jarome Iginla and Shane Doan, was Kamloops’ ninth and final team in a span of 12 seasons to record at least 100 points in the regular season.

Since then, the Blazers have too often been a mediocre team, and their attendance has been in tune with that. They haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since losing to the Winterhawks in the Western Conference final in 2012-13. His average attendance posted that regular season was 4,825, the highest since 5,169 in 2003-04. It dropped to 3,769 in 2015-16.

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This latest incarnation of the Blazers is strong in goal with 19-year-old Dylan Garand, who could well be team Canada’s starter at the World Youth Championship in Edmonton and Red Deer this winter. He has offensive firepower, highlighted by 18-year-old Logan Stankoven. He has a clever and skilled defense corps, including 20-year-old Quinn Schmiemann and Viktor Persson, selected in the seventh round of the 2020 draft by the Vancouver Canucks.

He also has a coach in Clouston who played three seasons in the league with Portland and has been training in the WHL since 2001-02, when he was an assistant to the Winterhawks. He was Wille Desjardins’ assistant with Medicine Hat before taking over the team when Desjardins landed the assistant position with the Dallas Stars for the 2010-11 season. He parted ways with the Tigers after the 2018-19 season, and Desjardins returned to Medicine Hat in his place.

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“I have been around for a while. I’ve seen some really good teams and some not so good, “said Clouston, 53.” This is a good team. But to be a really good team you have to keep going. You have to find ways to fight adversity. You have to do it in the playoffs. “

Meanwhile, the Giants (7-5-1-0) played their best game against the Blazers on Saturday in four starts so far this year. Heading into the game, the Blazers had outscored them 18-5 in the team’s first three games. The Giants and Blazers will play 12 times in the league.

Vancouver lost striker Zack Ostapchuk (lower body injury) for the fourth straight game. The Giants had initially included the second round of the 2021 Ottawa Senators as day-to-day. They plan to have the 18-year-old reassessed earlier this week. Vancouver also didn’t have forward Adam Hall, 20, who received a one-game suspension from the league office for major interference he received Friday at Kamloops.

“For us, this is a confidence builder,” Giants coach Michael Dyck said of Saturday’s effort.

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Twitter: @SteveEwen