HOMECOMING FOR SASKATCHEWAN BORN BLAZERS
By Marty Hastings
Find Marty on Twitter @MartheReporter or via email at [email protected]
Punishment for missed field goals in Saskatchewan can be swift and odorous.
Dylan Sydor and Harrison Brunicke were good from about 30 yards on a windy December day in Regina to shield their Kamloops Blazers from rank repercussions.
“I missed them both,” Blazers’ forward Ashton Ferster said when asked to analyze the field-goal kickers. “Me and Emmitt Finnie were busy throwing touchdown passes to each other.”
The tour of Mosaic Stadium — home of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders — on Dec. 7 has been among highlights of the WHL club’s East Division road trip, which continues on Wednesday, Dec. 13, with a game against the Blades in Saskatoon.
“With COVID, it’s been difficult,” said 20-year-old defenceman Logan Bairos, one of four Blazers from Saskatchewan. “We haven’t been able to get out to the Prairies. Obviously, playing in front of the fans in Saskatoon, where I have my extended family that can come out and watch, it’s going to be pretty cool and exciting.”
The Blazers nabbed Bairos (who has a new respect for returners after a go-around with the punt machine in gusty Mosaic Stadium) in the second round of the 2018 WHL Prospects Draft.
During his 16-year-old campaign with the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts, he was called up to join the Blazers on their East Division swing and saw action against Moose Jaw (his first WHL game) and Regina in December of 2019.
He took warm-up before Kamloops squared off against Saskatoon, but was dispatched to the press box when injured import rearguard Inaki Baragano was deemed healthy enough to the return to the lineup.
Grandparents Sylvia, John and Ines will finally be able to watch Bairos play in the WHL in his hometown on Wednesday, two years after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out plans for the Blazers’ tour of the East Division.
“They watched me play minor hockey for 14 years, but haven’t been able to watch me play in the WHL,” Bairos said. “I just can’t wait for the game on Wednesday.”
Bairos might have been busy gawking at the Riders’ facility because he, too, missed the field-goal display put on by Sydor, the 20-year-old captain from Kamloops, and Brunicke, a 17-year-old defenceman born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I didn’t see it, but the video tape says Syd [has the bigger leg],” Bairos said, noting Brunicke’s boot was not caught on camera. “But Bruno was able to kick one from the same distance and, apparently, he kicked it high and through the uprights.”
Dylan Ernst is giving Brunicke the nod.
“I’d say it was Bruno,” said Ernst, the 19-year-old goaltender from Weyburn, Sask. “He got it pretty far. It feels really special here. I’ve been looking forward to it for a couple years now.”
Weyburn is about 115 kilometres southeast of Regina, so the travelling Ernst fan club of about 30 — which included little cousins Hunter and Madison — did not have a long trip on Dec. 8, when the Pats knocked off the Blazers 6-4 at the Brandt Centre.
“They love hockey and they always watch on TV, so I thought it was pretty cool they got to see me play in person, but Hunter wore a Pats jersey because he didn’t want to wear just a shirt to the game and that was the only jersey he had,” Ernst said with a laugh. “It was cool to see how many people were there to support me.”
Jesse Sanche, the Blazers’ 17-year-old goaltender, was born in Thompson, Man., but considers himself to be from Kelowna.
He stopped 23 shots in a 6-2 loss to the hometown Brandon Wheat Kings on Dec. 9 at Westoba Place.
Ferster noted his Czechia import teammates — defencemen Matteo Koci and Vojtech Vochvest — should have taken a turn hoofing the pigskin in the Queen City.
“They’re actual soccer players, but they didn’t really know what a field goal was,” said Ferster, the 6-foot-4 right shot from Shellbrook, Sask.
“This was my first time in their new stadium. It was pretty nice, nicer than I was expecting. A great locker room and the field is insane.”
Ferster is morę familiar with the Art Hauser Centre — home of the Prince Albert Raiders — than Mosaic Stadium.
Shellbrook is about 45 kilometres west of Prince Albert, where grandparents Larry and Debbie caught Ferster in action on Tuesday, Dec. 12.
“It’s been two years since I’ve played at home now,” said Ferster, who was traded to the Blazers from the Medicine Hat Tigers in September of 2022. “I played my two years of midget in that rink (Art Hauser), so it’s going to be pretty fun to get another chance in junior.”
Blazers’ 17-year-old forward Ashton Tait – from Prince Albert – was also playing in front of a large contigent of family and friends on Tuesday.
The homecoming party was muted. Kamloops fell 3-1 to Prince Albert and dropped to 7-19-3-2 on the campaign.
Blazers’ head coach Shaun Clouston has taken leave from his WHL club to handle assistant coaching duties for the national junior team, which is conducting selection camp in Oakville, Ont., ahead of the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship in Sweden.
Don Hay, the Blazers’ associate coach and winningest bench boss in WHL history (750 victories), is handling head coaching duties for Kamloops while Clouston is gone.
His club has taken its kicks thus far, but will get another swing on Wednesday against Saskatoon (22-8-1-0).
“We’re just moving on from those losses quick,” Ernst said. “We’ve got to keep pushing.”