Blazers Blanked

The Blazers were shutout 5-0 in Tri-City to wrap up their mini two-game U.S. swing.

To me, the game was decided five minutes into the 2nd period. The Blazers failed to capitalize on a minute long 5-on-3 powerplay. Seconds later, Tri-City made it 2-0 on a goal by Carter Ashton. 19 seconds after that, Connor Rankin increased it to 3-0. The Blazers shortened line-up was going to have a hard time overcoming that.

The Americans scored two goals on the PP in the the third as the Blazers played most of the last 10 minutes short-handed. A major for spearing to Josh Caron and a double-minor for high sticking served to Austin Madaisky kept the Blazers down two men for a long stretch. The Ams finished 2/10 on the powerplay.

Cam Lanigan played pretty well in this one. He'd finish the night with 31 saves in the loss. The Ams had a 35-21 shots advantage.

As for Caron's spearing major? While I wouldn't say it was a "phantom call" it was a more like a tap on Ams D Tyler Schmidt who did a good job selling it. The result was an automatic game misconduct. I'm hoping once the league reviews it (they review every major penalty) they'll see it for what it is, and rescind the game misconduct to Caron. Multiple game misconducts can lead to a suspension.

The game was getting chippy. Perhaps it was the referee's way of trying to send a message to both teams.

The Blazers host Chilliwack Friday night.