Opponents Not Treading On Mackay Pucks Keep Bouncing Off Goaltender, Who Rejects ‘Em Like Worn-Out Tires

Only Firestone has had as much rubber turned back lately.

The Kamloops Blazers zinged 52 shots at Chiefs goaltender Tyler MacKay on Wednesday night.

Forty-nine were rejected.

MacKay again felt as if he’d climbed into a time warp and come out in Saskatoon.

It’s been 10 years since Spokane gave up that many shots, but not that long since MacKay had that much work. As goaltender for the Saskatoon Blades, MacKay once stopped 63 Tri-City Americans shots. He’ll renew acquaintances with the Blades on Saturday night, when Saskatoon makes its single visit to the Arena this season.

Tonight, the Chiefs play the rematch with the Blazers, who outshot them 52-20 in Kamloops only to be turned away at the doorstep by MacKay as the Chiefs won 5-3.

Although MacKay’s 49 saves is a ton, especially for this team, it’s far short of Scott Bailey’s 10-year-old Chiefs record of 61.

Fifty-two shots is, however, only five off the 10-year-old Spokane club record for shots allowed. Coach Perry Ganchar wants his club to think offense but giving up a differential of 32 shots is not in the game plan.

“In reality, we stole a hockey game,” Ganchar said after Thursday’s practice. “It’s not the formula we had in mind. We’re happy with the result, not the way it came about. We probably didn’t deserve to win.”

In the recent past, a goaltender’s lament in Spokane is that the defense is almost too good, that a ‘tender loses his edge, standing around.

“There were times last year when we’d go five or six minutes without a giving up a shot,” MacKay said, “but so far this year you’ve had to be awake the whole game.”

Ganchar put a more heroic spin on it.

“He was phenomenal - stood on his head right to the end,” the coach said. “We didn’t make it easy on him. He was diving and flopping and was a wall the last minute and a half.”

MacKay will have to deal with one of the West’s skilled forwards in Kamloops right winger Konstantin Panov, who scored on a second-period penalty shot Wednesday.

“I think he made 10 moves before he crossed the blue line,” MacKay said. “He had me going in a few different directions.”

The numbers suggest that he didn’t have a whole lot more support in front of him than he did when he was 1-on-1 with Panov on the penalty shot. But defenseman Kurt Sauer turned in another of his typically solid games from the blue line in.

“He blocked shots and was a force back there,” Ganchar said. “Without Sauer, it (the shot differential) would have been a lot worse.”

As well as he played in Kamloops, MacKay rates his shutout in Tri-City earlier this season as just as strong an effort, if not a better one.

So far, as MacKay goes, so go the Chiefs.

“None of us are playing to our potential yet,” MacKay said. “We’re playing well offensively but we’ve got to pick up the defensive part of our game.”

Still, by winning in Kamloops, the Chiefs may have made that early-season statement their fans have been waiting for, that they are the team to beat in the West.

“We have to prove ourselves all over again,” MacKay insisted. “We’re just a hard-working, gritty team.”

That gave up 52 shots and won.

“Hey, you take the ugly with the good,” MacKay said.

Notes

The bus pulled in at 6:30 Thursday morning, just in time for the 11 Chiefs who attend Ferris High School to grab a shower and a quick breakfast and get to school. “They all made it to class,” assistant coach Bill Peters said,“or my green light would be on.” That’s the message light on Peters’ phone in the Arena. He monitors attendance with school officials… . Kamloops coach Dean Evason missed Wednesday night’s game to be with his father, who underwent heart surgery in Winnipeg. Evason, who played for Spokane in the early 1980s when the club was known as the Flyers, is expected back for tonight’s game… . The Blazers have a budding star in 17-year-old Scott Upshall, who plays on a No. 1 line with Panov and Jared Aulin. Upshall has eight goals and 13 points in nine games… . Other than an 8-minute span when they took three penalties, the Chiefs continued to play smart and disciplined. They were short-handed only five times on the road - allowing only one goal in five penalty-killing situations.