JC Lipon is again the WHL’s player of the week.
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Lipon, Blazers making sweet, sweet music
By Marty Hastings - Kamloops This Week
Published: October 16, 2012 10:00 AM
Updated: October 16, 2012 10:54 AM
When the Kamloops Blazers take the ice for pre-game warm-up at Interior Savings Centre, a playlist — compiled and mixed by JC Lipon — sets the pace.
The pump-up tunes seem to be doing the trick, especially for the 19-year-old forward, whose eight-point weekend boosted him into the WHL’s scoring lead and his team to a pair of wins.
The Blazers knocked off the Hitmen 5-2 in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 14, and earned a 5-1 victory over the Spokane Chiefs in Kamloops on Friday, Oct. 12.
“The boys like a lot of EDM, electronic dance music,” said Lipon, who has nine goals and 22 points on the season.
“I usually put a rap song on first, a good head-bobber, and just go from there.”
From here, Kamloops (8-0-0-1) will play Red Deer tonight (Oct. 16), Edmonton (Oct. 17), Lethbridge (Oct. 19) and Kootenay (Oct. 20) before returning to ISC on Oct. 26 to host Brandon.
On Friday, the Regina product lit the lamp three times before the 10-minute mark of the first frame.
“It’s going in right now and I’m just going to keep rolling with it,” said Lipon, who was named the Denny’s WHL player of the week on Monday, Oct. 15, marking the second time he has won the award in as many weeks.
“It’s always good to be confident.”
Colin Smith scored twice on Sunday and Aspen Sterzer rounded out the Blazers’ scoring.
Lipon’s lone assist on Friday came on Kamloops’ last goal of the game, scored by Brendan Ranford, his fourth of the campaign.
Cole Ully, who notched his fifth of the season, was the Blazers’ other goal scorer against Spokane.
Lipon’s linemates, especially centreman Smith, deserve credit for supplying the weekend’s undisputed first star with a plethora of opportunities.
Smith finished the weekend with two goals and six points. Tim Bozon, the line’s left-winger, had one helper.
Cole Cheveldave had a solid weekend between the pipes for Kamloops, stopping 49 of the 52 shots that came his way.
Kicking off Lipon’s playlist is Kanye West’s Clique, then, as Lipon mentioned, the electronica, dubstep and trance takes over.
Lipon seems to be in a point-recording trance — at this pace, he would surpass last season’s point total of 65 in short order — and he just wants to keep the beat rolling.
“This road trip is a tough trek, but I think we can win them all,” Lipon said.
“There is still a goose-egg in the loss column, so we’ll try to keep it like that.”
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