Blazers fall to Texas; Sauter, ref tangle<br/><span class='hl2'>Coach ejected after using his ‘pistol' routine on official</span>

Blazers coach Doug Sauter pretended to shoot himself in the head Sunday night at the Ford Center, and then he left his team's bench because he had been tossed out of the game.

Blazers coach Doug Sauter said his team didn't play very well in the first period of Sunday night's 5-1 loss to Texas. BY STEVE GOCH, THE OKLAHOMAN

He didn't miss much. Texas won 5-1 by scoring five goals in a five-minute, 53-second span of the third period. The score was 2-1 when Sauter was tossed.

Sauter was ejected by referee Paul DePuydt for an abuse of official penalty 5:36 into the second period. Looking at the ref, Sauter raised his right hand and formed a finger "pistol,” pretending to shoot himself in the right temple. Then he walked down the ramp from the Blazers' bench to his office near the drefssing room.

"I put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger,” Sauter said. "He's an awful referee. I think he's one of the poorest referees. I might as well shoot myself if we're going to be short-handed 22 of the first 43 minutes of a game.”

Sauter said he was thrown out of the game after telling DePuydt that, at the time, Texas had 10 power plays to three for Oklahoma City.

"He (DePuydt) says, ‘I don't count,'” Sauter said. "So I said, "Oh, you don't have a brain?' And that's when he kicked me out.”

CHL officiating supervisor Ray Scapinello, who watched the game from press row, said Sauter "obviously said something very abusive to the official in front of 10 hockey players.

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