Game day preview: Petes vs. Blazers — May 28
Two teams that are in desperate need of a win at the 2023 Memorial Cup presented by Kia meet tonight as the Kamloops Blazers and Peterborough Petes faceoff.
Both clubs were beaten in their opening game of the tournament and defeat tonight will leave their chances of reaching Friday’s semi-final bleak.
Kamloops opened the tournament Friday night against Quebec but wound up on the wrong side of an 8-3 defeat to the QMJHL champions.
Three of the club’s NHL prospects scored as Caeden Bankier (MIN), Daylan Kuefler (NYI) and Matthew Seminoff (DAL) all found the back of the net in defeat but it leaves Kamloops, who won 48 games during the regular season, in a precarious position.
“We feel confident [still],” Ryan Hofer (MIN) said. “We didn’t play our best in the first game so we’ll put that behind us. In a tournament like this, it’s a quick turnaround, and we’re looking forward to it and will bring our best effort.”
#TexasHockey prospect Matthew Seminoff gets a piece of Olen Zellweger's point shot! #MemorialCup pic.twitter.com/CnqCtvxOUz
— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) May 27, 2023
Blazers captain Logan Stankoven added post-game Friday “we’ll go back to the drawing board … and make some corrections” as he will look to lead his troops to a needed win. Stankoven led the WHL in scoring in the 2023 playoffs with 30 points despite his side not reaching the WHL Championship Series.
Peterborough, on the other hand, dropped a 6-3 decision to Seattle just 24 hours ago.
The Petes found themselves level after 50 minutes at 2-2 but the T-Birds scored four times over the final 10 minutes to clinch an opening round win.
We’ll watch video and learn from our mistakes,” said J.R. Avon (PHI), who scored on a breakaway just 1:24 into the game. “But it’s nice with the tournament format to brush it off the shoulder and show up [today] with a different mindset.”
Avery Hayes converts on the power play for @PetesOHLhockey! #MemorialCup pic.twitter.com/ZxJ8PYt0C3
— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) May 28, 2023
Owen Beck (MTL) and Avery Hayes also scored for Peterborough in defeat but focus will now shift to finding a way past Kamloops’ impressive defensive corps that features Kyle Masters (MIN) and Olen Zellweger (ANA).
“It’s a huge game and we know that,” Connor Lockhart said (VAN). “We know how important this game is. We wished after that loss against Seattle we could drop the puck and play again but hopefully we can carry that energy into today.
“We know it’ll be a tough challenge; they’re a great team and have the crowd behind them but we saw that all playoffs on the road so I think we’re ready for it.”
Puck drop tonight is at 6pm ET / 3pm PT and can be seen live on TSN 1/3,4, RDS2 and NHL Network.