BLAZERS WIN 6-2 OVER HURRICANES
By Colton Davies – Follow Colton on X
The Kamloops Blazers hosted the Lethbridge Hurricanes Saturday night.
Kamloops’s Kaeden Tate made his WHL debut, and was poised throughout the opening 10 minutes making a handful of saves with ease. The Blazers struck first when Kayd Ruedig walked in and dangled his way around the Hurricanes’ defence before roofing his eighth of the season past Leif Oaten to make it 1–0.
The Hurricanes would respond shortly after on a powerplay as Logan Wormald snapped one past Tate to tie the game up. But Kamloops regained control on a powerplay of their own, with JP Hurlbert ripping home his 14th of the year to restore the Blazers’ lead.
Kamloops got the second period off to a quick start as Nathan Behm danced through a pair of Hurricanes defenders before sliding a beautiful back-door feed to Tommy Lafreniere. Lethbridge pushed back with a string of chances, but Tate remained composed in his crease, turning everything aside.
Back the other way, the Blazers generated some offence with chances from Isa Guram and Cooper Moore but neither could solve Oaten. Kamloops eventually broke through again, with Moore finding Jordan Keller in stride to extend the lead to 4-1.
The Blazers opened the third period with another quick strike, this time from Josh Evaschesen, who buried his eighth of the season. The Hurricanes then came up with a couple chances of their own, but Tate remained solid between the pipes. Hurricanes forward Luke Cozens broke in on a two-on-one, only for Tate to shut the door with another timely stop.
Kamloops continued to hammer the shots on net, with chances again coming from Hurlbert, and Carson Olsen, but neither could beat Oaten. Lethbridge finally broke through as a point shot from Nathan Maloney found its way through traffic. The Blazers sealed it late when Lafreniere hit the empty net for his second of the night, securing a 6-2 win. Tate stopped 22 shots, earning his first WHL victory.
Kamloops will look ahead to next weekend when they host the Portland Winterhawks on Friday and the Wenatchee Wild on Saturday.
