BLAZERS LOSE 4-1 TO SILVERTIPS

By Colton Davies – Follow Colton on X

Landon DuPont and the Everett Silvertips rolled into town on Friday evening.

The Blazers were missing key components in captain Emmitt Finnie and starting goaltender Dylan Ernst, both whom are out with injuries.

The first period started off slow with lots of back-and-forth action on either end but no high-danger chances.. Blazers import forward Vit Zahejsky laid a big hit in the Tips’ corner on 2025 NHL Draft prospect Carter Bear, setting the tone. As the final minute approached, a bouncing puck became loose as Edmonstone lost sight of it leading to the puck trickling towards the goal line before Jordan Keller got his stick on it clearing it out. The Blazers then had a big chance on a 2-on-1 but John Szabo was denied by Sanche to round out the first period.

The second period started off chippy, and it was Blazers’ Conner Radke dropping the gloves with Caine Wilke to try and give their teams an extra energy boost. The Tips’ then channeled that energy and used it to find the back of the net when Cole Temple ripped it home past Edmonstone for his 16th goal on the year. The physicality continued as Josh Kelly delivered a hard hit on DuPont behind the Everett net, drawing the attention of Calgary Flames prospect Eric Jamieson, though the exchange resulted in only a few choice words.

Midway through the period, Anaheim Ducks prospect Tarin Smith extended Everett’s lead to 2-0, burying a deflected pass from Jesse Heslop. Kamloops answered back when Ty Bonkowski controlled the puck at the blue line and set up Kelly, who rifled a shot past Sanche for his third goal of the season. The chippy play escalated further when Zahejsky dropped the gloves for the first time in his career, squaring off against former Blazer Rylan Pearce to the delight of the crowd. Not long after that, Jamieson was handed a five minute major and a game misconduct for charging on Radke.

The Blazers started the third period on the powerplay but were unable to capitalize on the man advantage. With about 8:21 remaining both clubs were penalized and we saw some 4-on-4 action where Kamloops forward Tommy Lafrenière had a golden opportunity to tie the game, but Sanche shut the door once again. Kamloops continued to apply the pressure in the final minutes of third but Sanche remained poised. The Blazers pulled Edmonstone and Everett capitalized on two empty net goals to finish the game 4-1.

The Tips outshot the Blazers 38-33.

Kamloops plays the Prince George Cougars at home on Saturday night.