BLAZERS WIN 3-1 OVER ROCKETS
By Colton Davies – Follow Colton on X
The Kelowna Rockets rolled into town Friday evening for a rivalry game against the Kamloops Blazers with both teams looking to snap losing streaks.
Blazers goaltender Logan Edmonstone made his seventh consecutive start, while the team welcomed veteran defenseman Ryan Michael back to the lineup. However, Kamloops was still missing four key players.
The first period got off to a fiery start, with Rockets defenseman Will Sharpe setting the tone physically. Kamloops created two high-danger chances early, including a breakaway attempt by Tommy Lafrenière that was denied by Rhett Stoesser. Lafrenière nearly opened the scoring again when his shot slipped through Stoesser’s five-hole, only for a Rockets defender to clear the puck just in time.
Emotions boiled over when 19-year-old Josh Kelly dropped the gloves with Nate Corbet at center ice, igniting the crowd. The Blazers soon capitalized on that momentum, earning the game’s first power play, where Jordan Keller buried his 26th goal of the season to give Kamloops a 1-0 lead.
The second period started off with more physicality as both teams came out the gate flying. Rockets forward Kanjyu Gojsic collided knee on knee with Blazers’ Bryce Minten outside of the penalty box and Blazers import Matteo Koci dropped the gloves and fired the crowd up.
Edmonstone continued his strong play, stopping Hiroki Gojsic on a breakaway, but the Blazers took advantage of another power play. Conner Radke pounced on a rebound from Kelly’s shot, extending Kamloops’ lead to 2-0. Radke now has goals in back-to-back games after scoring against Tri-City earlier in the week. It didn’t take long after for Kelowna to finally solve Edmonstone as Jaxon Kehrig shot a bouncing puck off the post where it trikcled across the goal line late in the second period.
The Rockets then found themselves on a quick breakaway, however, Blazers’ assistant captain Harrison Brunicke was able to hustle back to swat the puck away.
Vit Zahejsky had a golden opportunity to restore the two-goal cushion, but Stoesser denied him with a blocker save. The Czech forward had multiple high-danger chances throughout the night but couldn’t find the back of the net. Did I mention these two teams were rivals? Tensions flared again following a whistle, which led to a Kayden Longley penalty. The Blazers were once again able to find themselves in a two goal lead as Lafrenière rifled the puck home for his 20th of the season on the Blazers third powerplay of the evening.
Moments later, Beau Courtney and Radke found themselves on a two-on-one rush, but Stoesser made a sprawling save to keep Kelowna within reach. Both teams continued to battle hard with more rough action taking place post whistle. Ultimately, Kamloops snapped their losing streak and found their 19th win of the campaign.
Kamloops heads to Kelowna for a rematch tomorrow night before the club welcomes Berkly Catton, Andrew Cristall and the Spokane Chiefs on Monday in a 2:00 P.M.matinee game.
