BLAZERS WIN 4-3 OVER GIANTS

By Colton Davies – Follow Colton on X

The Kamloops Blazers hosted the rival Vancouver Giants Saturday night.

Kamloops turned to Logan Edmonstone between the pipes, while Vancouver countered with New York Islanders prospect Burke Hood.

Vancouver opened the scoring minutes in, Misha Volotovskii fired one on an awkward angle beating Edmonstone to make it 1-0. The Blazers responded right away, The Blazers answered almost immediately, as Ty Coupland rifled a shot top corner past Hood for his 17th of the season to even the score at 1-1.

The play continued to go back and forth, with both teams getting high danger chances. Kamloops nearly grabbed the lead during a chaotic sequence when Rhett Ravndahl banked the puck off the corner boards, creating a bounce into the slot for J.P. Hurlbert, but Hood came up with a key save to keep the game tied.

The second opened with pace and Edmonstone was tested early, this time on a prime chance from Joe Iginla, but the Blazers netminder came up with a timely stop. Kamloops pushed back with pressure and it was Hurlbert who danced through Giants defenders before sliding a pass to Jordan Keller. Keller looked to have a prime scoring chance, but Hood robbed him with a sprawling save.

Kamloops found a spark while shorthanded when Tommy Lafreniere and Ryan Michael broke out on a rush. Michael tried to finish on the backhand, but Hood shut the door again sending the game into intermission.

Kamloops came out flying to start the third period and it paid off quickly. Just 3:26 in, Ty Bonkowski found space and roofed a shot past Hood to give the Blazers a 2-1 period. Kamloops was handed a four-minute power play and capitalized in short order. Josh Evaschesen fired a crisp pass to Vit Zahejsky, who sniped it past Hood to extend the lead to 3-1.

The Blazers kept the pressure on, and Evaschesen struck again, burying one at the net front for his 30th goal of the season to make it 4-1. Vancouver refused to go quietly, responding with goals from Lin and Sam Charko to cut the deficit to one. Kamloops locked things down defensively in the final minutes, sealing a hard-fought 4-3 victory.

Up next: Kamloops will play host to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Tuesday, the Victoria Royals on Friday and the Vancouver Giants on Saturday.