iSight Optometry Recap: Finnie’s four goal game pushes Blazers past Rockets

iSight Optometry Recap: Finnie’s four goal game pushes Blazers past Rockets

The Kamloops Blazers snapped the Kelowna Rockets two game win streak on Saturday at Prospera Place.

It was the second meeting between the two in as many days, with the Rockets downing the Blazers 6-3 on Friday in Kamloops.

After falling behind early, the Rockets scored two unanswered goals to take the lead heading into the intermission before the Blazers battled back to take back the lead in the second frame.

“We took our foot off the gas in the second and that’s what set us up for failure throughout that game,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette in his postgame interview. “First period, their second shot we broke down on the breakaway and battlled back to get the lead going into the second. Guys were feeling it in the room and I had a weird feeling, you know a little over confident and then obviously Kamloops woke up. They [Kamloops] didn’t do anything spectacular, they were just a more urgent team and then their top line outplayed out top line.”

It was the seventh time this sesason that the Rockets had held the lead through 20 minutes of play where they either fell in regulation or overtime.

“It’s what the challenge with our group is, being able to separate ouselves from just being mediocre and just doing enough at times and tonight it came back to bite us.”

HIGHLIGHTS | BOXSCORE | POSTGAME MALLETTE

GAME SUMMARY

Zach Pantelakis sprung Kai Matthew (6) on a breakaway at centre ice, beating Jari Kykkanen 6:37 into the game. Three minutes later Hiroki Gojsic  from beside the net teed up Andrew Cristall (30) with a onetimer at the left faceoff dot. Caden Price’s (9) drive from the point beat Jesse Sanche to give the Rockets the lead heading into the first intermission.

Emmitt Finnie’s (13) sharp angled shot from the left half wall pinballed its way into the Rockets net tying the game early into the second period. Harrison Brunicke’s (10) blast from the power play restored the Blazers lead at 12:30. Kamloops then padded their lead by two after Finnie (14) skated out from behind the net and lifted a backhander past Kykkanen.

Luke Schelter’s (10) shot from above the right faceoff circle pulled Kelowna back within one 7:34 into the third period. Skating along the left side, Finnie (15) again beat Kykkanen with another sharp angled shot to complete the hat trick. Just over a minute later Kai Matthew (7) fired a one timer past Kykkanen before Finnie (16) added his fourth of the night into the Rockets empty net.