ISight Optometry Recap: Rockets end home schedule with thrilling victory over Blazers

ISight Optometry Recap: Rockets end home schedule with thrilling victory over Blazers

The Kelowna Rockets secured a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night at Prospera Place to close out the home portion of their 2024-25 regular season.

The Rockets got goals from Dawson Gerwing, Connor Pankratz, Jakub Stancl and a first career goal from Gabriel Guilbault in the victory.

HIGHLIGHTS | BOXSCORE | POST GAME MARTIN | POST GAME SHARPE

GAME SUMMARY

Kamloops opened the scoring with two goals in the game’s first five minutes. Jordan Keller scored his 31st goal of the season 1:13 into the game and was followed up by a goal by Oren Shtrom, who would score his 17th goal of the campaign. Kelowna would answer when Dawson Gerwing would tip a Kayden Longley feed past Blazers goaltender Dylan Ernst to make it 2-1 after 20.

The Rockets would tie the game when Connor Pankratz snapped a shot past Ernst past the midway point of the second period, but was quickly answered by Kamloops thanks to a goal from Bryce Minten, giving Kamloops a 3-2 advantage after 40 minutes.

Jakub Stancl would tie the game at three when he corralled a loose puck and fired it past Ernst. The game would stay tied until a few moments later when Gabriel Guilbault would fire a shot from the point and it would make its way through Ernst and squeak over the goal line. It was reviewed, and after a lengthy video review, counted and stood as the game winner.

“Falling down 2-0 wasn’t part of the strategy, but I liked the resilience of this group all night long,” said Rockets Interim Head Coach Derrick Martin. “I really liked our third period, I thought we came out with a lot of conviction and gave our fans a treat that they haven’t gotten in a while. Nice to get the end result in our final game at home this year and maybe leave our fans and our group with a good feeling.”

ADDITIONAL STATS