The Kelowna Rockets fell 7-2 to the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night at Prospera Place in Kelowna, BC.

The Rockets found themselves in penalty trouble. While they were able to kill off five of the seven power play opportunities  Kamloops had, Rockets head coach Kris Mallette said that it doesn’t help his team find a groove.

“Penalties gave them momentum,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette in his postgame interview. “It was a lot of minutes that guys had to sacrifice, it’s wasted minutes. Five-on-five is a stretch for us enough with this group, playing against a team that has a lot of speed and depth, to give them a bunch of free looks five-on-four really put us behind the eight ball. It’s a tough rhythm to get into, you have certain guys you play in those situations and then there’s going to be a lot of guys sitting on the bench. Our group has to figure that out if we want to have anything moving forward and especially in the playoffs”

With Talyn Boyko out injured after suffering an injury after a Blazer collided with him in the first period of last night’s game, Jari Kykkanen made the start for Kelowna tonight. He faced a career-high 56 shots on goal, stopping 49 of them.

“Jari made a lot of really, really, really good saves for us and he did the same thing last night.”

GAME SUMMARY

Anaheim Ducks prospect Olen Zellweger (23) got the Blazers on the board 4:47 into the game. Andrew Cristall (34) tied things up with a power play goal from the left faceoff circle. Before the end of the first period, Caedan Bankier (32) added a power play goal and Connor Levis (18) tallied a short-handed goal. 

Towards the end of the second period, Ryan Hofer (38) scored another power play goal, while Zellweger (24) netted his second goal of the game. 

Daylan Kuefler (31) and Kyle Masters (11) scored early in the third period for Kamloops. Rockets captain Gabriel Szturc beat out the icing, passing the puck to Turner McMillen at the other side of the net who then dished it out front to a charging Dylan Wightman (12).

ADDITIONAL STATS

• Kamloops outshot Kelowna 56 to 28
• Olen Zellweger was the game’s first star, Ryan Hofer was the second and Caedan Bankier was the third star
• Kelowna was 1/6 on the power play, while the Blazers were 2/7 on the man advantage
• The Rockets record is now 23-33-3-0

UP NEXT

The Rockets will host the Prince George Cougars on Wednesday, March 8th at Propera Place, puck drop is set for 7:05 pm. It will also be a Fan First Menu night with $2 hot dogs and $5-$6 options from Blue Ribbon. The Fan First Menu is available at all Monday to Wednesday regular season games.

Single-game tickets for all Rockets home games are on sale at Select Your Tickets. Tickets can be purchased online through www.selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office, or by phone at 250-762-5050.