Blazers beat Rockets to open the season

The Kamloops Blazers and the Kelowna Rockets have a little history, to say the least. In recent memory, Kelowna has had the majority of the success in the rivalry but this is a new year.

Early in the first period, the Blazers would strike on the power play off the stick of Newcomer Zane Franklin. Franklin would take an Orrin Centazzo pass and rip a wrister upstairs on Rocket’s goaltender James Porter.

“It’s crazy, If I could have drew it up perfectly, that’s how it would have gone.” said the 99-born forward.

Ten minutes later Centazzo would take a quick wrister on goal to create a rebound that Brodi Stuart jumped on to make the score 2-0. The period would finish 3-0 when Defenseman Sean Strange would capitalize on a pass from Stuart with 20 Seconds left in the frame.

“we want to attack in groups of five…To see Sean Strange get a goal there is great.” – Head Coach Serge Lajoie

The second period would be one to forget. The teams traded a few chances and Porter’s glove hand got a workout, but the score would remain 3-0.

less than three minutes into the third period Stuart would again tickle the twine completing a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play from Centazzo and Franklin. Later in the period, Rockets import defenceman Lassi Thomson would awkwardly hit Connor Zary into the boards causing the young forward to stay down. Franklin would engage the Finnish d-man but Thomson wouldn’t drop the gloves. “The older guy in me came out and I was just trying to stick up for him [Centazzo], he obviously didn’t want to drop the gloves.” Kelowna would break Dylan Ferguson’s shutout bid with 10:41 left in the game when Leif Mattson would bury a chance off a feed from Kyle Topping. The game would end 4-1.

Shots On Goal
Kelowna 8-7-11-26
Kamloops 12-17-9-38

Special Teams
Kelowna 1/5
Kamloops 2/5

Kamloops heads to Kelowna tomorrow to finish up their opening weekend. Puck drop 7pm from Prospera Place.