When kids are little they like to dream of doing amazing things. Things like standing on the moon, travelling to the far reaches of this world and… scoring the Teddy Bear Toss goal. For Zane Franklin, he has accomplished one of those when he finished off a pass from Orrin Centazzo a little more than 11 minutes into the first period to unleash the bears and knot the game up at 1-1.
Clean-up of the bears seemed quicker this year, about 10 minutes by this guys count.
Last year, the Blazers didn’t score a goal in the annual tradition, Head Coach Serge Lajoie wanted no part of that “I was looking forward to it, I believe last year there were no goals scored and a missed opportunity to get those teddy bears on the ice, I didn’t want to be a part of that. I think the guys felt that a little bit as well, they put a bit of pressure on themselves to get a goal… It was kinda fun to be a part of.”
With less than two minutes left in the frame Jermaine Loewen took a pass from teammate Connor Zary and while flying down the left wing he wired a shot over the left shoulder of Seattle Thunderbirds goaltender Liam Hughes giving the Blazers the lead heading into the second period.
Defenceman Quinn Schmiemann brought Blazers fans to their feet early on in the second period when he scored his third goal of the season with a perfect wrister, off the post and in.
The Thunderbirds responded with two of their own off the sticks of Andrej Kokuca and Nolan Volcan to once again tie the game, this time at three.
It has to be said, Kamloops’ special teams have had a vast improvement from the beginning of the season. I have raved about the penalty kill improvement, but haven’t spent enough time talking about the power play.
Orrin Centazzo and the rest of the powerplay unit changed that.
Centazzo restored the Blazers’ two goal advantage with two power play goals. One off a slick pass by Zane Franklin, the other, a pass from Brodi Stuart. “It doesn’t matter what level, your power play and your penalty kill have to be effective. I thought we scored goals at timely moments in the game. Yesterday our power play maybe killed our momentum, tonight it generated some energy for us” said Head Coach Serge Lajoie when asked about the importance of special teams.
The Thunderbirds pushed hard to find a goal throughout the third period but when forward Kobe Mohr found the empty net the game was all but over.
Kamloops finds themselves in the enviable position of having two goaltenders able to carry the load. With Dylan Ferguson still injured, Dylan Garand was between the pipes tonight stopping 24-of-27 Seattle shots.
It’s clear, Lajoie has confidence in Garand, Ferguson or even Rayce Ramsay “I don’t know much about goaltending, but if you stop the puck and look confident doing it, it’s good enough for me. I have a good gut feeling that he’s [Garand] always ready to play. We can’t forget Ferguson, he’s helped him along and showed him what it takes to play at this level. Add Rayce Ramsay to the mix and we have three excellent goaltenders, we’re lucky to have them.”
Lajoie provided no update on the status of goaltender Dylan Ferguson’s injury “I can definitely say it is moving in the right direction, it’s positive. We just don’t wanna put him into competition until he is fully ready.”
The Blazers end up doing what would have been the unthinkable a few weeks ago, taking two in a row at home.
Lajoie spoke to the uptick in play on home ice after the game “I saw a lot of good things, I really liked the third period. I know at times it looked like we were a little under siege but the shots were coming from outside and we didn’t give up much off the rush.”
The final score in this one 6-3.
There are some valuable early season points available to the Blazers on Wednesday night as they host Division rival Victoria.
Straight Heat… The Blazers swept the three stars, Quinn Schmiemann, Orrin Centazzo and Zane Franklin took the honors. Kamloops is now in the second wild card position in the Western Conference, they are just 2 points back of the Kelowna Rockets with 5 games in hand. The Blazers finished up the night 3-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-3 killing penalties. Just three Blazers failed to register a shot on goal, three players had 4 shots a piece. Dillon Hamaliuk had 7 in a losing effort for the Thunderbirds.
