Marissa Baecker

Blazers set to begin brief home stand

After back-to-back wins on the road, the Blazers return to Kamloops for a three-game home stand this coming week, kicking things off with the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday night. The two teams only met on one occasion last season with the Blazers defeating the Broncos 5-3 on home ice. Because the Broncos switched divisions, they again make the trip through the B.C. Division.

Joona Kiviniemi (photo-David Zammit)

Swift Current finished the 2018-2019 season with a league-worst 28 points, and while they are likely to improve on those totals this season, the team is in the midst of a rebuild. 

Rebuilding or not, the Blazers will have to keep their foot on the pedal, especially if they expect to keep pace in the B.C division. One of the keys to collecting two points and remaining above .500 on the season will be slowing down Joona Kiviniemi. The Finnish forward’s 16 goals as a rookie last season led Swift Current and served as one of the lone bright spots in a season of growing pains. Kiviniemi will once again be heavily leaned on to provide offence for another young Broncos squad.


The Blazers then welcome a pair of divisional rivals on the weekend when Vancouver and Kelowna come to town. Kamloops beat Vancouver 6-2 in their first meeting this season, ending a 10-game losing skid to the Giants that began on March 3rd, 2018.

Bowen Byram (photo – Jay Wallace)

Vancouver currently sits atop the B.C division, albeit with two more games played than both Kamloops and Kelowna. As was the case all last season, one of the toughest tasks for the Blazers will be shutting down Bowen Byram. After being sent down by the Colorado Avalanche, the defenceman has hit the ground running with 10 points in his first nine games after torching the Blazers all last season. 

Behind Byram lies another issue for the Blazers, two NHL-drafted goaltenders. Trent Miner and David Tendeck have more-or-less split the duties in goal thus far, and the stats are on Tendeck’s side. Through six games, the 20-year old has posted a .957 save percentage along with a 1.17 goals-against average. Much of the talk in Vancouver at the beginning of the season was which of the five overage players they would carry throughout the 2019-2020 season, and it appears that hanging on to Tendeck was the correct choice. Regardless of who draws in, the Blazers may be hard-pressed to put up six goals as they did in the first match up of the season. 


The brief home stand will conclude on Saturday evening when Kelowna comes to town for the second time this season. Kamloops is riding an eight-game winning streak against Kelowna after winning both match ups between the two teams this season.

In the four games against U.S. teams this season, the Rockets are 4-0 and have outscored Seattle, Everett, Tri-City and Spokane by a combined score of 23-8 in that stretch. Conversely, Kelowna has mustered up just three points in their five games against B.C. division teams, while Kamloops has won all three games in their own division. 

Leading the way for Kelowna is rookie import Pavel Novak from the Czech Republic. The right-winger was selected 13th overall in the 2019 CHL Import Draft and his 11 points are tied for the team-lead with Kyle Topping.


Once their three-game home stand is complete, the Blazers will embark on a five-game road trip that begins with a double-header with the Victoria Royals. Kamloops’ first trip to the island this season will be somewhat of a homecoming for a few of the Blazers including Dylan Garand and Ethan Brandwood.

Sean Strange, who hails from nearby Saanich, is very quietly putting together his most productive season in the WHL. Strange had just one goal in 116 games with the Blazers before this season, but the defenceman has already put up two goals in his first nine games and leads the Blazers in points from the blue line with six, just two back of his single-season record.