The Kamloops Blazers waltzed into Prospera Place last night for its sixth meeting of the year with the Kelowna Rockets. Despite going 0-5 so far this season, the upstart visitors gave the hosts everything they could handle.
The Rockets, which lead the B.C. Division with a 38-18-4-2 record, scored twice in the last 6:20 to edge the Blazers 6-5.
“That’s kinda been the trend these past couple of games,” said veteran defenceman Gordie Ballhorn. “”I think we’ve got some soul-searching to do in the room. We have to buy in, we can’t let these teams hang around.
“We have to figure out how to shut teams out and put them to bed. We can’t keep letting them back into hockey games.”
The Rockets led 2-0 after 20 minutes on a pair of goals by Dillon Dube, his 31st and 32nd of the season. When scoring first, Kelowna is now 28-3-2-2.
When Connor Bruggen-Cate scored his 17th of the season at the 5:36 mark of the second, Kelowna’s second power play goal of the night, all signs pointed to a blowout in front of a boisterous crowd of 5,324 spectators.
But the Blazers had other plans.
In a span of 5:54, Kamloops scored four times to take a 4-3 lead into the final frame.
The Blazers onslaught was due to pure skill, something perhaps in short supply this season for a team that has struggled to put the puck in the net. In its first five games against the Rockets this season, Kamloops had only scored five times.
Jermaine Loewen converted a two-on-one break for his 32nd of the season at 11:04, then Luc Smith counted his 17th off the rush just 21 seconds later. Exactly three minutes later, Nick Chyzowski batted the puck out of the air past Brodan Salmond for his 19th on a Blazers power play to even the score. At 17:01, Nolan Kneen buried a wrister to give Kamloops an unlikely lead.
“I think we started to cheat,” said Rockets head coach, Jason Smith. “We were thinking it would be easy because it was 3-0.
“They’re a team that plays no matter what the score is. They’re well-coached, they play hard, they compete, and we took our foot off the pedal, and soon we were behind.”
The third period was mostly uneventful until Kelowna solved Blazers keeper Dylan Ferguson at the 12:50 mark to tie the affair. Leif Mattson counted a shorthanded tally, his 20th of the season to spark the Rockets and arouse the throng at Prospera Place.
The teams played at a dizzying pace for the remainder of the game.
Just 21 seconds after Mattson’s goal, Kamloops scored on the same power play to go ahead 5-4 when Orrin Centazzo send a shot from the point past a screened Salmond for his 10th of the season.
Then 29 seconds later, Carsen Twarynski ripped a one-timer past Ferguson on a Rockets power play for his 38th of the campaign.
Kelowna scored the game-winner at 17:47 when Ballhorn’s point shot ended up behind the net on the stick of Jack Cowell. Cowell dished out front to Mattson, who slid his second of the night and 21st of the season under Ferguson.
With Ferguson on the bench and the Blazers shorthanded, Dube made an inexplicable blunder trying to carry the puck out of his own end with 30 seconds to play. The ensuing frenzy resulted in an late faceoff to Salmond’s left, then a melee in the Rockets zone that resulted in a handful of game misconducts. Salmond left his net to get involved and appeared to throw a couple of punches with his blocker glove.
The Rockets and Blazers have met six times this season. Kelowna has won all six games, outscoring Kamloops, 24-10.
With the win, and the Victoria Royals second straight home-ice loss to the Portland Winterhawks, Kelowna is now seven points out front for first place in the B.C. Division.
Kamloops could not take advantage of the Seattle Thunderbirds 2-1 loss at home to the Everett Silvertips and remains six points out of the final wild card spot in the western conference.
Post-Game Interview: Gordie Ballhorn (click here)
Post-Game Interview: Jason Smith (click here)
Rockets Fuel…Kelowna outshot Kamloops, 37-28 and is now 23-10-1-2 when outshooting opponents….Three stars were Dube, Mattson and Kneen, although Loewen was clearly the best Blazers player on the night…Rockets scratches were James Hilsendager, Nolan Foote, Kyle Topping, Kyle Pow and Roman Basran…The Rockets hit the road for three games this week starting with a doubleheader in Prince George against the Cougars on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On Friday, Kelowna invades Everett to meet the conference-leading Silvertips…Next home game from Kelowna is Saturday when the Spokane Chiefs come calling.
(DUBNetwork thanks Kevin Bain and the Kelowna Rockets for the audio/video)
