The game of the night in the WHL turned out to be anything but on Friday as the Kamloops Blazers fell 8-2 to the Kelowna Rockets at Sandman Centre.
One of the few highlights for the Blazers occurred 1:28 into the first period when Garrett Pilon ripped home a one-timer from Rudolfs Balcers and put it top shelf over the shoulder of Rockets goaltender Michael Herringer.
That’s as it good as it would get for Kamloops as the Rockets blitzed the Blazers in the defensive zone and later potted three unanswered goals from Rodney Southam, Tomas Soustal, and Nick Merkley.
Kelowna had the territorial advantage after 20 minutes compiling an 18-5 shot advantage.
The barrage continued early into the second with the Rockets lighting the lamp three more times in the first 8:30 forcing Kamloops Head Coach Don Hay to mercy pull star goaltender Connor Ingram who allowed 6 goals on 26 shots.
Lucas Johansen, Kole Lind, and Dillon Dube found the back of the net in the middle frame for the Rockets who swarmed out to an easy 6-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Kelowna kept their foot on the gas peddle in the third netting two more goals from Reid Gardiner and Carsen Twarynski.
Luc Smith scored a late goal for the Blazers from Dallas Valentine and Lane Bauer at 18:30 of the period, giving Bauer his 200th WHL point.
Kamloops was outshot 41-25.
MYPGNOW caught up with Smith after the game and says the team’s focus wasn’t where it needed to be. “It was just one of those night where we just came out and weren’t ready to go. It’s unacceptable, we can’t play like that if we want to win a round or two in the playoffs or even push for a league championship. It’s one of those things we have to look past as we have another big game tomorrow (Saturday) in Everett.”
According to Smith, it was equally disappointing to not put forth a better effort in front of Ingram. “You obviously feel bad for a guy like him when your team doesn’t show up to play, he’s a good goalie that stands on his head for us and has won us a lot of games. The next time he is in we owe him a good game.”
It was a rebound effort of sorts for the Rockets who avenged a 6-0 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops on February 8th.
Kelowna Head Coach Jason Smith says the team’s top priority was a complete 60 minute effort. “We just tried to go out and play a good game. We’ve taken it game by game all year and haven’t had good results here this year so we want to play a solid road game.”
Twarysnki concurred with his head coach. “Last time they got the first one as well and we kind of got deflated and we had to learn from that. When they got that first one tonight we knew we were still all over them because we had more shots and our o-zone was a lot better.”
Lind had a game-high 4 points for the Rockets.
The Prince George Cougars defeated the Edmonton Oil Kings 4-1 in the other game affecting the BC Division.
With the Kelowna win, the Cougars are now three points up on the Blazers and six up on the Rockets who have two games in hand on both Prince George and Kamloops.
The Blazers travel to Everett on Saturday to play the Silvertips while Kelowna heads to Seattle to tango with the red-hot Thunderbirds.
The Edmonton Oil Kings play the Cougars again on Saturday at CN Centre.
Here is the race to the BC Division crown.
Prince George Cougars 39-19-3-2 – 83 points with 9 games remaining
Kamloops Blazers 37-20-2-4 – 80 points with 9 games remaining
Kelowna Rockets 36-20-5-0 – 77 points with 11 games remaining