Playoff hopes dashed as Blazers fall 5-3 to Royals

Playoff spot out of reach

Photo: Allen Douglas/Kamloops Blazers

The Kamloops Blazers had their playoff hopes dashed on Tuesday night with a 5-3 trouncing at the hands of the Victoria Royals.

Vit Zahejsky, Josh Kelly and Matteo Koci scored for the Blazers. Markus Loponen, Brayden Boehm, Kenta Isogai, Cosmo Wilson and Nolan Stewart were the goal scorers for Victoria.

The Blazers trailed 3-2 after the first period and gave up two more in the second. Koci got one back in the third but it was too little too late.

Johnny Hicks stopped 38 of 41 Kamloops shots, and Dylan Ernst made 34 saves on 39 Royals shots.

Announced attendance at Sandman Centre was 4,259.

The win moves the Royals to 38-17-3-7. With the loss, the Blazers fall to 24-37-4-1 and are eliminated from the playoff race.

The Blazers will take to the ice for two more games this season. They will play the Vancouver Giants on Friday at Sandman Centre before closing out the season in Kelowna on Saturday against the Rockets.

Blazers keep playoff hopes alive with 4-1 win over Rockets

Trout too much for Rockets

Photo: Allen Douglas/Kamloops Blazers

The Kamloops Blazers overcame a hot goalie to beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 on Saturday at Sandman Centre, moving to within four points of a playoff spot with three games left on the schedule.

Captain Emmitt Finn-ie had a goal and an assist for the Blazers, who played the game as the Kamloops Fighting Trout, wearing special Kami the Fish jerseys.

Finnie, Nathan Behm, Beau Courtney and John Szabo scored for Kamloops. Kayden Longley scored the lone Kelowna goal.

The score was tied 1-1 after the first period, then the Blazers stepped on the gas in the second, scoring three goals in a 10-minute span to put the game out of the Rockets’ reach.

Kelowna goaltender Jake Pilon made 42 saves on 46 Kamloops shots. He was perfect on 17 in the third period to keep the score 4-1.

Dylan Ernst stopped 22 of 23 Kelowna shots at the other end of the ice.

Announced attendance at Sandman Centre was 4,620.

The loss was the ninth in a row for the Rockets, who move to 17-42-4-2 on the season — dead last in the WHL’s 11-team Western Conference.

The Blazers improve to 24-36-4-1 with the win, which has them 10th in the conference standings. With the eight-place Seattle Thunderbirds losing Saturday to the Portland Winterhawks, the Blazers move to within four points of a playoff spot.

Kamloops is back in action on Tuesday, when the Victoria Royals will visit Sandman Centre. The Vancouver Giants will pay a visit on Friday night for the final home game of the regular season.

The Rockets will take on the same Royals on Wednesday night in Kelowna before the Blazers close out their regular season by paying one final visit to Prospera Place next Saturday night.

Kelowna will close out the season on Sunday, March 23, in Langley against the Giants.

Kamloops Blazers kept slim playoff hopes alive, beating the Kelowna Rockets 5-2 Friday

Blazers playoff hopes alive

Photo: Steve Dunsmoor

The Kamloops Blazers picked up a win they desperately needed to keep their fading playoff hopes alive.

Emmitt Finnie had a goal and two assists leading the Blazers past the Kelowna Rockets 5-2 before 4,239 at Prospera Place Friday night.

The win snaps a three game losing streak and keeps the Blazers six points in back of eighth place Seattle in the Western Conference with just four games left on the schedule.

The T-Bird doubled Tri-City 6-3 Friday.

For the Rockets, it was their eighth straight defeat, leaving them with just a single overtime win in their last 24 games.

They have not won in regulation time since a 5-2 win in Seattle Jan. 18 and have not won on home ice since a 6-3 win over Prince George Jan. 10.

The Rockets may have deserved a better fate Friday night but crucial mistakes at inopportune times proved costly.

Tied at one and on the power play, the Rockets were sloppy in their own end, turning the puck over to Finnie who eventually found Rhett Ravndahl to give the Blazers a lead they would not relinquish.

A pair of giveaways in the final minute led to easy empty net goals that salted the game away.

“There were points in the game I thought we were good and there were points in the game I thought we were a little lacklustre and undisciplined on where we needed to be on the ice,” said interim head coach Derrick Martin.

“It’s a game that sits in the margins again, we seem to live there for 40 minutes every single night.

“The challenge for this group is really, we have four games left, is find a way to start flipping the script on some of these marginal games and learn how to do it for 60 minutes.”

The Rockets got on the board first when Will Sharpe went coast-to-coast, deking a Blazers defender through the legs and beating Dylan Ernst to the glove side on a Kelowna power play.

Early in the second, the Rockets were again unable to clear the zone. Finnie gathered the loose puck and got a shot away from the slot that was deflected to Harrison Brunicke who swept in the tying goal.

Finnie put the Blazers up two at 7:36 with what proved to be the game winner before Hiroki Gojsic trimmed the margin again to one with a backdoor one-timer from the left circle.

It was the last real good chance the Rockets would have.

The two teams meet again Saturday night in Kamloops.

The Rockets then close out the season with games at home against Victoria Wednesday, Kamloops Saturday and in Vancouver a week Sunday.

Early lead can't help Blazers overcome Wild in 5-2 defeat

Blazers fall 5-2 to Wild

Photo: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

Despite an early lead, the Kamloops Blazers couldn't keep the Wenatchee Wild from claiming victory at Sandman Centre Wednesday night.

The Blazers were the first to find the back of the net with a goal from Oren Shtrom just 21 seconds into the first period. The Wild would eventually tie it up, ending the first 1-1

Wenatchee scored twice more in the second period to bring their lead to 3-1.

While on the power play, Blazers captain Emmitt Finnie scored several minutes into the third period and cut the Wild’s lead in half. In the final minutes of the game, Wenatchee scored two empty net goals.

Kamloops goaltender Logan Edmonstone made 34 saves on 37 shots and Brendan Gee stopped 37 of 39 shots for the Wild.

The Blazers power play scored on one of three chances while its penalty kill shut down both of Wenatchee’s opportunities.

Announced attendance at Sandman Centre was 3,289.

The loss puts the Blazers 22-36-4-1 on the season, good for the 10th spot in the 11-team Western Conference — six points from a playoff spot with five games left in the regular season.

Up next for the Blazers are back to back games against the Kelowna Rockets starting at Prospera place on Friday, March 14. Puck drop is at 7:05 p.m.