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Blazers give up seven unanswered, lose 8-2 to Americans

Blazers blown out by Ams

The Kamloops Blazers surrendered seven unanswered goals in the final two periods on Friday at Sandman Centre en route to a lopsided 8-2 loss to the Tri-City Americans.

Harrison Brunicke and Connor Levis were the goal scorers for the Blazers. Parker Bell (3), Jordan Gavin (2), Deagan McMillan, Adam Mechura and Elouann Lemonnier scored for the Americans.

The Blazers led 2-1 after 20 minutes, then things stopped going their way. They gave up three goals in the second and four in the third.

Dylan Ernst made 22 saves on 30 Tri-City shots in a losing effort. He was pulled with a little less than six minutes remaining in the third, after the Americans’ eighth goal. Matthew Kieper was perfect on a single shot in relief.

Tomas Suchanek earned the win in net for the Americans, making 48 saves on 50 Kamloops shots.

Ernst stopped his older brother, Tri-City forward Ethan Ernst, on a penalty shot in the third period.

The Americans scored four power play goals on four chances. The Blazers were scoreless on five power-play opportunities.

Announced attendance at Sandman Centre was 5,096.

With the loss, the Blazers move to 25-9-4-2 on the season, still tops in the WHL’s B.C. Division and second in the Western Conference, eight points back of the first-place Seattle Thunderbirds (31-7-1-1), who won on Friday on home ice. The Americans improve to 20-16-3-1 with the win.

The two teams will do it again tomorrow at Sandman Centre, with a 7 p.m. puck drop. After that, the Blazers will head to Vancouver Island for a pair of games against the Victoria Royals (12-26-3-1) next Friday and Saturday.



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