Kamloops gets back in the win column with victory over Swift Current on Friday at Sandman Centre

Photo: Brian Johnson

Kamloops Blazers captain Emmitt Finnie at the faceoff dot Friday night at the Sandman Centre against Rylan Gould of the Swift Current Broncos. Finnie scored two goals and was named the game's first star as Kamloops took home a 5-2 victory.

The Blazers got off to an early lead and didn’t look back, bucking the Broncos Friday night in Kamloops.

The Blue and Orange defeated the visiting Swift Current Broncos 5-2 at home in front of more than 3,600 fans to slip into the eighth and final playoff spot heading into the weekend.

Kamloops opened the scoring at 5:20 of the first period on a goal from captain Emmitt Finnie, followed by a powerplay goal from Oren Shtrom.

Less than a minute into the second period Rylan Gould would get the Broncos on the board, cutting into the Blazers’ two goal lead, which was restored by Shtrom who tallied his second of the game at the four minute mark of the period.

Carlin Dezainde inched Swift Current to within a goal again about four minutes later, but Finnie put the Blazers up 4-2 halfway through the second period with his second goal of the game.

The Blazers’ Nathan Behm added an empty netter with two minutes remaining in the third to keep the game out of reach.

The Blazers went just 1 for 6 on the powerplay, but their penalty kill was perfect as Swift Current went 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

Kamloops netminder Logan Edmonstone made 30 saves on 32 shots and Swift Current’s Reid Dyck made 22 saves on 27 shots.

With the win the Blazer sit eighth in the western conference with 39 points — just one ahead of the Wenatchee Wild — and have a record of 18-25-3-0. Swift Current is 24-20-1-1 and sits eighth in the east with 50 points — 10 points better than the ninth place Red Deer Rebels in that conference.

Swift Current is back in action in Kelowna Saturday to take on the Rockets.

Next up for the Blazers is a date with the Vancouver Giants on the road in Langley Saturday. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.