In a night filled with ceremony and emotion, a capacity crowd at the Sandman Centre bid farewell to both the 23/24 Kamloops Blazers team, as well as the team’s long-time trainer.
As for the on-ice action, the Blazers — starting their youngest line-up of the season — saw a hungry Prince George squad score early, and often, as the Cougars were faced with a possible goals for-and-against tie-breaker scenario with the Portland Winterhawks for top spot in the Western Conference.
The young Blazers squad would keep the Cougars off the score sheet for the first half of the first period.
However, Prince George would open the scoring 12 minutes in, with Carlin Dezainde getting his 25th of the season to make it 1-0.
The flood gates would open from there for Prince George, which scored three more times in the first to make it a 4-0 game after one period.
Prince George, needing to tally goals to push ahead of Portland in the goals-for-and-against category, which is a possible tie-breaking scenario at the end of the season, kept its foot on the gas through the 2nd, scoring two more to make it 6-0 before Jordan Keller would break the goose egg with his 22nd of the season to make it 6-1.
But the Cougars would not let up, scoring 3 more in the second to take a 9-1 lead into the dressing room after two periods of play.
The Blazers, who started rookie goaltender Logan Edmonstone, would finish the game with Jesse Sanche in net.
Sanche would turn aside all 9 shots he faced in the 3rd period, while Emmitt Finnie would notch the only goal of the third period to make the final score 9-2.
With the 4,626 who turned out to send off the Blazers for the season, the team was able to crack the 150,000 mark for attendance this season.
Before the puck drop, the Blazers would also say goodbye to long-time Trainer Colin “Toledo” Robinson, who is calling it quits after 29 years with the Blazers organization.
The fans also paid tribute to three graduating Kamloops Blazers at the game, including Captain Logan Bairos, as well as Blake Swetlikoff and Ashton Ferster.
Kamloops will close out the season Saturday night in a possible spoiler role in Prince George.
The Cougars will need a victory to ensure the team top spot in the Western Conference, after Portland fell in overtime to Tri-City 4-3, leaving them 3 points back of the Cougars, but still with a game-in-hand.
This means a Prince George victory secures the Cougars a first-round date with Spokane, while Portland would be matched up against Victoria, as the Royals will finish in 7th, following a 4-2 loss to Wenatchee Friday night.
Puck drop for the final Blazers game of the 23/24 season in Prince George will be 6pm on Saturday.
Pre-game with Radio NL’s Jon Keen will get underway at 5:30pm.
Tonight we will surpass 150,000 fans this season (over 4400 per game) at the Sandman Centre!
We want to thank #BlazerNation for their continued support! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/XiCLz7a931
— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) March 22, 2024