The Kamloops Blazers gave an inch to the Kelowna Rockets but gained a little more in the Western Conference playoff race Friday night at the Sandman Centre.
Connor Zary and Orrin Centazzo scored in the shootout and the Blazers squeaked out a 2-1 win in extra time, in a tight game with few penalties and scoring chances few and far between.
After a mostly pedestrian first period, where the Rockets outchanced the Blazers and doubled them in shots, the home team adjusted in the middle period.
Martin Lang found a soft spot between the Rockets defense while Kamloops transitioned up ice, taking a pace from Brodi Stuart before firing a wrister that tipped off the glove of Rockets goalie Roman Basran and trickled over the goal line. That gave the Blazers a 1-0 lead and brought life to the crowd of 5,398 at the Sandman Centre, and so to did a fight between Stuart and Rockets defender Kaedan Korczak six seconds after the play had resumed.
“We weren’t sure how to approach the game in the first period, and I let the guys know that that wasn’t going to be acceptable,” Blazer head coach Serge Lajoie said post-game. “I started to get really get engaged verbally with the guys in the first period, had a very direct message. And in the second, not attacking them just saying ‘this is exactly what we need to to do.'”
Early in the third, Rockets leader scorer Adam Foote buried his 34th of the year and 17th powerplay goal on a five-on-three man-advantage, which came Blazer penalties for boarding and delay of game.
The Blazers continued to pressure but couldn’t score in regulation, outshooting Kelowna 25-12 in the second and third periods. After a scoreless overtime, Zary led off with a goal in the shootout and Centazzo followed suit, while Dylan Garand stopped both Rocket shots to secure two points.
“I really liked how our guys got engaged physically, started to direct a lot more pucks to the net, supported the puck. And it really became a will-over-skill type of approach,” Lajoie said.
Final shots were 33-27 in favor of the Blazers, who went 0-4 on the powerplay and 3-4 on the penalty kill.
With the win, the Blazers (24-32-5-2) pull within six points of the Rockets (27-30-5-2) for third place in the B.C. Division. While mired in ninth place in the conference, Kamloops has one game in hand on Kelowna, and the two teams will have a big date tomorrow night at Prospera Place, their 10th and final meeting of the regular season.
Play-by-play on Radio NL with Jon Keen is at 7 p.m., with the pre-game show beginning at 6:30 p.m.
(Photo credit: Allen Douglas/ Kamloops Blazers)
Blazers beat Kelowna 2-1. Head Coach Serge Lajoie didn’t like his teams start, before coming on.
WATCH: 🎥 pic.twitter.com/dGq5zqdNSv— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) March 9, 2019
And here’s @CentazzoOrrin‘s goal in the shootout.@blazerhockey beat Kelowna 2-1.#Kamloops pic.twitter.com/ueog02NOoO
— Victor Mario Kaisar (@supermario_47) March 9, 2019
