By Colton Davies

Blazers beat the Rockets 3-2 in Kelowna

Mar 5, 2016 | 9:34 PM

KELOWNA, B.C. — The Blazers skated away with a 3-2 road win on Saturday night, beating the Kelowna Rockets for the second consecutive night in the team’s home-and-home series.

Garrett Pilon was the hero for the Blazers, scoring the go-ahead goal on a nifty pass from Matt Needham with 38.7 seconds remaining in regulation. The rookie Pilon has six goals and nine points in Kamloops seven games this season against Kelowna.

Collin Shirley opened the scoring with his 34th of the year on a 5-on-3 powerplay late in the first period, and Nick Chyzowski doubled the Blazers lead midway through the second period by shovelling in a rebound.

The Rockets clawed back, however, with two powerplay goals in the third period. Tomas Soustal got Kelowna on the board at 8:29 of the third, while Tyson Baillie evened the score at 17:29.

Blazers goalie Connor Ingram was the game’s first star for the second straight night against Kelowna. After making a career-high 53 saves on Friday night, Ingram stopped 44 shots on Saturday to help Kamloops to their third straight win, and fifth in the last six games.

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The Rockets pounded 101 combined shots in their two games against Kamloops this weekend, but the Blazers did a good job limiting high quality scoring chances all weekend.

“We’ve been working hard on our defensive zone coverage, and all of our structure in general. And it’s coming together, we’ve got a young group and sometimes you can make a mistake here and there that can cost you, but it’s coming together”, Blazers Assistant Coach Mike Needham said on Radion NL. “We’re playing very well right now. Obviously two big wins against a very good team.”

After having only one win in their last 15 games against Kelowna, the Blazers picked up their second consecutive win against the Rockets, and their first in Kelowna in over two years.

Now with six games remaining in their regular season, the Blazers have jumped eight points ahead of the ninth-place Tri-City Americans in the Western Conference, and remain three points behind the Prince George Cougars for third place in the B.C. Division.

“You can’t hope other teams lose and we’ve taken that approach. We have to take care of our own destiny here, and the kids have bought in”, Needham said. “We’ve worked hard leading up to these games and we believed we could beat this team. We told them it’s our time and the kids have bought in, and we’re feeling pretty good about this result.

The Blazers aren’t in action again until Tuesday, when they head to Tri-City to take on the Americans on a U.S. swing.