Logan Stankoven scores his third of four goals on the night, as the Blazers beat the Royals 5-3. Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

By Adam Donnelly

TWO WINS IN A ROW

Stankoven’s four-goal night paces Blazers to win over Royals

Feb 15, 2020 | 10:38 PM

KAMLOOPS —With his Grandma in the house from Campbell River for the Blazers’ Family weekend, 16-year-old Logan Stankoven drove the Kamloops offence, scoring four times and helping his club to a 5-3 victory over the Victoria Royals.

After a scoreless opening frame, the Royals potted the first goal at 3:17 of the second period, as a Phillip Schultz deflection squeezed through Rayce Ramsay.

However, Kamloops would answer back just over 10 minutes later.

Trailing the play, Stankoven took a feed from Quinn Schmiemann in the high slot and sniped one past Royals’ goaltender Adam Evanoff to tie the game at one.

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Twenty-two seconds later, Caedan Bankier found the puck in a scramble in front of the Royals net, stepped back, and beat a sprawling Evanoff to give the Blazers the lead heading into the third period.

At the 2:22 mark of the third period, Stankoven got his second thanks to some tenacious forechecking by his teammates. Ryley Appelt got the puck in deep, then Matthew Seminoff picked off a pass behind the net and from his knees fed Stankoven in the slot for the one-timer and his second goal of the night.

Four minutes later, Stankoven would complete the hat-trick. Schmiemann would go across the blue-line to Josh Pillar, who threaded a pass through a seam to Stankoven for another one-time goal. The Blazers led 4-1 with 13:30 left to play in the third.

That lead would shrink, however. Appelt would take a five-minute-major for checking from behind at the 10:08 mark, which also set off a donnybrook in the Royals zone. When the dust settled, Victoria was left with a five-minute powerplay, which they took full advantage of.

At 11:07 of the third, Schultz would pot his second of the night, as the puck hit a Blazers’ leg and eluded Ramsay.

Then at 12:49, Ramsay would get caught behind his net after misplaying the puck. Brandon Cutler scored on the empty 4′ by 6′ to cut the Blazers lead to just one.

But the Blazers would kill the remainder of the Major penalty, and at 17:49 of the final frame, Kyrell Sopotyk would miss on the backhand, then bring it our front on a wraparound where Stankoven was waiting. The rookie swatted home his fourth of the night and 23rd goal of the season to give Kamloops some insurance late, and secure the 5-3 victory.

Evanoff finished the game with 30 saves on 35 shots for Victoria, while Rayce Ramsay earned his second win in as many nights, stopping 22 of 25 pucks fired his way.

The win stretched the Blazers’ lead over the Royals in the BC Division to nine points and officially clinched Kamloops a spot in the playoffs. The Giants beat Seattle in Langley for their 9th win a row, which moves them within two points of the Royals in the standings.

The Blazers and the Royals will clash Monday at 2:00 pm at the Sandman Centre.