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Blazers 3 Cougars 2

Blazers sweep home-and-home weekend series with Cougars, win Saturday 3-2

Jan 23, 2022 | 10:24 AM

KAMLOOPS — It was New Year’s Day all over again for the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday (Jan. 22).

In their first home game at Sandman Centre since Jan. 1, against the same Prince George Cougars squad, the Blazers earned a 3-2 victory.

Matthew Seminoff was on the receiving end of a broken play, in which the puck took a couple deflections and landed on his stick, and wristed home his 16th goal of the season.

The Cougars bit back in the second period, outshooting the Blazers 17-15 and outscoring them 2-0, taking a 2-1 lead. But the Blazers answered with two goals in 38 seconds early in the third period – with Connor Levis getting a couple of tries before going top shelf and newly acquired Luke Toporowski banking home a rebound off the boards for the game winner.

While Blazers goaltender Dylan Garand didn’t stop a large volume of shots, he answered the call for numerous odd man rushes and other Grade A chances.

The Blazers improved to 24-11-1 on the 2021-22 Western Hockey League (WHL) season, good for 49 points in 36 games, first in the B.C. Division, and second in the WHL Western Conference. Their four-game homestand continues Wednesday (Jan. 26) against the Vancouver Giants. Puck drop at the Sandman Centre is at 7 p.m.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Blazers, Matthew Seminoff (16) from Drew Englot and Ethan Brandwood, 5:09

Second Period

1-1, Cougars, Ethan Samson (9) from Keaton Dowhaniuk and Riley Heidt (power play), 0:49

2-1, Cougars, Cayden Glover (4) from Koehn Ziemmer, 17:35

Third Period

2-2, Blazers, Connor Levis (9) from Fraser Minten and Kaden Hammell, 4:12

3-2, Blazers, Luke Toporowski (18) from Logan Stankoven, 4:50

Goaltending

Dylan Garand (W), Blazers, 23 saves on 25 shots in 60 minutes played.

Ty Young (L), Cougars, 45 saves on 48 shots in 60 minutes played.

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