Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

By Adam Donnelly

WHL HOCKEY

Blazers look to ride three-game win streak into this weekend’s games

Feb 1, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — It doesn’t matter whether you’re a rookie or a vet, the rivalry between the Kamloops Blazers and Kelowna Rockets runs deep. So, when the Blazers beat the Rockets twice last weekend?

“Oh, nothing beats it,” Blazers 19-year-old netminder Dylan Ernst says with a smile. “Those two wins felt as good as a playoff win, you know?”

“It’s always nice to beat those guys,” rookie forward Josh Kelly says. “Beating them twice, home and away, is a great feeling.”

While the WHL season can come at you fast, the Blazers are having a bit more fun these days. Winning can do that for a hockey club.

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“I think in general, we try to create a positive environment,” Blazers Head Coach and GM Shaun Clouston explains. “There are times in the season when things weren’t going well, but I don’t think it helps to make things miserable.”

“The guys are feeling better. They’re feeling that there’s a bit of a solution,” Clouston continues. “There’s a way that we can play — if we do the right thing, if everyone is on board, then we can be much more competitive than we were previously, and that’s a good feeling.”

Josh Kelly is a guy who has stuck with the process and is beginning to see results. He scored his first WHL goal on Saturday night after scoring 34 last season in U18 AAA.

“It was amazing,” Kelly says. “Big relief. It felt great.”

“He’s had a good stretch. For sure during this four-wins-in-five-games stretch — but probably even before that, you saw some signs earlier on that he was really understanding how we want to play, where you want to be in certain situations,” Clouston says. “Really digging in and defending hard and then pushing on the attack. When you do that, things get a little bit better.”

For the players, success on the ice makes coming to the rink every day easier.

“Everyone is a little bit happier,” Kelly says. “To get a few wins feels great, and [we want] to keep building off of that, of course. Everything has clicked and I think everyone is just buying into the systems and we’re having a lot of success that way.”

While the hard work the rookies have put in is starting to pay off, veteran netminder Ernst is relishing the role of spoiler the Blazers can play in the 22 games that remain in the Blazers’ season.

“A good role to be in is the underdog. You don’t have as much pressure,” Ernst says. “I think we just have to embrace that underdog role. We’ve seen teams lower in the standings beat teams like [Prince George], and we know we can do it, too, because we’ve beaten some good teams, and we’ve pushed some good teams to overtime.”

With a Friday night affair against Wenatchee at the Sandman Centre and a Sunday matinee against the Cougars in PG, Clouston hopes his club can continue to build on recent success and continue playing the right way.

“We want to continue with that strong team play with a little more belief that if we do this for 60 minutes, we can have success,” Clouston explains.