Oren Shtrom celebrates a goal against the Prince George Cougars on Jan. 25, 2025. (Image Credit: PG Cougars)

By Victor Kaisar

Blazers 5 Cougars 2

Blazers use four-goal second period to power past Cougars

Jan 26, 2025 | 8:16 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — The Kamloops Blazers used a four goal-second period to come away with a 5-2 road win over the Prince George Cougars Saturday (Jan. 25) night.

A three-point night for Oren Shtrom against his former team, which included the game winner – led the Blazers to their second four-point weekend of the month.

“It was definitely nice to get that and to get the win and it was nice to help contribute towards the win,” Shtrom said. “We want to make playoffs and so this weekend was huge and I think it was a step in the right direction.”

The 20-year-old Shrtom, who recorded his first multi-goal game as a Blazer, added an assist Saturday to reach the 100 point plateau in the WHL.

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Fellow overage forward Beau Courtney also recorded his first goal – and point – as a Blazer, as Kamloops moved to one point back of Wenatchee for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

“I’ve been looking for goal here in Kamloops for a bit and it was awesome,” Courtney said. “That was a great team effort. [Emmitt Finnie] started the whole thing, he drove the net and I just kind of got lucky that the rebound was sitting there and I tapped it in.”

Koehn Ziemmer opened the scoring 88 seconds into the game as the Cougars held on to the 1-0 lead until Courtney struck shorthanded at the 46-second mark of the second period.

That goal opened up the floodgates as goals from Nathan Behm and Shtrom’s first chased Joshua Ravensbergen, the top ranked North American goaltender in the NHL Central Scouting midterm rankings – from the Cougars net.

The 18-year-old goaltender allowed three goals on 14 shots in 27:03 of action.

Tommy Lafreniere, who was ranked 86th among North American skaters, then beat Cougars backup Cooper Michaluk with a power play marker to complete the Blazers four goal outburst at the CN Centre.

A Borya Valis shorthanded goal at 16:32 of the second period gave the Cougars a bit of life, as he made it a 4-2 game. But any hopes of a comeback were snuffed out less than five minutes into the third when Shtrom struck on the power play for his second of the night.

Dylan Ernst made 30 saves on 32 shots to pick up the win for the Blazers, as they improved to 17-24-3-0. Michauk allowed seven of nine in 32:57 of relief work for Prince George, as they dropped to 25-15-3-2, which has them fifth in the Western Conference.

Next up for the Blazers is a Wednesday night, Jan. 29, game against the Tri-City Americans on Indigenous Night at the Sandman Centre.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.