KAMLOOPS — You could see how badly he wanted it once that final horn sounded at the Sandman Centre Friday night.
Dylan Ferguson earned his first shutout of the season, and first one home ice, at the expense of the Spokane Chiefs, stopping all 37 pucks fired his way – many in spectacular fashion.
“I had a lot of trust in myself tonight and had a lot of trust in my team, and the guys played great in front of me,” Ferguson said after the victory. “[It] took me four years to get one in the barn – the home barn – so it felt great.”
It helped the Blazers got out to a quick lead against their opponents, as Zane Franklin got the crowd into the game at the 28-second mark, as he finished a perfect cross-ice pass from Orrin Centazzo to beat a sprawling Reece Klassen.
Kamloops added another later in the opening frame, as Connor Zary tipped the Joonas Silanpaa in the high slot to sneak it past Klassen for the 2-0 lead.
Spokane came into the contest with the top-ranked power-play in the WHL, but the Blazers managed to keep the Chiefs to the outside, limit the number of quality chances Spokane could muster with the man advantage.
“Our PK was very good,” Head Coach Serge Lajoie told the media after the win. “[That’s] so important for this group. A lot of young guys, and even our veterans, they feed off that.”
The Captain rounded out the scoring for the Blazers part-way through the third period, as Jermaine Loewen found a rebound in front of the net and swept it into the yawning cage between his legs while facing away from the net, then proceeded to pound his chest triumphantly.
“He was in his office,” Lajoie said of Loewen’s performance. “It was nice for him to be rewarded. He’s been playing with a lot more confidence, a lot more jump. He seems freer out there, to play his game, and arguably he’s been one of our top performers in the last four or five games.”
The Blazers busy January continues Saturday night, as they welcome the Victoria Royals to town, before heading to Seattle for a Sunday evening tilt with the Thunderbirds. This weekend will be their third “three-games-in-three-nights” stretch of the month.
