Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

By Adam Donnelly

ROCKETS FAIL TO TAKE OFF

Blazers continue recent dominance over Kelowna in 4-1 win

Jan 10, 2020 | 10:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — New year, same result. The Kamloops Blazers continued their dominance over the Kelowna Rockets Friday night with a 4-1 win. The victory gives the Blazers six wins in seven tries against the Rockets this season.

Libor Zabransky, a trade deadline acquisition for the Blazers, scored the game-winning goal in the first period. He added an assist on Connor Zary’s second goal of the night to earn first star honours.

After the game, the newest Blazer was humble about his performance.

“I’m happy for the win. It’s always nice to win, especially against your rivals, so I was just happy for the win,” Zabransky said in a post-game interview.

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Zary potted his 23rd and 24th goals of the season; the first, to open the scoring and the second, to add some insurance in the second period. Neither goal was what you’d call “conventional.”

“[I’m] not really trying to kick it in,” Zary said, when asked if he had played soccer growing up. “Feet are there, you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do to get it into the back of the net.”

The Rockets got on the board in the second half of the second period. Matthew Wedman tallied for the visitors, and the second assist went to former Blazer defenceman Conner McDonald.

However, early in the third, Brodi Stuart salted the win away for the Blazers. Just as Daylan Keufler was getting out of the penalty box, Stuart stripped Kelowna Defenceman Jake Lee and took off all alone. Rockets goalie Roman Basran tried for the poke check, but Stuart beat him under the arm to give Kamloops the 4-1 lead.

Dylan Garand was solid, stopping 23 of the 24 shots he faced. The Rockets mustered just three shots in the final period of play, which severely hampered their comeback chances. Over the past three third periods, including Friday, the Blazers have surrendered a combined 11 shots – four against Vancouver, four against Victoria and just three against the Rockets.

Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

“I think we’re getting contributions from our fourth line, and when you can play your fourth line, it’s less tiring on the rest of the group,” Shaun Clouston said of his team’s stinginess in the final frame of recent games. “We’ve managed the puck pretty well. If you can get the puck in the offensive zone and put some pressure on teams, I think you wear them out a little bit.”

The same two teams will be in action on Saturday in Kelowna. The Blazers’ next home games will be January 17th and 18th, as they welcome the Tri-City Americans to town.