Image Credit: Kamloops Blazers/Allen Douglas

By Adam Donnelly

BLAZERS VS ROCKETS

Blazers ready for the final act in the three-part home-and-home against Kelowna

Mar 24, 2022 | 4:59 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s been nearly a full calendar month since the Kamloops Blazers have lost a hockey game. February 25 in Kelowna, the Rockets nabbed a 2-1 victory over their rivals from the Thompson Valley — and since that game, the Blazers have won eight straight, with half of those victories coming over the Rockets.

“Each game has been hard-fought. There’s been some emotion, there’s been some physicality. I’d expect that to continue,” Blazers Head Coach and GM Shaun Clouston said, ahead of Thursday’s practice.

The Blazers and Rockets are four games into six-in-a-row against each other. Normally, this kind of familiarity doesn’t occur in a stretch of regular-season games. For some of the Blazers in the thick of the rivalry, it’s been fun.

“I’m liking it a lot right now,” says Drew Englot, who was acquired by Kamloops ahead of the WHL Trade Deadline in January. “It’s obviously tough games. We’re both really structured teams and it gets pretty hard in battles there, and stuff. I like that type of hockey, so I enjoy it.”

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19-year-old Englot, who came over from Regina in a trade for 17-year-old Tye Spencer, was brought in to add size and grit to a Blazers roster that is expected to contend for a conference title this year. That role is just fine with the young man from Candiac, Saskatchewan.

“I want to be tough; being a bigger body, I want to bring that element to this team,” Englot says. “Playing against a team like [Kelowna], with the rivalry, it always gets really chippy and I have fun with that.”

“He’s doing what we thought he could to help the team,” Clouston says, of Englot’s play. “I think our fans really appreciate his work ethic, his physicality. Most nights, he leads our team in hits, so he’s willing to go out there and play a hard game.”

Connor Levis is another player who has been thriving in this series against the Rockets. The 17-year-old has scored in three of the four verses Kelowna — however, it’s the gritty side of the game he’s embraced.

“I think a lot of us have stepped up and we understand that hockey is a physical game and things can get chippy sometimes,” Levis says. “Especially when you’re playing a six-game series against Kelowna — a massive rivalry. Being able to step up, know how to fend for yourself, stick up for your teammates — I think it’s a really important part of the game.”

With two more games against the Rockets before the Blazers see another opponent, Englot expects more pugnacity and truculence this weekend.

“You’re not going to have much room to carry the puck, everyone is going to be on you very tight. It’s going bee a very chippy game — basically, the hardest-hitting team is going to win, I feel like, these next two games.”