MML Blazers beat Royals while Stankoven sets new league goal scoring record

Feb 24, 2019 | 2:29 PM

KAMLOOPS — It took about 57 minutes on Sunday, but it finally happened. Logan Stankoven scored his 45th goal of the 2018-2019 BC Major Midget League season, surpassing Tyson Jost’s record set back in the 2013-14 season, and helping the Thompson Blazers down the South Island Royals 7-2 to sweep the weekend series.

“It was kind of a sigh of relief,” Stankoven says. “In yesterday’s game, I had lost of chances to score, as well. Same as today’s game, so it was nice to get that one, for sure.”

Stankoven, who also had three assists in the contest, now has 90 points in 34 games this season and sits 18 points back of the all-time scoring record set by Alex Kerfoot back in 2011.

The win runs the Blazers record to 21-14-1, which is six points back the Okanagan Rockets and three up on the North West Hawks and puts the Blazers in fifth in the Major Midget league standings.

With just four regular-season games remaining, they’ll be in tough as they take on the league’s top two teams to close out the year – next weekend at home against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds, before finishing the season in Vancouver against the North East Chiefs. Both teams are currently tied for the league lead with 56 points, although the Thunderbirds have a pair of games in hand.

“We’ve had tough times beating [those teams], so hopefully the next weekends we can do that, then bring that into playoffs,” Stankoven says of his trams remaining games.

Headed Coach Carter Cochrane says his team will need to bring a playoff mentality into the next couple of weeks if they want to keep the fifth seed heading into the BCMML playoffs.

“We looked at our schedule, we knew that playing the top two teams in the league would be a great opportunity for us to really hone our game before playoffs,” Cochrane says. “It’s really going to set a playoff atmosphere, a playoff mentality. They’re still battling for position, we can still move up or down in the standings, too. So there’s lots to play of in these last four games.”