It’s still early in the season in the WHL’s B.C. Division but the Kamloops Blazers are starting to lay down the law.
The Blazers improved to 3-0 and for the second time in five days the Prince George Cougars came out of the short end of the stick, losing 6-1 to the defending division champions Thursday night in Kamloops.
Matthew Seminoff led the Kamloops cause with two goals.
The Blazers dominated the final two periods and scored four unanswered goals on 20 shots in the second period to take control. Seminoff put the Blazers up 2-1 just 45 seconds into the period, and Caeden Bankier got to his own rebound to pad the lead five minutes later, after goalie Taylor Gauthier made two point-blank saves with the Blazers pressing on the power play.
Goals 15 seconds apart from rookie Tye Spencer and Blazer captain Connor Zary put the game out of reach. Spencer, a 16-year-old rookie, collected his first WHL goal with a shot through Gauthier’s legs, a play that started at the other end of the rink when Blazer goalie Dylan Garand intercepted Majid Kaddoura’s dump-in behind the net. Zary, a Calgary Flames first-rounder in 2020, took the puck in from centre and used Keaton Dowhaniuk as a screen as he dragged the puck in and unloaded a high shot in over Gauthier’s blocker.
Seminoff scored his second of the game late on a delayed penalty with the Cougars were in the process of trying to kill off a double-minor to Riley Heidt.
Mats Lindgren, with the first of his WHL career, opened the scoring for the Blazers (3-0), 7:38 into the game. Cougar captain Jack Sander scored his first goal of the season late in the first period to tie it up. Sander’s clearing shot from the Cougars’ end caromed off the side boards and with Cougar forward Koehn Ziemmer leading the chase, Garand rushed out of his crease and missed the puck and it slid off the post and in.
The Cougars, in their season debut Saturday, lost 5-4 to the Blazers and for the first period and they made it look like it was going to be another close one Thursday. They built a 15-7 edge in shots in an opening period and spent a good chunk of the period with puck control in the Kamloops zone but were besieged the rest of the game, outshot 35-11 in the final two periods.
“The first period we had good energy and good execution and really paid attention to detail and structure in our game and it really changed in the second period when they capitalized on a couple of opportunities,” said Cougars associate coach Jason Smith. “The momentum changed in the game because we were making mistakes and not making simple plays getting the puck out of our end and getting it into the offensive zone. When you give a team like that, that has that much offensive power opportunity around your net, they’re going to capitalize.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Cougars defenceman Jaren Brinson, a 16-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., made his WHL debut Thursday. Brinson signed with the Cougars in June 2020 after playing last season for the Edge School U-18 team in Calgary. He was a second-round pick of the Cougars, 36th overall, in the 2019 WHL bantam draft.…Originally planned for Sunday at Sandman Centre, Thursday’s game was bumped up a few days on short notice when a COVID outbreak forced the Kelowna Rockets into quarantine for 14 days. Six Rockets players and two staff members had positive tests Wednesday, forcing the Cougars-Rockets game that night to be postponed. The Cougars (1-2) won’t know until Friday at the earliest who and when they will play next.
