BLAZERS FALL 3-2 TO COUGARS
By Colton Davies – Follow Colton on X
Riley Heidt and the Prince George Cougars rolled into town Saturday. The Blazers were coming off a 3 game losing streak. The team has been plagued with injuries to their which now includes veteran Ryan Michael.
It didn’t take long for the Cougars to strike, as Matteo Danis capitalized on a loose puck just 58 seconds into the first period, slipping it past Logan Edmonstone to open the scoring. Kamloops killed off a big penalty early in the first and not long after that it was Kalan Anderlini scoring his first goal of the campaign. As we approached the 10 minute mark, Prince George quickly regained momentum. Terik Parascak set up Riley Heidt for a perfect redirect off an Aiden Foster feed, making it 2-1. Just three minutes later, Patrick Sopiarz batted the puck home to extend the Cougars’ lead to 3-1.
The second was back and forth. There was a prime scoring chance for Tommy Lafrenière but he was denied by Joshua Ravensbergen. Later in the frame, Nathan Behm worked his way around the Cougars’ defense and fed Vit Zahejsky in front, but Ravensbergen sprawled out to make another key save, keeping Prince George’s two-goal lead intact.
The third period started with some heavy hits and even a few choice words being thrown around between Blazers’ Anderlini and Cougars’ Foster got in each others faces. Kamloops controlled the play for much of the period’s first half, generating high-danger chances from Rhett Ravndahl and Andrew Thomson, but they couldn’t solve Ravensbergen.
The Blazers continued to apply pressure with chances from Zahejsky and Beau Courtney, however Ravensbergen remained poised. Kamloops gained a powerplay just over halfway through the third period and it was hometown kid Jordan Keller rifling the puck in the top right corner to cut the lead to one. With 90 seconds left, the Blazers pulled Edmonstone for the extra attacker, but despite outshooting Prince George 33-31, they couldn’t find the equalizer.
Kamloops will look to snap their losing skid when they host the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM.