The Kelowna Rockets opened their second half of the regular season with a loss, snapping their two-game win streak on Wednesday night.
In their first matchup of the eight-game season series, the Blazers claimed a 3-2 victory.
Andrew Thomson (8) put the Blazers on the board first at 14:33 after the 16-year-old pounced on Nathan Behm's rebound to the left of the net that Rockets starter Jari Kykkanen was unable to track down.
While on the power play, Emmitt Finnie fed a pass to the backdoor to find Jordan Keller (10) and push the Blazers out to a two-goal lead 58 seconds into the second period. Dylan Sydor's (6) wired a shot off of Kykkanen's mask, knocking it off his head, the puck then went off of Rockets defender Jackson Gillespie and into the net at 6:16. After some discussion between the referees about whether the play should've been blown dead due to Kykkanen's mask coming off, it was deemed a good goal. Hiroki Gojsic (7) responded for Kelowna 59 seconds later, jumping on the loose puck in the slot following the faceoff he spun and shot the puck past Blazes netminder Dylan Ernst.
Seconds after the Rockets pulled the goaltender, the puck kicked out to the right of the Blazers net where captain Gabriel Szturc (15) pulled Kelowna back within one with 2:17 to go in regulation.
The Rockets will return home to Prospera Place for back-to-back home games this weekend, where they'll host the Blazers on Friday night and the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 7:05 pm both nights.