Rockets drop first game back from holiday break

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.

GAME SUMMARY

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.

ADDITIONAL STATS

• The Rockets record is now 15-16-2-0
• Kelowna's power play was 0/3 on the night, while Kamloops was 1/3 with the man advantage
• The Rockets outshot the Blazers 32-31
• The two will face each other next on Friday at Propsera Place, the Blazers lead the season series 1-0
• Rockets leading scorer Andrew Cristall extended his point streak to fourteen games that has seen him record 24 points (8G, 17A) over that span

UP NEXT

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.