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WHL Kamloops Blazers

Blazers Fall 4-3 in Shootout to Giants

February 21, 2016 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kamloops Blazers News Release


The Blazers overcame a 3-0 deficit to earn a point, but couldn't come all the way back as the Vancouver Giants won 4-3 in a shootout on Sunday night.

Kamloops got off on the wrong foot early in the game, as captain Matt Needham was given a major and a game misconduct for kneeing Giants' defenseman Dmitry Osipov less than a minute into the first.

Trevor Cox opened the scoring for the Giants at 18:53 of the first period. The Giants added to their lead only 38 seconds into the second frame, as Chase Lang shot a puck that took an unlucky bounce over goalie Connor Ingram, who was getting the start after the night off on Saturday.

The Giants made it 3-0 exactly two minutes later on the powerplay, when Radovan Bondra wired a snapshot past the glove of Ingram.

The deficit forced Blazers Head Coach Don Hay to use his team's timeout, which turned out to be just what the team needed.

Jiri Smejkal got Kamloops on the board shortly after the team's timeout, scoring at 5:12 of the second for his first goal as a Blazer since being acquired at the WHL trade deadline. Nick Chyzowski followed that up only 42 seconds later, taking a nice pass from Quinn Benjafield and beating Giants goalie Jake Morrissey top shelf.

The Blazers equaled the score at 11:57 of the third when Gage Quinney tipped it in past Morrissey on a nice pass from Collin Shirley. That made the score 3-3, which stood at the end of regulation.

After a number of Blazer chances in the overtime period, the Giants looked to have won late on a goal from Ty Ronning, but the goal was called back on an offside against Vancouver prior to the goal going in, after discussion from the officials.

In the shootout, both team's first two shooters missed before Cox beat Ingram on a five-hole deke, which would wind up as the winner when Deven Sideroff missed for Kamloops at the other end.

Blazers Assistant Coach Mike Needham talked post game on Radio NL about his team's ability to come back after being down by three goals.

"To battle back from down 3-0, we'll take the point. We've been resilient in the last little while, we've been down in a couple of games and we haven't broken", Needham said. "We've come back and found ways to get points, and that's what we have to do to continue down the stretch here for our last 12 games."

Both the Blazers and the Giants were playing in their third game in three nights; Kamloops finishes the weekend going 0-2-0-1 in their three-game West Coast swing.

"Friday night we were not happy with the effort. We didn't compete as a group; we had a few guys here and there that were good and we need everybody... Saturday we were better, I think we competed a little better", Needham added on Radio NL. "Tonight, coming back - three-in-three is always difficult - we dug in, stuck with it and found a way to get a huge point. And you never know what that point's going to do for you as we move forward".

The Blazers remain in eighth in the Western Conference standings with 63 points, four points ahead of the ninth-place Tri-City Americans.

Kamloops doesn't play again until Friday night, when they'll finish off their four game road swing in Everett against the Silvertips.

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