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| Dylan Garand (Kamloops Blazers) |
For the second straight weekend, Dylan Garand and his Kamloops Blazers faced off against Talyn Boyko and his Kelowna Rockets. And for the second straight game the two teams had to go to the shootout before Kamloops would earn a 3-2 win.
After going 0-3 in his first three starts against the Rockets, Garand has reeled off three straight wins but none of them have been easy. The games between the two rivals has been intense with a playoff atmosphere for each game.
The two teams exchanged goals in the first period but the edge clearly belonged to Kamloops as they outshot the Rockets 19-11. While Garand was awarded the game's third star, Boyko showed that he was equal to the challenge.
The second period saw both teams exchange goals again but this period belonged to the Rockets who outshot the Blazers 13-7. The third period did not have any goals scored but it was the Rockets who kept the pressure on the Blazers outshooting them 14-8.
Both goalies were making outstanding saves whether it was a fast glove or off their goalie mask, this was an edge of the seats kind of game. The refs put their whistles away in the third period and that was wrong as chippy play almost ruined another classic.
The Blazers outshot the Rockets 4-1 in the overtime period as once again these two teams wound up in the shootout. Unlike last week's 12 round affair, this one only needed three rounds as both teams missed on their first shots.
In the third round, Kamloops Matthew Seminoff beat Talyn Boyko with a nifty move that opened space for him to score on. Kelowna's Pavel Novak was the last hope for his team but Garand used his blocker to stop the shot and seal the win.
Garand stopped 37 out of 39 saves as he improved his record to 28-7 with a goals against of 2.10 and a save percentage of 0.923. The Kamloops goalie leads the WHL in wins and is second in both save percentage and wins.
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| Tayln Boyko (Kelowna Rockets) |
Kamloops has a seven-game winning streak after the win, they took over the top spot in the WHL's Western Conference. Kelowna can forget about catching Kamloops for the BC Division and Conference lead, they are 14 points behind Kamloops in the standings.
Instead they should focus on catching Seattle (trail by 4 with 2 games in hand) for the fourth seed and home ice in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
Jayden Grubbe had a solid game but many of his teammates didn't as their Red Deer Rebels dropped a 5-2 decision to the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Grubbe had a goal on seven shots with a +1 while going 9-14 on his faceoffs.
The Grubbe goal can best be described as a copy of a Chris Kreider power move.
Jayden Grubbe doesn't skip workouts!💪@Rebelshockey | @NYRangers pic.twitter.com/AsoCyjxlZO
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 19, 2022
It was Grubbe's 10th goal of the season as he improved to 10-19-29 for the season.
Eliminated
Riley Hughes saw his junior season with the Northeastern Huskies most like end after a loss to the UConn Huskies in a Hockey East playoff semifinal. Hughes was scoreless as he wasn't credited for any shots on goal.
Any hope of earning an "at large" invite to the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament will require a lot of help from other teams. Currently, Northeastern is ranked 14th in the "Pairwise" rankings so they need as many of the top seeds to win their conference finals as possible.
Otherwise, Northeastern will wind up as the last team to be cut from the tournament. In 30 games, Hughes was 2-10-12.
Did Not Play
Matthew Rempe did not play for his Seattle Thunderbirds serving the second game of a three-game suspension that came due to a boarding incident on March 12th.
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