Clouston’s Blazers top Tigers 7-3 in lone meeting of WHL season

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Staring down his former club from the home bench, Kamloops Blazers head coach Shaun Clouston spoiled the Medicine Hat Tigers’ party on Saturday night.

In his first game coaching against the Tigers since joining the Blazers in the off-season, Clouston watched as Kamloops dominated Medicine Hat early to earn a 7-3 victory.

Zane Franklin, Connor Zary, and Ryan Hughes each had multi-goal performances for Kamloops, while Mads Søgaard’s night between the pipes for Medicine Hat only lasted 8:44.

It took Blazers forward Kyrell Sopotyk just 1:23 to open the scoring, which was quickly followed by goals from Hughes and Zary to make it a 3-0 Kamloops lead less than nine minutes into the game.

That spelled the end of Søgaard’s evening, pulled for Garin Bjorklund after allowing three goals on his first 10 shots against.

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Fellow Dane Jonathan Brinkman was able to cut into Kamloops’ lead late in the first period with a power play goal for his third of the season, however it was the Blazers getting the last laugh of the frame.

After the puck was dropped following Brinkman’s 3-1 goal, Hughes responded with his second of the night only 16 seconds later to put the Blazers ahead 4-1 at the intermission.

Tigers captain James Hamblin recorded his 12^th goal of the season a little over five minutes into the second to draw Medicine Hat to within two goals, but Zary’s second on the game four minutes later halted any attempt at a comeback.

Kamloops added a pair from their captain Franklin in the second and third periods to put the game well out of reach, though Medicine Hat was able to pot a goal late in the game by Tyler Preziuso.

Shots were even at 40-40 at the end of the night with Kamloops Dylan Garand making 37 stops and Bjorklund contributing 26 saves for the Tigers, while the Blazers’ power play was 2-for-3 on the evening.

Wrapping up their five-game road swing in British Columbia with a 3-2 record, the 12-6-1-0 Tigers weren’t able to make up any ground in the Central Division and sit four points behind Lethbridge for second place.

Medicine Hat’s month-long absence from the Canalta Centre will come to a close on Friday night with a road game against the Red Deer Rebels before returning home on Saturday to host the Edmonton Oil Kings at 7:30 pm.