Ams drop return home to Kamloops

Kennewick, WA. -- The crowd of 3,667 settled into their seats at the Toyota Center, excited to see their team for the first time in 34 days, coming of a 7-4 road trip across Canada. However, as is often the case when coming home from a lengthy stretch away from home, things can get a bit a bit messy for the home squad and this one was no exception, as the Kamloops Blazers broke away from a 1-all tie after one, to skate away with a 5-1 victory over the Tri-City Americans.

Orrin Centazzo opened the scoring for the Blazers, assisted by Montana Onyebuchi and Joonas Sillanpaa at 8:50, giving Kamloops a 1-0 lead. Tri-City would strike back in the closing stages of the opening period, to knot the score, as Isaac Johnson scored his 8th of the season from Mitchell Brown and Nolan Yaremko at 18:07, to make it a 1-1 contest through 20. However, it was all Kamloops after that.

Centazzo scored his second of the night, with Luc Smith Smith and Zan Franklin lending a hand on the power play at 4:12 to make it 2-1 Blazers. Nolan Kneen scored a power play goal at 8:10 from Franklin and Smith to make it 3-1. Then it was Quinn Schmiemann, younger brother of Americans' d-man Dom scoring his first career WHL goal, assisted by Connor Zary and Martin Lang on the power play at 14:51, giving the visitors a 4-1 advantage after 40 minutes.

In the third, Tri-City coach Kelly Buchberger swapped goaltenders, inserting Talyn Boyko in the goal for just his second appearance of the season and Onyebuchi was able to slip one past him at 19:44, assisted by Travis Walton and Ryley Appelt, for the final 5-1 margin in favor of Kamloops.

Final shots on the night were 35-31 Americans. Dylan Ferguson was sharp in net for the Blazers with 34 saves, while Beck Warm and Boyko made a total of 26 stops for Tri-City. Kamloops was 3-for-3 on the power play, the Americans were 0-for-6.

With the win, the Blazers improve to 8-10-1-0 in the B.C. Division, still 5 points back of both Prince George and Kelowna in the race for third. Tri-City, which has now dropped three straight, slips to 12-9-0-0 for 24 points, 4th in the U.S. Division, 3 points behind third place Spokane. Next action for the Americans is Saturday night the 24th at home against the Calgary Hitmen, who won 5-2 at Seattle Friday night. Game time at Toyota Center is 7:05 pm. Ar time with Craig West and the Gesa Credit Union Warm Up Show on Newstalk 870 KFLD and newstalk870.am is 6:45 pm. Kamloops next plays at Spokane Saturday night.