The Kelowna Rockets put 41 shots on the Kamloops net Friday night.
Only two found the back of it.
That was enough for the Blazers to leave Prospera Place with a 5-2 victory, as 16-year-old goaltender Kaeden Tate turned aside 39 shots to help Kamloops win the first half of a home-and-home weekend series.
Tate, who turns 17 next week, was named the second star of the game.
Owen Folstrom and Dawson Gerwing scored power-play goals for Kelowna, but the Rockets were unable to generate enough danger at even strength against the young Kamloops goaltender.
Assistant coach Brandon McMillan was not pleased with the way Kelowna entered the game.
“I think we came out flat. We weren’t really ready. We were behind the plays, and they were hungry for pucks,” McMillan said. “It took us about half the period to get going.”
The Rockets eventually found their legs and finished the opening period trailing 2-1. They continued to push as the game went on, but Kamloops had an answer each time Kelowna threatened.
McMillan felt the Rockets had enough opportunities to make the game closer, but too many of their shots came from areas where Tate could see them clearly.
“We definitely had our looks,” McMillan said. “I think we had a couple of posts tonight, some unfortunate bounces, and it was just one of those where maybe we need to be a bit more hungry to get into the net.”
The Rockets also needed more bodies around the crease.
“Maybe we needed to get another guy towards the net. Maybe we needed to get a guy in front of Tate’s eyes to screen him,” McMillan said. “I thought he saw a lot of pucks tonight. I thought we made it pretty easy on him from our outside shots.”
Kelowna’s power play was a bright spot, going 2 for 6.
McMillan liked what he saw from the unit.
“We’ve worked a lot on our special teams. Our power play did a really good job tonight finding seams and making the plays that were there, keeping it simple,” he said. “When you can get two power-play goals as a group, I think that’s a good sign for sure.”
The Rockets had another important special-teams moment in the second period when they successfully killed off a five-minute major penalty assessed to Tomas Poletin.
“That was a huge kill,” McMillan said. “We made a few adjustments after they scored the first one, and I thought we killed well after that.”
The penalty kill gave Kelowna a chance to change the momentum, and the Rockets took advantage.
But after Gerwing’s power-play goal cut the deficit to 3-2, Kamloops answered just 17 seconds later.
That quick response changed the feel of the game.
“We talk about our next shift after goals, whether we score or we get scored on,” McMillan said. “Unfortunately, we make a mistake, and it’s in the back of our net.”
With the crowd back into the game and the Rockets having just pulled within one, the Blazers’ immediate response was a costly one.
“It’s definitely deflating,” McMillan said. “We need to be better in that situation. We’ve just got to get the puck in, get it back down. We’ve got the momentum, and we’ve got to start to try and take over the game again.”
Instead, Kamloops took control and added another goal in the third period to secure the three-goal victory.
The Rockets now have one regulation win, two regulation losses and one overtime loss through their first four games, giving them three points.
They will not have long to think about Friday’s loss.
The same two teams meet Saturday night again in Kamloops, giving Kelowna an immediate opportunity to respond.
McMillan expects the Rockets to take a hard look at themselves before the rematch.
“There should be some guys in there looking at themselves and saying they could have had a better night,” he said. “We’ve got to come out tomorrow night and have more urgency and have a more complete game and really raise our compete level.”
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