Seattle scoring steamrolls Blazers en route to 6-1 win

Photo: Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds

Josh Pillar, shown here in a Nov. 20 game in Kent, Wash., scored the lone Kamloops goal on Friday as the Blazers fell 6-1 to the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Kamloops Blazers had trouble mustering much offence on Teddy Bear Toss night on Friday, dropping a 6-1 decision to the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds.

Seattle opened the scoring six minutes into the first period and the visitors up 4-0 after 20 minutes.

Josh Pillar scored the lone Kamloops goal at 1:52 of the second to trigger an avalanche of stuffed animals, but there would be no more Takin’ Care of Business played at Sandman Centre on this night.

Tyrel Bauer, Henrik Rybinski, Jeremy Hanzel, Lucas Ciona, Sam Popowich and Reid Schafer were the goal scorers for Seattle.

Dylan Ernst gave up six goals on 25 Thunderbirds shots in the loss. Backup Keegan Maddocks was perfect on two shots in relief, seeing his first 11:24 of action since being acquired by the Blazers in October.

Thomas Milic made 25 saves on 26 Kamloops shots to earn the win.

With the loss, the Blazers fall to 18-5-0-0 on the season, still comfortably in first place in the WHL’s B.C. Division, five wins ahead of the second-place Vancouver Giants. The win moves the T-Birds to 15-6-3-0 on the year, good for second in the U.S. Division.

The game was the first for the Blazers without Dylan Garand and Logan Stankoven, who are in Calgary at Hockey Canada’s World Junior training camp. Garand will be one of three goalies wearing the Maple Leaf when the tournament starts later this month in Red Deer and Edmonton, but Stankoven is still fighting for a spot on the team.

The Blazers will hit the road for Prince George, where they take on the Cougars (9-14-0-0) on Saturday.