The Kamloops Blazers had two young guys shine as 16-year-old goaltender Cole Kehler was outstanding in goal making 41 saves, while 17-year-old Nathan Looysen scored the overtime winner to lift the Blazers to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Giants in WHL preseason action.
Kamloops - September 2, 2013 - The Kamloops Blazers had two young guys shine as 16-year-old goaltender Cole Kehler was outstanding in goal making 41 saves, while 17-year-old Nathan Looysen scored the overtime winner to lift the Blazers to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Giants in WHL preseason action.
The Giants stormed out of the gate peppering shots early at the Blazers young netminder. Joel Hamilton put the Giants on the scoreboard stealing a puck from Kehler and banking it in off the post for the only goal of the period.
Kehler was solid between the pipes in the first frame as the Giants outshot the Blazers 15-5.
The Blazers had a lot of jump in the second period and responded with a few goals. Tim Bozon got the Blazers first goal as he finished a tic-tac-toe play from Matt Needham and Mitch Friesen only 45 seconds into the period.
Aspen Sterzer put the Blazers in the lead as Friesen set him up on a breakaway and he made a great move for a 2-1 Blazers lead 5:25 into the period. Tim Bozon extended the lead on an individual effort.
He went end to end before firing a shot past goaltender Payton Lee as the Blazers went into the break with a 3-1 lead headed into the third period.
The Giants would not go away in this one and cut the lead to 3-2 on the power play. A point shot by Arvin Atwal floated its way through a maze of bodies and in halfway through the third period. The Giants had pressure late in the period and Alec Baer tied the game up with 12 seconds left finding a loose puck in front of the net and beating Kehler to send the game to overtime.
Overtime was brief as Nathan Looysen, who missed on a couple of great opportunities earlier in the game, rifled a shot past Lee on a partial break to give the Blazers a 4-3 victory.
The Blazers improved to 1-1-0-0 in the WHL preseason after suffering a 4-3 loss in Kelowna on Friday night. Cole Kehler stopped 41 of 44 shots while Payton Lee turned aside 23 shots for the Giants.
The Blazers next WHL preseason action is this Friday, September 6 when they host the Vancouver Giants.
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