Last Wednesday night, the Kamloops Blazers’ season came to an end in the first round of playoffs after being swept by the Kelowna Rockets. After a 6-2 loss, the Blazers said a final goodbye to their season on home ice.
The Blazers made very few roster moves throughout the season, meaning the majority of this team has been together since the start.
The team kicked off their season with a 6-4 win at home against the Spokane Chiefs, who had just come off a championship push last season. They continued a 3-game win streak at home; however, within the first three games, a series of injuries would set the tone for the remainder of the season.
Vit Zahesky, a forward from Czechia, had joined the Blazers in the 2024-2025 season but missed part of the season due to a broken ankle. In the second game of the 2025-2026 season, Zahesky broke his leg after suffering a hit from Kaleb Hartmann of the Seattle Thunderbirds. In that same game, 20-year-old defenceman Rhett Ravndahl suffered a knee injury that kept him out till the beginning of November.
In October, the team hit the road for a prairie road trip, where two of their three wins of the month came. The Blazers played 12 games during the month, and two of the wins came in overtime. While struggling to find wins, the team acquired two players to help. Carson Olsen, a 19-year-old defenceman from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and Kayd Ruedig, an 18-year-old defenceman, came from the southernmost team, the Portland Winterhawks.
November was a shift in terms of wins for the Blazers, as the team earned seven wins in 12 games. But they were unable to create a winning streak of more than three games in a row. At the start of the month, besides Zahesky, who was still out month-to-month, the Blazers suffered no major setbacks until the tail end of the month, when Jordan Keller, Ty Bonkowski and Asher Gingras were all listed with injuries.
December was a shorter month, as the Blazers played only eight games and won two, both after the Christmas break. Thankfully, no players were added to the injury list, while two, Bonkowski and Gingras, returned to play.
If the Blazers wanted to make the playoffs, January was the start of the push. Seven of their 12 games were wins. After Team Canada was eliminated from the World, the veteran defenceman Harrison Brunicke was returned to the team after spending the first half of the season with the Pittsburgh Penguins and their AHL affiliate team. The trade deadline was also in January, and the Blazers made a few moves that proved to be beneficial. Ruedig was traded to the Everett Silvertips for picks after only spending three months with the team, and Ty Coupland was brought in via trade with the Red Deer Rebels.
At the end of the month, after watching the majority of the season from the sidelines, Zahesky finally returned to play after recuperating from a broken leg.
However, even with a healthy team, the Blazers began to drop in the Western Conference standings and struggled to find wins in February. Coming out of the month with three wins in 11 games, the team did take home two additional points from an overtime loss and a shootout loss. Most notably in February, the Blazers beat the Victoria Royals 11-1 while on the road, before losing the next-day rematch, 4-1.
In March, it was a battle in the Western Conference to secure the last four playoff spots. With nine games left, the Blazers needed as many points as possible. Following five wins with a single overtime loss, the team snagged the single needed point and secured its spot in the playoffs. However, it wasn’t until the last weekend of play that the team’s playoff opponent would be secured.
Eventually, it was the Blazers’ rivals, the Kelowna Rockets, who they would play in the first round of the playoffs. Since Kelowna was the higher-ranked team, the Rockets had the home-ice advantage and took home the first two wins of the series.
Upon returning to Kamloops, the Blazers tried to fight back and stay in the mix; however, their efforts were for naught, as the Rockets swept the series, officially ending the Blazers’ season on a Wednesday night.
As the final horn sounded, the team congregated on the ice, the emotion so electric that it could be felt throughout the building. Although losing a game is never fun, ending a season on a loss to your rivals, while on home turf, hurts even more. Red faces and long hugs were observed by everyone. The team saluted the fans, and then, knowing it was the last time this exact roster would be together in a game, they began saying their collective goodbyes.
Overall, the Blazers finished the season with a 31-24-7-6 record and 75 points, placing them fifth in the Western Conference. They posted a .551 winning percentage. With 264 goals scored and a +14 goal differential, the Blazers proved to be a competitive offensive team, highlighted by an elite 26.9 percent power play. However, a 75.1 percent penalty kill and 250 goals against pointed to defensive inconsistencies that limited their ability to climb higher in the standings, despite a strong 6–3–1 finish in their final 10 games.