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Tommy Lafreniere celebrates his first WHL goals against the Vancouver Giants on Feb. 24, 2024. (Photo via Rob Wilton)
Tommy Lafrenière’s first career WHL goal in just his second game was all the Kamloops Blazers could muster in a 7-1 defeat to the Vancouver Giants Saturday night.
Lafrenière, the Blazers’ eighth round pick in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, has 54 points (26 goals and 28 assist) in 29 games with the Yale Hockey Academy’s U18 Prep team this season.
He was called by the Blazers ahead of this weekend’s games, and made his WHL debut during Friday’s 5-1 loss to the Prince George Cougars at Sandman Centre.
Get him that puck!
Congrats to @TommyLafrenier2 on his 1st WHL goal!
pic.twitter.com/hApJ4qN6bL
— Kamloops Blazers (@blazerhockey) February 25, 2024
Vancouver opened the scoring at the Langley Events Centre through London Hoilett in the first period, before Lafrenière tied the game with an unassisted goal at 14:41 of the period.
The Giants retook the lead through Cameron Schmidt on the power play later in the period, before they added three second period goals – courtesy Tyson Zimmer, Schmidt, Adam Titlbach – in a 2:02 span to lead 5-1 after 40 minutes of action.
A strong third period effort that featured 20 shots wasn’t enough for the Blazers as Schmidt and Hoilett scored late goals to close out the game.
Dylan Ernst made 26 saves on 33 shots in a losing effort, while Vancouver’s Brett Mirwald stopped 29 of 30 shots to pick up the win.
Former Blazer Connor Levis was held scoreless in his first game against his former team. The 19-year-old Vancouver native has 19 points (nine goals and 10 assists) in 17 games since he was dealt to the Giants for three draft picks at the WHL trade deadline in January.
The Blazers drop to 18-33-3-2 on the season on the season, but sit one point ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds for last place in the Western Conference. The Giants are sixth in the conference with a 28-26-3-0 record.
The Blazers play their third game of the weekend against the Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash on Sunday.
Their next home game will be on Wednesday, Feb. 28, when the Spokane Chiefs stop by Sandman Centre.