Reid Gardiner scored a hat trick to lead the 琉璃神社 Rockets to a Sunday over the hometown Kamloops Blazers, sending his team into the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.

Gardiner, a trade deadline acquisition from the Prince Albert Raiders, snapped a 2-2 tie with just 1:57 to play to push the Rockets past their B.C. Division rivals in six games.

Down 2-0 late in third period, the Blazers battled back to tie the game with goals from captain Collin Shirley and Brodi Stewart just 57 seconds apart, at 16:49 and 17:46.

But 17 seconds later, Gardiner rebuffed the Blazers鈥� comeback bid, beating Connor Ingram on a cross-ice feed from Nick Merkley, putting 琉璃神社 ahead to stay. Gardiner sealed the series with an empty net goal at 19:37.

鈥淚t was a good effort I thought, for the most part,鈥� Gardiner said. 鈥淚n the third they pushed, we faced a little adversity but we came out stronger for it in the end.鈥�

Dillon Dube, with his fourth goal of the playoffs, opened the scoring for the Rockets, who outshot the Blazers 35-23.

The Rockets will face either the Portland Winterhawks or Prince George Cougars in the second round of the postseason.

The Winterhawks lead Prince George 3-2, with Game 6 set for Monday in Portland.