Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Rockets Game Notes vs. Giants


Tonight’s Preview: The Rockets and Giants are meeting for the 7th time this season. The Rockets are 1-4-1-0 against the Giants this season having been out-scored 23-7. The Giants have out-shot the Rockets 200-97 in five games. The two teams will conclude the seasonal series March 10th at Prospera Place. The Rockets are coming off a 3-0 loss in Seattle on Sunday. The hockey club has four wins in their last 11 games overall (4-6-0-1), and have points in six of their last twelve games. After tonight’s game the Rockets heading back on the road with back-to-back games in Prince George this weekend.

Watching the Wack: The Rockets trail Chilliwack by 2 points for the fourth and final playoff spot in the B.C division. The Bruins have 8 games left in the season, 6 at home and 2 on the road. The Bruins have 3 games left against Vancouver, 2 more with Kamloops and single games with Seattle, Portland and Spokane.

Improving with Age: Cody Almond is one of a handful of Rockets that have improved their offensive totals from a season ago. Almond has 30 more points than he had last season. Colin Long has 20 more points than he had in his rookie season. Myles MacRae has 12 more points than he did all of last season. Luke Schenn has 14 more points than he did all of last season.

Road Rash: The Rockets are winless in 12 straight road games (0-10-1-1) which is a franchise record. The previous mark was 10 straight road games without a win from December 13/1998 to February 14/1999. The Rockets have been shutout five times in those 12 games and have been out-scored 47-13 overall. Of those 13 goals scored over that period, 8 have come on the power play.

Sick of the Shutout: The Rockets have been shutout 11 times this season. Nine of those 11 have been suffered on the road. Portland leads the way having been shutout 13 times this season. If you think that’s bad just look at the Swift Current Broncos. In 2004-2005 they were shutout a whopping 17 times.

Rocket Tidbits: The Rockets have scored the fewest amount of goals on the road this season of any team in the W.H.L (57)…The Rockets have 18 wins this season, with the teams lowest total in franchise history being 24 set in the teams expansion year when they had 24 wins and 53 points….Chris Ray has missed the last four games with a badly bruised shoulder. The Rockets are 1-3-0-0 in those games…The Rockets have registered just 19 shots on goal combined in the third period in the last five games…The Rockets have given up a shorthanded goal in 3 of their last 7 games…The Rockets are 6 for 30 (20%) on the power play in their last six games…Four members of the Rockets are attending the under 17 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon. Brandon McMillan, Evan Bloodoff, Riley McIntosh and Tyler Myers are at the event and will likely miss 4 more games….The Rockets have just one win in their last 17 road games (1-13-2-1) and are riding a 12 game road losing streak…The Rockets are 12-15-2-0 in 29 games against BC division opponents this season…The Rockets have been involved in 22 – one goal games this season. In those games the Rockets are 7-6-5-4…The Rockets have been held to a single goal 16 times this season, 7 times at home, 9 times on the road….The Rockets have lost 36 times this season. The teams highest loss total is 40 set back in the 1999-2000 campaign…Torrie Jung has started 10 straight games with a record of 3-6-0-1 over that stretch…The Rockets have technically five players attending the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse. Kyle St. Denis, who they picked up in a trade with Regina in December, is also a part of Team BC…Rockets defenseman Luke Schenn has his younger brother playing at the games. Brayden Schenn is with team Saskatchewan.

Time Ticking Down: With 9 games left in the regular season the Rockets have 6 games at home and 3 games on opposition ice. The Rockets have 8 games left against BC division opponents and just 1 games against US division clubs.

Who’s Hot – Who’s Not: Cody Almond has 5+2=7 in his last 6 games and points in 5 of his last 10. Luke Schenn has just one point (1A) in his last 13 games and hasn’t scored since December 13th. Justin Bernhardt has 3+5=8 in his last 13 games. David Schulz has 3+7=10 in his last 13 games. Myles MacRae has just one goal in his last 15 games. Colin Long has 1+4=5 in his last 7 games.

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