It Wasn't a Classic Confrontation

• The Rockets earned a point in a contest which lacked quality play by either team. The Rockets opened the scoring less than two minutes in and had a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes, before the Warriors scored the equalizer to send the game into overtime. Colin Long had a tremendous chance to win it in the extra session, but fell as he attempted to swoop to a lose puck in front of the Warrior goal with Todd Mathews at his mercy.
• It was the first time this season the Rockets power play looked bad. The club was 0 for 9 with the extra man, and was off track all night long created few scoring chances.
• The game surprisingly featured three fights. Not bad considering these two teams will only face each other twice this season. It was nice to see 19 year-old's Myles MacRae and Justin Bernhardt getting out of their comfort zones by dropping the gloves.
• It was nice to see Milan Kytnar score his first WHL goal and collect an assist in the shootout loss. Kytnar needs to be more of a force offensively, and hopefully this is the start of things to come. The same can be said for Lucas Bloodoff, who scored his first goal in 14 games. Bloodoff's goal was one Todd Mathews should have had, yet the 18 year-old forward was do, after being robbed the previous night by Blazers netminder Justin Leclerc.
• Rockets rookie defenseman Kyle Verdino made his WHL debut Saturday night, and saw limited duty in the game. Verdino made his debut on his 16th birthday.
• Verdino was injected into the lineup after it was learned that Rockets defenseman Luke Schenn was handed a two game suspension for a hit on Shayne Wiebe Friday night in Kamloops. I did view the hit on video several times, and in no way did Schenn deserve a two game suspension for it. Look at the video for yourself, and you be the judge. Does the WHL want to take hitting out of the game? By suspending Schenn for a hit on a smaller player, it's proof to me they want little contact in the game. What's next, eliminating fighting?
• David and I had a good chat with Kelowna resident Brady Calla before the game. The Moose Jaw forward is a class act, and talked about adapting to the Eastern Conference as opposed to the play out West. In was interesting to hear him say that the game is more wide open out East, and less defensive mistakes are made in the Western Conference.
• I don't know Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak well, but found him to be a pleasure to talk with during a pre-game conversation. The first year coach has done a nice job with a Warrior team that many predicted would struggle this season. So far, that's not the case.
• I noticed it, but many of our listeners may have not noticed a thing. The Prospera Place ice crew took our microphone off the scoreboard prior to Saturday's game. The microphone is used for crowd noise, and skate and stick noise on our radio broadcasts. Apparently the Prospera Place people didn't think the mic was used by us, so disabled it. So let's just say that Saturday's broadcast didn't have the added hockey sounds that listeners are accustomed too. I've been told everything will be back to normal Tuesday against Kamloops.