Rockets Experience Road Rash

• It’s tough to accept, but sometimes a sever beating is the best way to get back down to reality. The Rockets learned that lesson in a 6-1 loss to the Tri City Americans Wednesday night. The Americans, with the leagues best home record, made the Rockets pay on every mistake they made in their 18th win of the season. The Am’s exploded for 6 goals in the second period to put the game out of reach. When was the last time the Rockets gave up 6 goals in a period? My guess is never!
• The loss snapped the Rockets roll of collecting a point in 11 straight games.
• Despite the lopsided score, the Rockets actually looked pretty good in the early stages of this one. The two teams traded chances in a fast first period, which saw few whistles. Both Rockets goaltender Kristofer Westblom and Americans goaltender Chet Pickard were on their ‘A’ game in the opening frame.
• An early missed opportunity may have changed the fortunes of the Rockets on this night. Rockets leading point getter Colin Long missed a wide open net by working the puck wide on the backhand less than a minute into the second period. Long’s missed chance then saw the Americans score the opening goal just over a minute later. Had Long scored that goal, maybe the complexion of the game would have been different?
• The Americans have great team speed and solid goaltender. Outside of T.J Fast, the Am’s may not have a big name defenseman but use the ‘kiss’ principle to perfection. A miscue in the defensive zone has goaltender Chet Pickard bailing his team out.
• Rockets head coach Ryan Huska benched three players in the third period for their lackluster play. Cody Almond, Brady Leavold and Brandon McMillan sat and watched after exuding little in the first 40 minutes. While those three were singled out, make no mistake, this was a team loss. No one player stood out.
• It was obviously the team’s worst performance on the seven game road trip. Giving up three power play goals was hard enough to take, but giving up a shorthanded goal to Colton Yellow Horn, the games first star, just showed where the Rockets mindset was in this hockey game.
• Goaltender Kristofer Westblom had a great start, yet it was his error in being indecisive with the puck behind his own net that resulted in the Americans taking a 2-0 lead. Westblom attempted to fire the puck behind his net where it was intercepted, fired into the slot and deposited behind him with a quick shot to the glove hand side. That goal was followed by two more including a power play goal from Colton Yellow Horn that beat Westblom to the glove hand side, hitting the far post and going in. It was a bad goal. Westblom was yanked after giving up 4 goals on 22 shots.
• The game featured four fights with 7 seconds left in the game. It started when two players not often involved in the fisticuffs starting pushing in the corner. Rockets defenseman Colin Joe began throwing punches with Americans forward Cruise Reddick. Rockets d-man Tysen Dowzak then got involved with Eric Mystery while Lucas Bloodoff dropped the gloves with Tyler Schmidt. On top of that Rockets 17 year-old forward Dylan Hood danced with Taylor Procyshen. I wish the Rockets would have shown that kind of spark earlier, and we would have had an interesting game. At the buzzer, Americans forward Adam Hughesman asked Evan Bloodoff to fight, and wished he didn’t. The younger Bloodoff was a clear winner in the lopsided tilt.
• Before we get too critical about the loss, let’s put things into perspective. The Rockets suffered just one regulation loss on the seven game road trip. The Rockets were 5-1-1-0 during the trip. Impressive to say the least!
• The Rockets have been outscored 15-1 in their last three appearances at the Toyota Center including back-to-back shutout losses in that building last season.
• Matt Brusciano made his 2007-2008 debut last night against the Americans. Brusciano sat out the first 24 games with a concussion. I thought Brusciano played well, considering he was seeing his first game action in well over two months.
• The Rockets were without captain James McEwan and Tyler Myers in this one. McEwan is still out with a concussion while Myers is sidelined with a shoulder injury. Both were missed. McEwan’s leadership is more valuable than many people think, and is extremely valuable when going to war on the road.
• Class act = Don Nachbaur. The Americans coach came over and talk to me after concluding his coaches show commitments on the Americans radio broadcast. Nachbaur could have simply walked down the stairs as I was packing up my gear, but stopped into my booth to shake a hand and say hello. Nachbaur was a nasty man in his days as a player, but is nothing short of a class act as a coach.
• I was amazed at the 50/50 draw at last night’s game. The winner took home 640 bucks. Wow.