Smallest Guy On The Ice Comes Up Big

• The Rockets downfall in Friday's 3-2 overtime loss in Everett was the power play. The Rockets were 0 for 6 with the man advantage which is painful enough in itself, but what really hurts is the Rockets had four power play chances in the final 9 minutes of the game but couldn't score the winner.
• The Rockets power play struggled so much that it was the victim of the game winning goal. Tips forward Zack Dailey (the smallest guy on the ice at 5'6 156) won a race for the puck with defenseman Tyson Barrie at the Rockets blueline and beat Westblom with a shorthanded goal that had the fans at the Everett Events Centre in a frenzy.
• The Rockets looked sharp in the first period, and despite the shot totals reading 10 apiece, the visiting team was full marks for a 2-0 lead. The Rockets again looked sharp early in the second period, but the Rockets were unable to make it a 3 goal margin.
• How did the Silvertips bounce back from a 2-0 deficit? Two words. Kyle Beach! Beach literally picked up his teammates and said "ride on my shoulders boys and I'll get you back in the game". Beach scored twice in the second period with his second goal described as one of beauty. Beach worked away from Rockets defenseman Tysen Dowzak - who was draped all over him - and snapped the puck over the shoulder of goaltender Kristofer Westblom, off the cross bar and in. Color analyst David Michaud promptly replied on our radio broadcast "I've seen that goal before - on the video game NHL 98". Even though it was scored by the enemy, this broadcaster has to admit it was one of beauty.
• Beach's inspired play seemed to affect, and wake up his teammates, who got better as the game went on. Goaltender Leland Irving allowed a goal on the first shot he faced when Colin Long snapped a squeaker past him 40 seconds into the game. Despite the soft goal, Irving regained his composure and was especially sharp in the third period when the Tips got into penalty trouble.
• Three fights were featured in this one. The most surprising came when European Milan Kytnar dropped the gloves with Tips defenseman Jonathan Hardy. In what appeared to be a mismatch, Kytnar threw some good punches and got the take down.
• The fans in Everett - outstanding. Name another building louder in the WHL than Everett? You can't. They whined and complained when Kyle Beach was given a late third period penalty for goaltender interference. Clearly it was a penalty, but Tips fans responded appropriately by booing the referee for what they thought was a bad call.
• If you want to bash Tips forward Kyle Beach....shut your trap. Beach was at his best in this one scoring a spectacular goal, drawing Rockets forward Brady Leavold into a penalty and fighting Rockets defenseman Luke Schenn. If I was an NHL scout, I left the game impressed. I spoke to Beach after the game, and he's a class act.
• WHL Director of Officiating Kevin Muench was at last night's game. Muench told me that fighting is actually down in the WHL this season, but only by 4 fighting majors from the same time a year ago.
• The Rockets have points in 9 straight games (6-0-2-1). The Rockets were unbeaten in 10 games during the 2004-2005 season when they went 6-0-0-0 with 4 ties from November 7th to November 27th. The unbeaten streak came to an end against the Portland Winter Hawks in a 2-1 loss December 1st of that season.
• We had our problems up in the broadcast booth Friday night, and it was out of our control. Our phone line was dropped 3 times over last night's broadcast, resulting in us officially going off the air. This happened twice to us in our first visit to Everett, as the arena obviously has phone line issues. I understand the same thing happened on the Tips broadcast last night, which makes me feel marginally better.