The Noose Tightens

• For the first time this season the Kelowna Rockets faced a pressure packed game, and the end result was not pleasing to the coaching staff. Up for grabs was 4th place in the Western Conference, and the Seattle Thunderbirds took it away without a fight, in a dominating 5-2 win Friday night.
• The T-Birds scored four of their five goals off the rush, much to the dismay of Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, who was not pleased with his forwards lackluster effort in enabling the T-Birds several odd man rushes.
• The T-Birds pin-point passing and speed was a killer Friday night. The Birds top five point getters got into the action offensively while Lindsay Nielsen was stellar defensively, including taking away a scoring chance on an apparent breakaway by Rockets forward Brady Leavold. Leavold broke in all alone, only to see Nielsen come from no-where to knock the puck off of Leavold's stick.
• This game lacked physical play, which played into the hands of the speedy T-Birds. Just one penalty was called over the first 40 minutes before penalty trouble resulted in four power plays for the Rockets in the final 15 minutes of the game. But by then though the home team was down 5-2, so the game was essentially out of reach.
• T-Birds forward Jim O'Brien, I beg for your forgiveness. Throughout the game I called him Doug O'Brien. The reason? Doug O'Brien was a defenseman with the Gatineau Olympiques in the 2004 Memorial Cup in Kelowna.
• Colin Long had an assist last night, keeping two points up on Mark Santorelli of the Chilliwack Bruins for the WHL points lead. It was Long's first point against the T-Birds in 8 career games.
• Long now has 90 points. Last years WHL leading scorer, Zach Hamill, had 93 points. Long has 64 assists, 3 more than Hamill had all of last season.