Effort Was There..Luck Wasn't.

• You can’t complain with the effort the Rockets put forward Saturday night in Kent Washington. Had it not been for the solid play of Seattle Thunderbirds goaltender Calvin Pickard, the Rockets would be headed home with two points instead of just one. While the Rockets dropped a 2-1 decision to the T-Birds in overtime, the game winner was awfully tough to defend.
• The winning goal came when T-Birds defenseman Brad Haber fired a shot towards the Rockets net from the left boards that hit Jim O’Brien standing in front. My only complaint about the unfortunate break would have been Rockets defenseman Tyler Myers sliding on all fours in an attempt to block Haber’s original shot. Sliding on the ice did not allow Haber to get the original shot on goal, but it essentially took Myers out of the play.
• The Rockets had three significant chances to put the game away, yet solid saves by Pickard off of Mikael Backlund and Colin Long prevented that. Pickard also made a nice blocker save off of Jamie Benn as the Rockets leading goal scorer won a race to a loose puck inside the T-Birds zone. Come to think of it, every shot the Rockets had in overtime was dangerous considering they had three shots in the extra session. I guess the same can be said for the T-Birds, as their lone shot found the back of the net.
• This game featured three fights, the most spirited of them all came when Mitchell Callahan got into a tussle with Brenden Silvester. The two traded some solid shots back and forth as the fight erupted just inside the Rockets blue line. Silvester impressed me considering he has just 20 penalty minutes this season. Callahan always impresses me, as he has to be considering one of the toughest up and coming middle weights in the league.
• The Rockets were granted just two power play chances, thanks in part to the T-Birds discipline and some non-calls by referee Derek Herman.
• The Rockets three game winning streak may have come to an end, but the team still has points five straight games (3-0-1-1).
• The new home of the T-Birds really impressed me. My first visit to the ShoWare Center has me wanting to come back again for another visit. The volunteer staff were friendly, the vibe in the building was good, and the game wasn’t bad either. Hey, there are quirks with every arena, but it’s a facility that the citizens of Kent and the T-Birds should be proud of.
• I hope some of the pictures I've posted give you a better idea of the WHL's newest building. It's capacity is just over 6 thousand, all the seats are padded, and their are just 20 rows of seats surrounding the ice surface. A building like that would sure look good in Moose Jaw.
• I will post a few more pictures and some video when I get a better Internet connection at home. On the bus, it's best I just stick to text on this blog entry.
• I spoke to Thomas Hickey before the game, and let me state he’s one of my favorite player in this great league of ours. What a pro, off the ice and on it. I just like his demeanor. He’s a player you want to cheer for, even if he is wearing the oppositions colours. I conducted my interview with him as he was firing weighted orange pucks into a make-shift net brought in for him by the LA Kings. I guess the Kings think he needs to work on his shot, so the contraption should aid his cause.