Game Notes vs. Hawks

Tonight’s Preview: The Rockets and Hawks are meeting for the fourth and final time this season. The Rockets are 1-2-0-0 in the first three games, having been out-scored 10-9. All three games in the series have been decided by a single goal. The home team has won all three games. The Rockets lone victory came January 9^th in a 5-4 shootout win at Prospera Place. Brandon McMillan scored the game winning goal. The Rockets have lost to the Hawks by scores of 2-1 and 4-3 in Portland. The Rockets have out-shot the Hawks in all three games by a margin of 113-67. The Rockets are 5 for 24 on the power play (20.8%) while the Hawks are 3 for 22 (7.3%) with the extra man in the three games. The Rockets enter tonight’s game having won four straight, out-scoring the opposition 12-5. The Rockets have allowed just a single goal in three of those four games. The Rockets enter tonight’s game with one loss in their last nine games (8-1-0-0). With four games left in the regular season, the Rockets play two of them on home ice. The final regular season home game is Saturday night against Kamloops. The Rockets have road games in Kamloops (Friday) and Sunday in Spokane to wrap up the regular schedule. In the big picture the Rockets have just two regulation losses in their last 21 games (16-2-1-2). The Rockets open the playoffs, at home, March 20th.

Seasonal Series Scoring:

Period 1 2 3 OT SO Total

Rockets: 0 3 5 0 1 9

Hawks: 2 3 5 0 0 10

Last Game: Jamie Benn scored twice, the winner in overtime, leading the Kelowna Rockets to a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Giants Saturday night. Colin Long chipped in with two assists. The Rockets rallied after trailing 2-1 heading into the third period. It was only the second time this season that the Rockets won a game after trailing heading into the third frame. Tyler Myers also scored for the Rockets, who were 0 for 3 on the power play. The Giants were 0 for 2 with the extra man. The Giants out-shot the Rockets 31-24. Mark Guggenberger earned the win in goal.

Different Data: The Rockets have not allowed a power play goal in four of their last six games…The Rockets are just 2 for 25 on the power play in their last six games (8%)… During the Rockets four game winning streak they have out-scored the opposition 12-5…In the last seven games the Rockets have allowed the opposition just a single goal in five of those seven…The Rockets are just 1 goal shy of the 248 they scored last season. More impressively, the Rockets have allowed 44 fewer goals against then a season ago…The Rockets have won the same number of road games as they did last season (17)…The Rockets have 5 more home wins than in 2007-2008…The Rockets ended the month of February with a record of 11-2-0-1 in 14 games. Those 14 games were played in just 25 days…The 11 win effort in February comes off a January where they won just 7 of 14 games….The Kelowna Rockets celebrated a milestone February 27^th in Red Deer with their 1 thousandth regular season game. The Rockets were born as an expansion franchise as the Tacoma Rockets in 1991, but after four short seasons moved to Kelowna for the start of the 1995-96 campaign. Since re-locating to Kelowna, the Rockets have made the playoffs in 13 of the 14 seasons (that includes this season) in the Okanagan. The Rockets have won 513 times since 1995.

Very Interesting! Riley Grantham is two minutes shy of 400 for his career. Grantham has 398 pims heading into tonight’s game….The Rockets have six more points (90 compared to 84) than they had all of last season…Kyle St. Denis will miss his 10^th straight game tonight with a head injury suffered against Chilliwack February 18^th…The Rockets won their 40^th game of the season Saturday February 28th marking the 5^th time since the team re-located to Kelowna that they’ve had a +40 win season….Cody Almond and Jamie Benn have three-three goal games this season. Ian Duval leads all Rockets in games played. Duval is playing in career game #328 tonight…Mark Guggenberger has won ten of his last thirteen starts, and has earned points in 16 of his last 18 appearances…The Rockets are 22-2-0-1 when Colin Long scores…Goaltender Mark Guggenberger has started 18 of the last 23 games…The Rockets have out-shot the opposition in 18 of the 26 games since the trade deadline. Only Calgary, Chilliwack, Spokane, Tri City and Vancouver (four times) have out-shot the Rockets since the trade deadline…The Rockets are 17-5-1-3 in twenty-six games since the trade deadline…Mitchell Callahan has 19 fighting majors this season as a 17 year-old. Teammate Curt Gogol – also 17 – has 13. Veteran Ryley Grantham has 17 fighting majors. The team record for fighting majors by a 17 year old is held by Scott Parker, who had 25 in his rookie season.