Pain in the glass

• Adam Brown was the best player on the ice Wednesday afternoon. That was good news for the Kelowna Rockets and bad news for the visiting Red Deer Rebels. Brown made 32 saves, 10 in the third period in a 2-1 win, the Rockets 11th of the season and the Rebels 11th loss of the year.


• Kyle St. Denis and Lucas Bloodoff scored the Rockets goals in the win. While these are two veteran forwards who responded offensively, I found many of the forwards out of sync in this one. A good example was Mitchell Callahan replaced by Cody Chikie on a line with Lucas Bloodoff and Brandon McMillan in the early stages of the 3rd period.


• The best forward was defenseman Curt Gogol, who played the entire game up front after spending the first 19 games as a defenseman. Gogol was consistently good providing havoc inside the Rebels zone.


• Head coach Ryan Huska told us on the post game show that Gogol will spend the rest of the season as a forward. Huska says the coaches believe he is most affective at that position, meaning barring an injury, Gogol's days are over on defense.


• Rockets defenseman Kyle Verdino returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with a knee/ankle injury.


• It's not often that you see a sheet of plexi glass shattered twice in one game, but it happened Wednesday afternoon at opposite ends of the ice. First, Rockets forward Curt Gogol sends a slap shot from centre that shatters the glass in the second period. Then in the third period Rockets forward Cody Chikie sends a wrist shot that shatters the glass at the other end of the ice. Credit the six Prospera Place staff for addressing the problem quickly with limited delays.


• It took the off-ice crew 10:45 to clean up and replace the glass when it shattered in the second period and 12:10 for the glass replacement in the third.


• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is the real deal. The 16 year-old receives a ton of ice time from Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin. Nugent-Hopkins had an assist, as did Rockets 16 year-old Shane McColgan in a clash of possibly two rookie of the year nominees when the season comes to an end.


• Did you notice the game started with just one linesman? After about 5 minutes a replacement was found when Kelowna resident Kevin Bennett made his WHL debut. Bennett was replaced after the first period by the scheduled linesman.


• Matt Kirk was the lone referee. Kirk wore a poppy on his referee jersey which was a nice touch.