Saturday, February 13, 2010

Rockets lead now 3 points over Blazers

  • If it's a bad night for your goalie, it likely won't be a good night for your team. That was the case Saturday night for the Kelowna Rockets and Adam Brown in a 4-3 shootout loss to the visiting Kamloops Blazers. Brown surrendered three goals in regulation, one of which was the tying goal with 22 seconds left in regulation time, and then failed to make a stop in the shootout in the one goal loss. While Brown wasn't the only reason behind the loss, the 18 year-old goaltender has had better nights. A quality save or two would have gone a long way in helping the Rockets earn their 30th win of the season while moving 6 points up on the Blazers for 6th place in the Western Conference. The loss has the Rockets enjoying just a 3 point cushion.
  • Veteran forward CJ Stretch had a solid game for the Blazers, coming up big with three goals in the victory. Stretch beats Brown with a low shot that finds room between the goalies legs and then scores the tying goal with a seeing-eye shot that beats Brown to the blocker. The tying goal comes with Kurtis Mucha on the bench for the extra attacker. The overage forward isn't done there, scoring once in the shootout. It's a good night for the California resident.
  • You have to praise the efforts of Rockets forward Brandon McMillan for playing in pain. After hurting what appeared to be his ankle in Friday's 5-3 win, McMillan gutted this one out and played despite the nagging injury.
  • This game had no where near the intensity we saw Friday night when these two teams collided in Kamloops. After a five fight night, only one bout featuring Rockets forward Tyler Matheson and Blazers d-man Brandon Underwood developed.
  • The Rockets end the seasonal series with the Blazers with a record of 2-5-0-1 in eight games.
  • After going three games without a point, Tyson Barrie collects two assists. It was Barrie's longest pointless streak of the season.
  • Brett Bulmer breaks out of a nine game goal scoring slump with a nice individual effort on the power play in the third period. It was Bulmer's longest goal scoring drought of the season.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Another one of those game where the goaltender was the difference .....What will it take for huska to wake up it is obvious by now that Brown is either tired or can not play consistently good 1st and 3rd goal last night were sooooo soft.
Why did we keep guggenberger on the roster thru the year if he is not gona play him .Everybody deserve a chance and i think we know by now what brown brings to the table.

ImAScout2 said...

Kind of surprised you would be so quick to place blame on Brown last night. It was one game and
for those who doubt his ability, lets look at his stats...
In the WHL:
#1 in minutes played
#13 in GAA
#5 in wins
#6 shutouts
#2 in shootouts
#3 in saves
This is actually quite impressive when you look at the adversity the team has had this season. It appears he has handled the biggest workload of all WHL goalies.
Im sure he will bounce back with a strong performance in the next game as he has in the past.

Regan Bartel said...

Totally agree. His #'s are solid despite some miscues last night. Guggenberger will get a start this weekend and my general feel is the coaching staff are still not yet decided on who will be 'the guy' in the playoffs. With 12 games left to go..the audition for playoff starter continues.

Jared Comeau said...

IMO, Kamloops had no business winning, let alone being in this hockey game. Kelowna was by far the superior team and if it weren't for the linesman getting in the way of a clearing attempt leading to the winning goal, We would have won this game.

Cest la Vie...On a Brighter, non hockey note,

YEA ALEXANDRE BILODEAU!!!