Sunday, February 27, 2011

Farewell with February

  • Call Geordie Wudrick third time lucky, yet in saying that, hockey sense, not luck had everything to do with his heroics Saturday night in a 4-3 overtime win against the Calgary Hitmen. Wudrick missed two glorious opportunities to score the game winner in the dying seconds of regulation time but then fired home the decisive goal in overtime as the Rockets ended a Central Division road swing with a 3 and 1 record.
  • After scoring the tying goal late in the third period, Wudrick almost ended it by firing a laser beam in the high slot off the cross bar. Moments later, Wudrick received a perfect pass at the right face-off circle from Colton Sissons but fired the puck high over the wide open side of the net. Then in overtime, the same two players hooked up for the game winner as Sissons won a race for a puck along the end boards inside the Hitmen's zone. Sissons threw it into the slot where Wudrick out-waited the Hitmen goaltender before depositing the puck on the forehand. Game over!
  • Wudrick now has 36 goals on the season and is attempting to become the first Rockets player since Jamie Benn to hit the 40 goal plateau. Wudrick leads the team in game winning goals with eight.
  • The win was the Rockets 36th of the season, one more than all of last season. The team has 18 road wins this season, just one shy of the 19 the 2009 WHL champion Rockets won just a fewer short seasons ago.
  • Talk about insult to injury. Not only did the Rockets take two points out of the Saddledome but the father of Rockets defenceman Damon Severson won the 50-50 draw. It was worth about 7 grand.
  • The Rockets closed off four games in five nights by spending Sunday at Radium Hot Springs for a team building session. A time to relax and enjoy each others company after a wicked month of games and travel is a nice way to end off the busiest portion of the schedule.

4 comments:

Jared Comeau said...

Who the heck chooses the 3 stars in Calgary? Wudrick with the game tieing goal and the Game Winner, and John Lawrence gets 1 assist and is an even on the +/- and he gets 2nd star? What was in the drinks up in the press box Regan? LOL

jaz301 said...

I say that was a successful road trip. 4 games in 5 nights plus travelling must be tiring. To come out with 3 wins out of the 4 is awesome.

MG said...

What I would like to know is how good was the team playing if we only got 6 shots on net in two periods and were outshot 21-27 ? And this from the worst team in the WHL. Were we lucky or just tired and managed to pull off it off ?

daryl said...

Great roadtrip, great results, good character building wins at a crucial time in the season to get points... Great goaltending and the young guns are coming of age... the future and the playoffs should be very exciting in Rocketville... Good call in the game again last night Regan... Loved the excitment when Geordie scored in OT... Can't wait for the real season to begin...