Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets and Portland Winterhawks are meeting in game three of their best of seven Western Conference semi final series. The Rockets were a 5-1 winner in game one Thursday night before the Hawks were a 6-3 winner in game two on Sunday. These two teams met just four times this season, with the Hawks out-scoring the Rockets 18-9. The Rockets lost the first three meetings by scores of 4-2, 6-1 and 5-1 before winning 5-3 back on January 14th. The next two games in this series are in Kelowna tonight and tomorrow before game five is played back in Portland on Friday. The Rockets are coming off a four game sweep of Prince George in round one. The Rockets out-scored the Cougars 22-13 and averaged 4.4 goals per game.
The first two games in numbers: The Hawks have out-shot the Rockets 98-64 in the first two games, including 41-20 in the second period…The Rockets are 2 for 11 in the series on the power play (18.2%) while the Hawks are 2 for 6 (33.3%) with the extra man….The Rockets have opened the scoring in the first two games and have led after the opening period in both outings.
Period scoring in series:
1 2 3 Total
Rockets: 3 2 3 8
Hawks: 1 4 2 7
By the numbers: The Rockets are now 8 for 32 (25%) on the power play in this year’s playoffs.
The Rockets have out-scored the opposition 15-4 in the third period in this year’s post season….Shane McColgan has a point in all six playoff games. McColgan has 7+8=15 in those five games…Tyson Barrie has a point in all six playoff games. Barrie has 1+7=8.
Playoff Experience: Geordie Wudrick and Tyson Barrie lead the Rockets in playoff experience with 47 games apiece. Evan Bloodoff has 43 games under his belt.Overage d-man Zak Stebner has 33 games of playoff experience after playing in 23 games last season with the WHL champion Calgary Hitmen.
This and That: The Rockets are 1-0 in game three situations in this year’s playoffs. The Rockets beat the Prince George Cougars 7-6 in game three of an opening round series…The Rockets were a 5-3 winner in game three of their opening round playoff series last season against Everett as well….Shane McColgan has scored in four straight playoff games. McColgan has seven goals in those four games…Geordie Wudrick has not scored in four straight playoff games…Zak Stebner has three goals in six playoff games….Zach Franko missed game two after suffering a broken nose after a hit by Hawks forward Brad Ross in game one. Ross was suspended for three games by the WHL for the hit. Ross returns to the lineup Friday in game five….Shane McColgan became the first Rockets player to score three goals in a playoff games since Blake Comeau scored three times in a playoff game against the Kootenay Ice in 2004. McColgan scored three times in a game one 5-1 victory…The Rockets are involved in the second round of the playoffs for a third straight season….The Rockets had 16 fewer points than the Hawks during the regular season….Jason Siebert is missing his 54th straight game after undergoing surgery on his wrist….The Rockets allowed the fewest goals against on the road in the WHL this season (93 – tied with Red Deer)….The Rockets were involved in twenty-six (26) one goal games this season. The Rockets were 18-7-0-1 in those twenty-six (26) one goal games…Only three players dressed in all 72 regular season games this season. They were Zach Franko, Kevin Smith and Evan Bloodoff.…The Rockets received the second most power play chances of any team in the WHL this season (383). Tri City led the league with 385 opportunities.…The Rockets (6-0), Portland (5-0) and Swift Current (5-0) were the only three teams in the WHL this season that did not lose in overtime….The Rockets allowed the second (tied with Red Deer) fewest power play goals against in the WHL (51). Only Spokane allowed fewer goals against…The Hawks scored 63 more goals than the Rockets this season…The Rockets allowed 26 fewer goals against than Portland…Nineteen year-old Max Adolph is missing his 21st straight game after suffering a concussion February 16th…Geordie Wudrick turned 21 on Saturday…NHL Central Scouting has released the list of the top North American players eligible for the upcoming draft. Zach Franko is rated 123rd while Shane McColgan is ranked 125th. Jessey Astles is rated 160th…Ryan Huska is coaching in his 48th career WHL playoff game tonight. Huska is 29 and 18 as a coach in the playoffs. Huska has been to a game seven twice as a coach. Last season his team beat Everett in a seventh game in round one and in the 2008 playoffs the Rockets lost in seven games to Seattle.
2 comments:
Went down and got ticket today. I was surprised to see how many seats are still available. Lets hope it fills up. playoffs are always the best time of the year. Should be a good game tonight.
Kelowna lets make some noise tonight. Lets see if we can be louder than Portland was. With the Tim Hortons clapper/noise maker thing(not sure what it is) we should be able to get it loud. GO ROCKETS GO!
Just got home from the game - this game could of been a classic playoff game, it had all the emotion, physical play etc. but again the referee's had to spoil it for all the fans & both teams!! What a pathetic display of officiating, if the league doesn't do something soon you will see alot more empty seats than you saw tonight in Kelowna & Cranbrook as well!! I won't be attending tomorrows game if Zalaski or Smith are reffing, they are not competent enough to ref minor hockey!! BONEHEADS!!
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