Rockets game notes vs. Rebels

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets face the Red Deer Rebels in one of only two meetings this season. The Rockets make a trip to Alberta in February with stops in Lethbridge, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and Calgary but bypass Red Deer after making two stops last season. The Rockets and Rebels met twice in 2010-2011 with Kelowna winning both games by scores of 5-1 and 1-0. The Rebels haven’t made a stop at Prospera Place since January 10, 2010 in a 4-3 victory. The Rockets play the fourth of five straight on home ice. The Rockets are winless (0-2-1-0) in the first three games and have been out-scored 13-9. The home stand concludes Friday against the Edmonton Oil Kings before playing three straight games on the road. Overall, the Rockets have just two wins in their last fourteen games (2-10-1-1) and have been out-scored 58-37 over that period.

Who’s Hot: Shane McColgan has points in 12 of his last 14 games and has been held off the score sheet just three times this season. McColgan has (5+11=16) over that period….Adam Brown has started in goal in fourteen of the first seventeen games…Who’s Not: Colton Sissons hasn’t scored in seven games…Cody Chikie has one goal in his last nine games…Tyson Baillie is without a goal in nine games (Oct 15^th last goal) after scoring twice in the first three games…The Rockets are the youngest team in the WHL with an average age of 17.78 years.

This and That: The Rockets have failed to out-shoot the opposition in six games. The last time they managed the feat was in a 3-2 loss in Victoria October 24^th when they out-shot the Royals 24-23….The Rockets have given up 36.8 shots per game in their last six contests….Rockets are winless in three straight home games (0-2-0-1). The Rockets suffered three straight home losses last season from October 13^th to October 20^th with setbacks to Kamloops, Portland and Vancouver. The Rockets would snap the slide with a 4-3 shootout win against Everett….The last time the Rockets lost four straight games (or more) at home was back in the 2009-2010 season when the team dropped five straight games (0-3-0-2) from January 6^th to January 20^th….Brett Bulmer and Zach Franko have been added to Team WHL for the Subway Super Series later this month. Bulmer and Franko will play in one of two games…Colton Sissons will also play after being one of 29 players named to the roster for Team WHL for the Subway Super Series. Sissons, Franko and Bulmer will play against the Russians on November 16^th in Regina. Last season, Tyson Barrie represented the Rockets at the Subway Super Series and eventually made Team Canada. Head Coach Ryan Huska will be behind the bench for both games…The Rockets are winless in seven straight road games (0-6-1-0) with their only win coming in Everett on September 24^th…The Rockets lost seven straight road games (0-6-1-0) during the 2009-2010 season…Adam Brown is second – all-time - in games played by a Kelowna Rockets goaltender. Brown has 162 career appearances. The franchise leader is Kevin Swanson, who played in 167 games in 1998-2001…The Rockets were 7-10-0-0 after seventeen games last season…The Rockets have scored 52 goals in seventeen games this season after scoring 51 times in their first seventeen games one season ago…The Rockets have allowed sixty-eight goals against in seventeen games this season after giving up sixty-seven goals in the first sixteen games last season….The Rockets are playing their 1458^th regular season game tonight and will hit the 15 hundred mark when they host Red Deer on February 18^th…Ryan Huska has 163 wins behind the Rockets bench…The Rockets have scored a power play goal in eight of their last nine games. The Rockets failed to score a power play goal Saturday night in a 3-1 loss to Portland…Rockets’ November birthdays are Colton Sissons (18) on November 5^th and Tyson Baillie (16) on November 16^th.

Milestone Makers:

Cody Chikie played in his 150^th WHL game last Sunday in Kamloops. Chikie has 78 career points.

Shane McColgan has 157 career points in 157 career games.

Spencer Main is playing in his 198^th WHL game tonight.

Myles Bell played in his 150^th WHL game Saturday night against Portland.

Kevin Smith is five games shy of 250^th of his WHL career.

Mitchell Chapman played in his 125^th WHL game November 5^th.

Brett Bulmer is 7 points shy of 100 for his career.