Game notes vs. Hitmen

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play their 38^th game of the season this afternoon as they face-off against the visiting Calgary Hitmen. This is the first of three meetings between the two teams this season. The Hitmen make a return visit on February 17^th before the Rockets make a stop in Calgary on February 26^th. These two teams met twice last season with the Rockets earning 5-1 (Dec 17, 2010) and 4-3 (Feb 26, 2011) victories. The Rockets open the month of January playing 14 games in 29 days. Of those 14, seven are on the road including a six game road trip from January 6^th to January 15^th. Following today’s game the Rockets host Spokane Wednesday before playing back-to-back games in Victoria this Friday and Saturday night. Overall, the Rockets have lost two straight games and have just three wins in their last seven home games.

Who’s Hot: Brett Bulmer has twenty-eight points in twenty games this season (14+14=28). Bulmer had a ten game point streak (10+4=14) snapped Thursday in a 5-1 loss in Tri City. Bulmer has goals in six of his last eight games and has eleven goals in his last eleven games…Shane McColgan has six points (3+3=6) in his last nine games…Carter Rigby has (4+5=9) in his last ten games…Adam Brown has started in goal in twenty-seven of the first thirty-seven games. Jordon Cooke has a record of 1-1-0-1 in his last three starts and a goals against average of 1.92. Cooke has earned points in seven of his last eight starts.

This and That: Adam Brown is just seven minutes shy of hitting the 10 thousand minutes played in his WHL career. The only other active goaltender with over 10 thousand minutes played is Seattle’s Calvin Pickard…. The Rockets are 2-4-0-2 in eight games with head coach Ryan Huska at the World Junior Hockey Championships…The Rockets are just 19-16-0-2 in their last 37 home games dating back to last season…In January of last year the Rockets were 8-5-0-0 in 13 games. They started the month with four straight losses before winning eight of their next nine games…In their last five wins, the Rockets have given up two or less goals per game…The Rockets are 9-7-1-3 with Brett Bulmer in the line-up….Head Coach Ryan Huska is an assistant coach on Team Canada while Jeff Thorburn is an athletic therapist….Huska was a member of the Team Canada coaching staff last year. Huska is the fourth Rockets’ coach to represent Team Canada. Marcel Comeau and Marc Habscheid have been head coaches while Jeff Truitt was a video coach….The Rockets have sent 11 players to represent Canada at the WJHC…Tyrell Goulbourne has eight fighting majors this season.… The Rockets are 1-8-0-1 when giving up five or more goals…Last season they gave up five or more goals in ten games…NHL Central Scouting has rated captain Colton Sissons as the 6^th top skater available from the WHL for the 2012 draft….Jesse Lees and Tyson Baillie are playing with Team Pacific at the Under 17 World Hockey Challenge in Windsor, Ontario…Madison Bowey is on Team West for the Under 17 World Hockey Challenge…The Rockets have been involved in seventeen-one goal games this season. The Rockets are 7-5-1-4 in those seventeen games…The Rockets are playing their 1478^th regular season game tonight and will hit the 15 hundred mark when they host Red Deer on February 18^th…Even with season ending injuries to Jason Seibert and Max Adolph, the Rockets have still failed to ice a complete line up this season.