Thursday, March 1, 2012

Magic number down to one

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play their fifth straight game on the road tonight when they visit the Kamloops Blazers. This is the seventh of 8 meetings between these two teams this season. The Rockets are 1-4-1-0 in the first six games, having been out-scored 22-16. While the Blazers have won five of the 6 games, five of them have been decided by a single goal. The only lopsided game was a Blazers 5-2 win back on October 28/11. Following tonight’s game, these two teams meet again tomorrow night in Kelowna to conclude the seasonal series. The Rockets are coming off an Alberta road trip where the team was 1-2-0-1. The Rockets have points in 18 of their last 25 road games (12-7-1-5). Of the Kelowna Rockets final eight games, six will be played against teams in the BC Division. Five of the teams final eight games are on home ice.

Seasonal Series in Scoring vs. Blazers:

Period: 1 2 3 OT SO Total

Rockets: 6 4 5 0 1 16

Blazers: 5 10 6 1 0 22

*The Rockets have been out-shot in four of the six games with two of them resulting in the shots being tied at 37 apiece. Overall, the Blazers have out-shot the Rockets 220-167, or on average 37 shot per game for the Blazers and 28 shots per game for the Rockets. The Rockets are 7 for 27 on the power play in the six games (26%) while the Blazers are 8 for 28 (28.6%). The Blazers have opened the scoring in four of the six games.

Who’s Hot: The Rockets have a power play goal in eight of their last eleven road games (12 for 39 or 31%)...Brett Bulmer has seven goals in his last five games…Bulmer has two more points (51) than the 49 he collected all of last season…Bulmer led the team with 12 points in February (9+3=12)… Cody Chikie has three goals in his last four games. Chikie has played 193 career games. If healthy, the twenty year-old will hit 200 career games on the second last game of the regular season in Vancouver.

This and That: The Rockets last win in Kamloops was March 11/11 (5-1 win). Tyson Barrie had a goal and two assists in the victory…The Rockets were 6-3-0-0 in 9 games last season against the Blazers…The last time the Rockets went winless in Kamloops was back in the 2007-08 season when the team was 0-2-0-2….The last time the Rockets failed to win a seasonal series against the Blazers was during the 2005-06 season. The Rockets were 4-6-0-0 in ten meetings…The Rockets ran the table on the Blazers in 2008-09, winning all five games at ISC and winning all nine games overall. The Rockets also swept the Blazers in four straight games in the opening round to improve to 13-0-0-0 (regular season/playoffs)…The Rockets have one more loss than the 28 suffered last season….The Rockets have allowed 17 more goals than the 201 they gave up all of last season…Since the Christmas break the Rockets are 8-5-1-2 in 16 road games….Since the Christmas break the Rockets are 4-8-0-1 in 13 home games…In eleven of the last 17 games, the Rockets have been involved in a one goal game…The Rockets have three (3) road games remaining and five (5) on home ice … Last season the Rockets played in six shootout games. This season the Rockets have been involved in a league high thirteen games that required a shootout. The Rockets are 7 and 6 in those thirteen shootout situations… The Rockets have three 20+ goal scorers this season. Colton Sissons (26) and Brett Bulmer (29) are joined by Carter Rigby (20). Last season the team had five 20+ goal scorers…Fourteen of Colton Sissons 26 goals have been scored on the road this season…Brett Lyon has 2+3=5 in seventeen games with the Rockets since being acquired from Moose Jaw….Defenceman Myles Bell has 35 points this season. Twenty-three of those points have been recorded on the road…In twelve of their last seventeen wins, the Rockets have given up two or less goals per game…The Rockets are 19-17-2-6 with Brett Bulmer in the line-up….Tyrell Goulbourne leads the team with 16 fighting majors. Mitchell Chapman has ten ….The Rockets are 1-12-1-1 when giving up five or more goals…Last season they gave up five or more goals in ten games…The Rockets have been involved in 33-one goal games this season. The Rockets are 15-9-3-6 in those thirty-three games….Birthdays in February. Carter Rigby turned 18 while Spencer Main turned 20 on February 27th…Only Zach Franko has played in all 64 regular season games this season…The Rockets have been shut out three times this season. Calgary (2-0), Kootenay (4-0) and Seattle (2-0) have shut out the Rockets on home ice…A win or a loss by Everett will put the Rockets into the playoffs for the 20th time in the franchises 21 year history.

1 comment:

g.k said...

That game was fun to watch, love it when we kick the Blazers!! Adam played great & we actually capitalized on our scoring chances, now that game didn't mean much to the Rockets other than their confidence going into the playoffs against Tri-City or Portland (ouch)!!!