Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Rockets and Am's collide in possible 1st round matchup


Shoot the Breeze Photography - Tyrell Goulbourne

Tonight’s Preview: This could be a possible playoff preview tonight between the Kelowna Rockets and the Tri City Americans. If the playoffs were to begin tonight these two teams would meet in round one. This is only the second of four meetings between these two teams this season. The Rockets and Americans will see each other three times in the next 18 days including twice in a week. The Rockets are in Kennewick, Washington next Wednesday. In the lone meeting of the season on November 22nd, in Tri City, the Rockets were a 4-1 winner. Madison Bowey scored twice while Jordon Cooke made 18 saves. Following tonight’s game the Rockets are in Prince George for back-to-back games this weekend. The Rockets then return to Prospera Place to host the Cougars on Tuesday. The Rockets will play their final 14 games in 24 nights.      

Jordon Cook’n it up: Veteran goaltender Jordon Cooke moved into sole possession of second place on the Kelowna Rockets all-time wins list among goaltenders in a 2-1 victory last Wednesday night in Spokane. Cooke earned his 84th career win, moving past Kelly Guard for second-all time in wins. Guard has 83 victories while Cooke now has 85 wins on his belt. The franchise leader is Adam Brown, who amassed 107 wins over his four year career.

Racing for a Record: The Kelowna Rockets are trying to reach a franchise record for the most wins in a season. The current mark is held by last year’s team which won 52 times. This year’s club has 46 victories. Here are the top records:
2012-2013: 52 wins
2002-2003: 51 wins
2008-2009: 47 wins
2003-2004: 47 wins
2013-2014: 46 wins
2005-2006: 46 wins
2004-2005: 45 wins

Who’s Hot: Damon Severson has points in eight of his last nine games and is riding a seven game point streak. Severson has 11 assists over that period and is a + 7…The power play is 11 for 42 (27.5%) in its last nine gamesRourke Chartier has 7+9=16 in his last 17 games…Myles Bell has 17 goals in his last 20 games..The Rockets are 42-5-0-4 in their last 51 home games dating back to last season.

This and That: Myles Bell is trying to become the first player since Geordie Wudrick to score 40 or more goals in a season. Wudrick had 43 in 2010-2011….The Rockets have three more wins on the road than the 21 they had all of last season…Of Myles Bell’s 38 goals this season, 21 have been scored on the road with 17 coming on home ice…The Rockets are 6-4-0-0 in their last ten road games…The Rockets are 4-1-0-2 in their last seven home games…The Rockets are 13-3-0-2 since the WHL trade deadline.…The Rockets have been involved in 10-one goal games on home ice this season…Cole Martin is +98 over the last two seasons…The Rockets have 14 games left in the regular season. Seven are on home ice with 7 on the road…The Rockets have scored six or more goals nine times on home ice this season… The Rockets are 14-3-0-0 in the second game when facing back-to-back scenarios this season….The team has been rated as the best team in the CHL according to the Top 10 junior rankings for a 7th consecutive week….Six alumni of the Rockets’ are playing  for their respective countries at the Sochi Olympics. Jamie Benn, Shea Weber and Duncan Keith will wear colours for Canada. Alex Edler (Sweden), Lauris Darzins ( Latvia) and Thomas Raffl (Austria) will also compete…After losing two of his first three games, Jackson Whistle has won thirteen of his last fourteen games….The Rockets have played in eight shootout games this season and are 4 and 4. Three of the four shootout wins have come on the road in Victoria, Prince George and Seattle…Jordon Cooke is 40-6-0-3 at home in last 49 starts at home dating back to last season…The Rockets have scored 4 or more goals in 22 of their 30 road games this season…In 6 of the Rockets 8 regulation losses this season, leading scorer Myles Bell has failed to score…
 
Milestone Makers:
Damon Severson will play in his 248th career game tonight – 2 shy of 250.
Tyrell Goulbourne plays in his 200th career game tonight.
Ryan Huska, according to HockeyDB, has 288 WHL regular season victories.
Cole Martin is playing in career game 197 tonight – 3 shy of 200.

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