Saturday, February 21, 2015

BC Division champions!

Leon Draisaitl - Shoot the Breeze Photography

  • Another banner is going high above the rafters at Prospera Place. For a third straight season the Kelowna Rockets are BC Division regular season champions. Leon Draisaitl capped off a great night with the game winning goal with 43 seconds left in regulation time leading the Rockets to a 3-2 come-from-behind win. The 19 year-old was fed a pass from behind the net from line-mate Riley Stadel and fired a shot high over the glove hand side of Royals goaltender Coleman Vollrath. Draisaitl was the best player on the ice, collecting assists on power play goals from Josh Morrissey and Cole Linaker.  
  • It was interesting to see Draisaitl get the game winner after the penalty he took for delay of game in the first period resulted in the Royals opening up the scoring on an Austin Carroll goal less than two minutes into the game. Safe to say Draisaitl made up for his mistake with his late game heroics.
  • The Rockets fired 13 shots at the Royals net in the first period, but struggled in the second with only five shots towards Vollrath. One of the reasons behind the lack of shots was the amount of penalties the team took resulting in the Royals enjoying several golden opportunities to ice the game. Victoria could manage only one goal though, a power play maker from Greg Chase to take a 2-1 lead into the third period. Goals by Morrissey and the winner from Draisaitl issued the Royals only their second loss of the season when leading after 40 minutes. Victoria is now 22 and 2 when leading after two periods.
  • Too be honest, the Rockets looked flat over the course of the game. Honestly, Victoria didn't look much better. This game was viewed by a national TV audience and the second period was extremely painful to watch. Passes were off the mark and icing was common place. Neither team brought their 'A' game to the table in this one. Maybe it translated better on television, but frankly this was anything but a classic.   
  • I thought it was another solid start from Rockets goaltender Michael Herringer. The 19 year-old had no chance on the two goals he surrendered. Herringer's best save came on a pin point chance in the second period when he made a nice blocker stop on Royals forward Jack Walker on a grade 'A' scoring chance.           
  • Josh Morrissey's goal extended his point streak to 10 games. Morrissey now has 5+6=11 over that stretch. The 19 year-old had a 12 game point streak with the PA Raiders last season.
  • Tyson Baille extended his point streak to seven games with an assist. Baillie had a seven game point streak in mid December.  
  • The Rockets have now won 24 times on the road this season and can still break a WHL record of 29 road wins which is currently shared by the Rockets and the Portland Winterhawks.  

1 comment:

jaz301 said...

Rockets have not looked good at all on televised games this year and the Sportsnet commentators made note of that saying that if they want to win Memorial Cup they are going to have to play on TV.
Not sure if its because they are trying to be too fancy, the extra TV timeouts or what it is, but hopefully when playoffs come rockets will be the team we are used to seeing even if a game is televised.