Rockets/Royals game notes

Shoot the Breeze Photography

Tonight’s Preview: It is the final week of the regular season. With three games remaining, the Kelowna Rockets welcome the Victoria Royals to Prospera Place. These are the top two teams in the Western Conference and have a combined record of 93-35-7-3. The Rockets are 3-4-0-0 in the seven games, having won by scores of 2-1 (in overtime), 3-1 and 5-4. The Royals have out-scored the Rockets 22-15 overall. The Royals penalty killing unit has been terrific in the seasonal series, killing off 26 of 29 power play chances. The Rockets have had 14 fewer power play opportunities than Victoria. Ten of the Royals 22 goals have been scored on the power play. Of the 15 goals the Rockets have scored, just three have come with the extra man. Justin Kirkland has 4+3=7 in the seven games while Tyson Baillie has 1+4=5. Dillon Dube has three goals. Rourke Chartier has played in just three of the seven games. Michael Herringer has a record of 2-3-0-0 with a goals against average of 3.57 and a save percentage of .892. 

Rockets Recap: The Rockets enter the final week of the regular season four points back of the Victoria Royals for first place in the WHL. The Rockets are coming off a 6-4 loss in Tri City Sunday. Rourke Chartier, Calvin Thurkauf, Tanner Wishnowski and Tyson Baillie scored in the setback. Brodan Salmond took the loss in goal. In the big picture, the Rockets have points in 42 of 55 games (37-14-4-0).

Rockets Career Games Played List:

1)     Jason Deleurme: 341 games   5)  Gavin McLeod: 321 games

2)     Tyler Mosienko: 338 games     6)  Ryan Cuthbert: 319 games 

3)     Tyson Baillie: 326 games      7)  Brett McLean: 308 games 

4)     Brett Palin: 324 games            

Number Crunching The Rockets have eight players with 40 or more points. Rourke Chartier is next to join that group with 39 points. The team had 9 players with 40+ points last season….The Kelowna Rockets are attempting to reach the 100 point mark for a fourth consecutive season. With two more wins, the team will reach 100 points for the 6^th time in franchise history. The team accomplished the goal in 2002-2003 (109), 2004-2005 (104), 2012-2013 (108), 2013-2014 (118) and 2014-2015 (109)….Rourke Chartier has 100 career assists. The 19 year-old hit the milestone last Saturday in Spokane. Justin Kirkland has 97 career assists…Devante Stephens will be the only Kelowna Rockets player to participate in all 72 regular season games this season…. The Rockets are 8 for 17 (47.1%) on the power play in their last 5 games…The Rockets have out-shot the opponent in 9 straight games. It is the first time that has happened this season…The Rockets have fired 250 shots on goal in the last 6 games or 42.1shots per game…Michael Herringer has started in 27 of the teams last 31 games…Tyson Baillie is 8 points shy of 100. The last Rockets player to hit 100 points was Colin Long in 2007-2008…The Rockets have won 9 of their last 14 games overall (9-4-1-0)...The Rockets are a combined 73-1-6-0 when leading after two periods when you combine this seasons totals and last seasons….The Rockets are one of only three teams in the WHL that have not lost in regulation time when leading after 40 minutes. The Rockets are 31-0-3-0. The Kamloops Blazers and Prince Albert Raiders are also without a regulation loss after two periods …The Rockets are a combined 54-19-8-0 against BC Division teams on the road in the last five seasons…The Rockets are 26-5-1-0 when Tyson Baillie scores. The only regulation losses when the 20 year-old finds the back of the net were against Vancouver, Red Deer, Saskatoon and Kamloops…..The Rockets were 12-5-3-0 in 20 games against US Division opponents this season. The team was 13-1-0-0 against Central Division opponents. The only loss came in Lethbridge in the sixth game of the season….The Rockets have been out-shot in 39 of 69 games this season… Riley Stadel has 12 fighting majors this season and 32 over his career….Justin Kirkland has 35 points in his last 30 games.

Who’s Hot: Lucas Johansen has points in 10 of his last 14 games…Johansen has (1+10=11) over that period. Johansen has points in 14 of his last 19 games…Cole Linaker has points in 10 of his last 14 games. Linaker has 4+7=11 over that period…Linaker has a career high 46 points, seven more point than a season ago…Tyson Baillie has points in 13 of his last 17 games…Justin Kirkland had his 10 game point streak snapped last Wednesday. Kirkland had 5+10=15 over that period…Kirkland has points in 14 of his last 17 games…The Rockets are 208-58-12-6 in their last 284 regular season games dating back to the start of the 2012-2013 campaign.