Rockets route Royals

Jonathon Howe photo

• The Victoria Royals were prime for the picking and the Kelowna Rockets enjoyed the fruits of their labour in a convincing 5-1 win Sunday night at Save On Foods Memorial Arena. The home team came off an emotional victory Saturday night over the Regina Pats and simply put, looked uninspired from the opening face-off. That sluggish play allowed the Rockets to built up a 4-0 first period lead as they coasted to their 13th win of the season. Rodney Southam scored twice. Rookie Leif Mattson opened the scoring and Kole Lind and Nolan Foote also found the back of the net. The Royals were only interested when they were awarded seven power play chances. They had a few good looks and would score their only goal that way, but on this night, the damage in the opening 20 minutes was just too great. The Royals are now 1-7-1-0 when playing back-to-back games. The Rockets are now 2-0-0-0 in the seasonal series with a rematch set for Tuesday night.
• It was good to see rookie Leif Mattson score his first career WHL goal. It came on a missed pass inside the Royals zone. The 17 year-old picked up the puck just inside the blue line and wired a hard, low shot blocker side on Victoria goaltender Griffen Outhouse. Outhouse, the first star in Saturday's win over Regina, mirrored the image of his teammates in front of him, often fighting the puck and looking out-of-sorts in the lopsided loss. 
• Rodney Southam now has 6 goals this season, which is just two off his career high of 8 scored last season. Southam has scored four of his 6 goals in just two games. Southam plays in his 200th career game Tuesday night.
• Nick Merkley celebrated his 200th career game with an assist.
• Dillon Dube picked up an assist and now has 99 career points.  
• The Rockets are now 5-6-0-0 in 11 games against BC Division teams this season. Not bad considering the team had just one win in their first five games against Kamloops/Prince George to start the season.  
• The Rockets made an appearance in Victoria for the first time since that epic game 7 win last April.
• The Rockets called up 3rd round bantam pick Ted Brennan for the game. A resident of Victoria, the 16 year-old forward had a few shifts late in the game. 
• LA Kings Assistant General Manager Rob Blake took in last nights game.
• Director of NHL Central Scouting, Dan Marr, also took in last night's game as he makes his way across the WHL getting a first hand look at various top rated prospects.