Friday, February 16, 2018

Rockets/Blazers Preview

Kyle Topping - Shoot the Breeze Photography
Game Day Preview: The Kelowna Rockets have just six games left on the road this season. The team faces the Kamloops Blazers in the 5th of 8 meetings between these two teams. Having not seen each other since way back on December 29th, the Rockets are 4-0-0-0 in the seasonal series with wins of 6-2, 5-1, 2-1 in a shootout and 3-0. The Rockets are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels Wednesday night. Despite firing 37 shots on goal, only Kyle Topping was able to score in the teams 6th loss on home ice this season. Overall the Rockets have out-scored the Blazers 16-4 with games tonight, February 24th, March 9th and March 10th. Overall, the Rockets have points in 17 of their last 25 games (15-8-2-0). The Rockets host the Edmonton Oil Kings tomorrow night before welcoming Prince George on Tuesday and Seattle one week from tonight at Prospera Place.

Broadcasters Notebook: With 15 games left in the regular season, 9 of the 15 will be played on home ice. The only six road games are in Kamloops (twice), Prince George (twice), Everett and Vancouver…The Rockets 20 home ice wins is the second most of any team in the Western Conference (tied with Victoria). The Everett Silvertips have 21 home ice victories…The Rockets and Victoria Royals were fined $500.00 each for a fight between Kyle Pow and Braydon Buziak in Monday’s game…Erik Gardiner returned to the line-up February 9th in Victoria after missing 39 games with an upper body injury.…. Kole Lind had his 20 game point streak snapped February 3rd in Everett. Lind had 15+23=38 over that period, which was good for the third longest point streak in franchise history. Tyson Barrie had a 21 game point streak in 2009-2010 while the team record is 24 games set by Brett McLean. McLean had 18+31=49 in the 1996-1997 campaign….James Porter was named the WHL and CHL Goaltender of the Week ending December 31st after posting a 2-0-0-0 record including one shutout with a goals against average of 0.48 and a save percentage of .987…The Rockets have four hat-tricks this season from Carsen Twarynski (vs. Portland/Prince George), and Kole Lind (Prince Albert/Kamloops)…The Rockets have sent 17 players to Canada’s roster at the World Junior… The Rockets had their 13 game home ice winning streak snapped January 5th vs. Seattle…The Rockets are 7 and 3 in overtime with game winners coming from Kole Lind (twice), Dillon Dube Carsen Twarynski (twice) and Cal Foote (twice). The only losses in OT came against the Tri City Americans, Portland Winterhawks, Red Deer Rebels and Victoria Royals……NHL Central Scouting has released its mid-term rankings. Forward Kyle Topping is rated 65th among North American skaters. Defenceman Libor Zabransky is rated 110th…Dillon Dube has scored 20+ goals in three consecutive seasons. Dube had 20 goals last season in 40 games and had a career high 26 in 2015-2016.…The Rockets won their 30th game of the season January 24th vs. Lethbridge, marking the 11th straight season the team has achieved that mark. The last time they fell short was in 2006-2007 when the team earned 22 victories…Liam Kindree is missing his 21st straight game with a lower body injury.

Digg’n Deeper: Kole Lind reached the 30 goal mark Monday in a win over Victoria. The 19 year-old is the first Rockets player since Tyson Ballie to score 30+ goals in back-to-back seasons. Baillie had 37 goals as a 19 year-old and scored 43 times as a 20 year-old…The Rockets are 2-4-2-0 in their last 8 road games….Dillon Dube hit the 200 point mark in his career Friday February 9th in Victoria….Carsen Twarynski is playing in his 83rd regular season game as a member of the Rockets. Twarynski has 80 points in those 83 games….The Rockets are 15-5-1-0 against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets have opened the scoring 31 times this season…The opposition has opened the scoring in 4 straight games.

Streaking: Cal Foote has points in 17 of his last 20 games…Dillon Dube has points in 17 of his last 19 games…Leif Mattson has points in 9 of his last 10 games.   

Roster Stats:
Player total: 26
Year by Year Breakdown:
20’s (1997) – 3   Ballhorn, Twarynski, Hilsendager           
19’s (1998) - 5   Salmond, Lind, Dube, Cal Foote, Chizen
18’s (1999) - 6   Topping, Mattson, Gardiner, Bruggen-Cate, Cowell, Skvrne
17’s (2000) - 9   Porter, Foote, Zabransky, Kindree, Brennan, McGauley, Kushniryk, Pow, Hair
16’s (2001) - 2   Korczak, Basran
15’s (2002) - 1 Cole Tisdale
NHL Drafted Players: Cal Foote (Tampa Bay 2017), Kole Lind (Vancouver 2017), Dillon Dube (Calgary 2016), Carsen Twarynski (Philadelphia 2016), Brayden Chizen (Minnesota 2016).  


Game Notes Compiled by Regan Bartel of AM 1150

No comments: