Tip drill!!

• Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets close out the month of February with a home and home series with the Everett Silvertips. The game tonight is the third of four meetings between these two teams, which close out the seasonal series tomorrow night in Everett. The Rockets are 1-1-0-0 against the Tips, with a 5-1 win back on September 28^th and a 3-2 loss on January 17^th. The home team has won both games, with the Rockets out-scoring the Tips 7-4. The Rockets are coming off a highly successful four game road trip where the team went 3-0-0-1, out-scoring their opponent 16-14. All four wins were decided by a single goal. Following tonight’s game, the Rockets visit the Tips tomorrow night before opening the month of March with a three game home stand against the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds, a team that trails them by only 6 points
• Mally the Man! Kris Mallette was named the interim head coach of the Kelowna Rockets last Wednesday. Mallette replaces Adam Foote, who was relieved of his duties. Mallette joined the organization as an assistant coach for the start of the 2014 season under then head coach Dan Lambert. Mallette is a former player, suiting up for the Rockets from 1996 until 1998 before eventually being traded to the Moose Jaw Warriors. The 41 year-old is the first Rockets alumni to assume the head coaching duties and is joined by former Rockets forward Vernon Fiddler as an assistant.
• Who’s Hot: Pavel Novak has points in 8 of his last 9 games (4+12=16)…Matthew Wedman has points in 7 of his last 8 games (7+7=14)…..Dillon Hamaliuk is riding a five game point streak (5+5=10)…Kyle Topping has 2+3=5 in his last three games….Roman Basran has started in 7 of the last 8 games.
• Broadcasters Notebook: A win tonight will match the Rockets win total (28) from all of last season…The Rockets have 15 road wins, one better than the 14 they captured one season ago….The Rockets have played the most road games in the WHL (31)….The Rockets have 12 home ice wins. The team had 14 all of last season….Kris Mallette is 9-0-1-1 as a head coach in the WHL.…With 10 games left in the regular season, 7 are on home ice with only 3 on the road. Those road stops include singles in Everett, Kamloops and Vancouver… The Rockets are 9-8-0-0 against teams in the US Division….The Rockets are now 19-5-1-0 when scoring the games first goal…The Rockets have played in 32-1 goal games this season…The Rockets are 12-14-1-1 against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets were 5-5-0-0 in December and 4-9-0-0 in January.