Tonight’s Preview: The Rockets and Giants are meeting for the 6th time this season. The Rockets are 1-3-1-0 against the Giants this season having been out-scored 16-7. The Giants have out-shot the Rockets 200-97 in five games. The Giants have averaged 40 shots per game in the seasonal series as compared to the Rockets 19.4 per game. The Rockets have three wins in their last 4 games overall (3-1-0-0), and have points in four of their last five games. The only game where the Rockets have failed to pick up a point over that period was in a 4-0 loss in the Tri Cities Friday night. The Rockets are playing their third game in three nights after a 4-0 loss to the Americans Friday and a 4-2 win against the Kamloops Blazers last night. The Rockets are opening up a portion of their schedule playing three straight games on the road, which includes a stop in Vancouver tonight, followed by games in Everett this Friday and in Seattle next Saturday night. The Rockets next home game is against Chilliwack February 20th.
Second Period - One Sided: The Vancouver Giants have been the better team in the 2nd period in the seasonal series against Kelowna. The Giants have out-shot the Rockets 82-20 in the second period alone, including 63-3 in three games played in Vancouver.
Season Series Shakedown: Of the seven goals the Rockets have scored against the Giants in the seasonal series, 3 have come in the third period. The Giants appear to get better as the game goes on as well. Of the 16 goals they’ve scored against the Rockets this year, six have come in the 2nd period, and 6 in the final frame.
It’s Not all Bad: While the Rockets may have lost starting goaltending Kristofer Westblom for the remainder of the season with a left knee injury, a doctor appointment Wednesday showed no damage to his ACL. That essentially means he won’t require surgery on a knee that suffered an MCL tear. Westblom will remain on crutches for another 2 weeks before undergoing rehab. Westblom says he could be back in 8 weeks, but the team is taking a more cautious approach for a return date in about 12 weeks.
Number Crunching: The Rockets have received goals from defenseman in four of the team’s last five games…The Rockets have been shutout 9 times this season…The Rockets are 69 and 49 all time in the WHL playoffs since moving to Kelowna. They have beaten the Spokane Chiefs and Kootenay Ice the most times in post season play with 13 victories. Oddly enough the Rockets have also lost the most times to the Chiefs in the playoffs with 10 setbacks…The Rockets have 13 players on their roster drafted in the WHL bantam draft, including five from 2005 and five from the 2004 draft…In the Rockets 17 wins this season the teams power play is 19.2% or 23 for 120…The Rockets have called up 16 year old Daniel Salamandyk to backup Torrie Jung. Salamandyk is playing this season with the Okanagan midget Rockets…The Rockets have just one win in their last 12 road games (1-9-2-0) and are riding a 7 game road losing streak…The Rockets are 11-13-2-0 in 26 games against BC division opponents this season…The Rockets have been involved in 20 – one goal games this season. In those games the Rockets are 7-5-5-3…The Rockets have been held to a single goal 14 times this season, 7 times at home, 7 times on the road.
Time Ticking Down: With 16 games left in the regular season the Rockets have 8 games at home and 8 games on opposition ice. The Rockets have 11 games left against BC division opponents, 4 games against US division clubs and one against Central division foes.
Who’s Hot – Who’s Not: Tyler Myers has points in 4 of his last 5 games (4A). Justin Bernhardt has 2+5=7 in his last 7 games. Cody Almond has just one goal in his last 22 and has gone 19 games without a goal. Lucas Bloodoff had two points last night against Kamloops, snapping a pointless drought which had reached 12 games. Clayton Barthel has goals in two of his last 4 games. David Schulz has 2+5=7 in his last 6 games.
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