Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Game notes vs. Chiefs


Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play their third home game of the regular season tonight by welcoming the Spokane Chiefs. Five of the team’s first seven games have been on the road this season. These two teams are meeting for the first of four times in 2012-2013. The seasonal series continues January 16th at Prospera Place before concluding with two games at Spokane’s Memorial Arena January 18th and February 6th. These two teams met four times last season with the Rockets winning twice and losing twice. Overall, the Chiefs out-scored the Rockets 13-10. Following tonight’s game, the Rockets are back on the road for back-to-back games in Victoria before hosting Prince George in a rare Thursday (October 18th) night game at Prospera Place. Overall, the Rockets have won three of their last four games and are coming off a 7-5 win in Prince George Saturday night.   

This and That: Myles Bell and Colton Sissons are top ten in WHL scoring. Bell (5th) has 5+6=11 while Sissons (8th) has 3+8=11 in seven games. Coincidentally, the two are line mates…Bell has 9 points in his last four games….Sissons is riding a four game point streak with 3+7=10 over that period…Bell is tied with Brandon’s Ryan Pulock for the WHL lead in scoring by defenceman. Both have 11 points on the season….Colton Sissons has eight assists this season, which is over half the 15 assists he recorded last season…Goaltender Jordon Cooke has played the second most minutes of any goaltender in the WHL this season. The 19 year-old has started all seven games and has racked up 382 minutes in goal. Only Tri City’s Eric Comrie has spent more time in goal (484) than Cooke….The Rockets are 3-3-0-1 after seven games this season. They were 3-4-0-0 after seven games last season…The Rockets have put up seven goals against Prince George and Vancouver this season. Last season they managed the feat only once, against Prince George….Four of the Rockets first seven games have been decided by a single goal….The Rockets were involved in a whopping 37-one goal games last season…The Rockets have surrendered 24 goals in the first seven games this season. Last season the team surrendered 31 goals after seven games…After tonight’s game the Rockets play six of their next eight games on the road. When it is all said and done, the Rockets will have played 11 of their first 16 games away from Prospera Place…In November the team plays eight of 11 games on home ice…The Rockets have opened the scoring in five of the first seven games.     

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Myles Bell has 22-multiple point games in his WHL career. The 19 year-old is 5th in league scoring while playing on a forward line with Colton Sissons and Dylen McKinlay. Bell is one of three Rockets with over 100 points in his WHL career. Bell has 116 points. Dylen McKinlay has 119 points while Zach Franko hit the 100 point plateau last weekend and now has 101 career points.    

New Faces Emerge: The Kelowna Rockets were one of the most active teams obtaining players before the puck dropped on the 2012-2013 season. The Rockets acquired two 20 year-old players in separate deals last Thursday. J.T Barnett was acquired from the Everett Silvertips off waivers while Dylen McKinlay was picked up from the Kootenay Ice for a 5th round bantam pick. Goaltender Jackson Whistle was acquired from Vancouver for a third round bantam pick. Ryan Olsen was picked up in the Shane McColgan/Jessey Astles deal.    

Milestone Makers:
Zach Franko played in his 150th career game Friday night in Prince George.
Dylen McKinlay played in his 250th career WHL regular season game September 22/2012
Ryan Olsen is eight games shy of 150 for his career. This is game #143 tonight.
Myles Bell has played 196 career WHL games. This is game #197 tonight.
J.T Barnett has scored 46 career WHL goals.

Three Stars       1st      2nd        3rd   
Jordon Cooke:   2                     1    
Colton Sissons:           1
Madison Bowey:                       1
Zach Franko:               1            1           
Myles Bell:         1        1
Rourke Chartier:                        1      


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