Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Rockets game notes vs. Royals



Tonight’s Preview: This has been an odd seasonal series between the Rockets and Royals. The road teams have had the majority of the success. The Rockets are 3-3-0-1 in the first seven games with a lackluster record of 0-2-0-1 on home ice yet are 3-1-0-0 in Victoria. Overall, the Royals have out-scored the Rockets 22-20 in the seven games. Jordon Cooke has played in all seven games in the seasonal series. Patrik Polivka has started in four of the seven games. While the success of the road team has been the big story, you can’t but notice the Rockets power play numbers against the Royals. The Rockets are 0 for 30 in the seven games. The Royals are 6 for 35 (17.1) with the extra man. The Rockets have won eleven of their last thirteen games overall. With four games left in the regular season, the team faces Victoria tonight are in Kamloops Wednesday before closing out the regular season with a home and home series with the Vancouver Giants this weekend.
Who’s Hot: Nick Merkley has points in ten of his last eleven games. Merkley has 10+5=15 over that period. Marek Tvrdon has 17 points in his last fourteen games (7+10=17). Damon Severson has points in thirteen of his last 17 games…Myles Bell has points in 7 of his last 9 games. The 20 year-old has 3+5=8 over that period….The Rockets are 47-5-0-4 in their last 56 home games dating back to last season. Rourke Chartier has 3+6=9 in his last eight games…Chartier has 32 points in his last 32 games.
Better than before: Several players are enjoying career seasons. Madison Bowey has 25 more points than he had last season. Bowey has 6 more goals and 19 more assists…Damon Severson has 60 points, 8 more than a season prior. Severson has 15+45=60…Rourke Chartier has 23 more points than a year ago. Chartier has scored 9 more goals and 14 more assists than in 2012-2013…Tyrell Goulbourne has 8 more points than last season including two more goals.
This and That: The Rockets need one point in their final four games to clinch first place in the WHL standings for the first time since 2002-2003… Madison Bowey is one goal away from tying Tyson Barrie’s single season record for goals by a Rockets d-man…Dalton Yorke is serving game three of three game suspension assessed in a fight against Everett last Tuesday….For the first time in franchise history the Kelowna Rockets are enjoying back-to-back 50 wins seasons….With two road games left in the regular season the hockey club can tie the WHL record for road wins if they win their remaining two games. The Rockets have 27 road wins while the league record is 29 wins on opposition ice.    …Myles Bell became the first player since Geordie Wudrick to score 40 or more goals in a season. Wudrick had 43 in 2010-2011….The Rockets have six more wins on the road than the 21 they had all of last season…Of Myles Bell’s 41 goals this season, 22 have been scored on the road with 19 coming on home ice…The Rockets are 9-6-0-0 in their last 15 road games…The Rockets are 9-1-0-2 in their last 12 home games and have won seven straight…The Rockets are 21-5-0-2 since the WHL trade deadline.…The Rockets have been involved in 10-one goal games on home ice this season…Cole Martin is +106 over the last two seasons…The Rockets have 4 games left in the regular season. Two are on home ice with two on the road…The Rockets have scored six or more goals twelve times on home ice this season… The Rockets are 17-4-0-0 in the second game when facing back-to-back scenarios this season….The team has been rated as the best team in the CHL according to the Top 10 junior rankings for a 10th consecutive week….After losing two of his first three games, Jackson Whistle has won fifteen of his last seventeen games…The Rockets have played in 9 shootout games this season and are 5 and 4. Four of the five shootout wins have come on the road in Tri City, Victoria, Prince George and Seattle…Jordon Cooke is 45-6-0-3 at home in last 54 starts at home dating back to last season…The Rockets have scored 4 or more goals in 24 of their 34 road games this season…In 8 of the Rockets 10 regulation losses this season, leading scorer Myles Bell has failed to score…Bell is tied for the league lead in game winning goals with 9….Bell has just 23 power play points. That translates into 51 of his points coming even strength…Bell has points in 13 of his last 17 games…Two birthdays in March. Cole Martin will turn 20 on March 15th. Ryan Olsen will turn 20 on March 25th….Nick Merkley is two goals shy of Shane McColgan’s record of 25 goals scored by a 16 year-old rookie.      

Rockets Three Star Leaders:
                          1st Star      2nd Star    3rd Star    Total          
Jordon Cooke:           8                  1              6                 15
Nick Merkley:             2                  6              5                 13
Rourke Chartier         5                  4              2                 11
Madison Bowey:        7                  3              0                 10
Myles Bell:                 5                  4              1                 10
Tyson Baillie:             4                  3              3                 10
Jackson Whistle:        2                  5              2                  9

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