Tonight’s Preview: The
Kelowna Rockets play game two of a four game home stand tonight against the
visiting Saskatoon Blades. This is the one and only meeting of the season
between the two teams’. The Rockets are riding a four game winning streak
against the Blades following their last meeting, December 17/2013 in Saskatoon
in a 7-1 win. During that four game winning streak over the Blades, the Rockets
have 27-7. The last time the Blades beat the Rockets was December 16, 2009 with
a 4-1 victory at what was then known as Sask Place. The Blades last win in
Kelowna was December 3rd 2008 when Stefan Elliott had a goal and an
assist in a 4-2 win. Jamie Benn had two assists in the setback. The Rockets are
coming off a 3-1 home ice loss to the Regina Pats Saturday night. Rourke
Chartier scored his league leading 29th goal of the season in the
teams’ third regulation loss of the season. Overall, the Rockets are winless in
their last three home games (0-2-1-0). Following tonight’s game, the Rockets
host Prince George on Friday and Prince Albert on Saturday. Following those two
games this weekend, the Rockets concluded the pre-Christmas schedule with five
straight games on the road. They include dates in Lethbridge (Dec 10), Medicine
Hat (Dec 12), Calgary (Dec 14), Edmonton (Dec 16) and Red Deer (Dec 17).
The Saskatoon Sniper: Rourke
Chartier had 18+10=28 in the month of November. In 14 games, Chartier scored a
goal in 12 of them. The 18 year-old had points in 13 of those 14 games. Chartier
had 9 multiple point games in the month. Chartier had 6-3 point games and
three-two point games. By comparison, last seasons’ WHL scoring champion Mitch
Holmberg had 12+14=26 in November. The only player to record more points over
the last five seasons in the month of November is Portland’s Brendan Leipsic.
Leipsic had 9+21=30 in November 2012.
Walking wounded:
Tanner
Wishnowski: missed 28 games
Mitch
Wheaton: missed 24 games
Dillon
Dube: missed 25 games
Dalton
Yorke: missed 11 games
Austin
Glover: missed 10 games
Joe
Gatenby: missed 7 games
Justin
Kirkland: missed 6 games
Jake
Morrissey: missed 6 games.
Jesse
Lees: missed 3 games
Cole
Martin: missed 1 game
Total # of games = 122
man games lost to injury. (Unofficial)
World Junior Bound:
Congratulations Madison Bowey and Rourke Chartier for being two of 29 players
named to Team Canada’s training camp roster for the WJHC. Kelowna Rockets
forward Kris Schmidli will participate in the upcoming World Junior’s with Switzerland.
Rockets majority owner Bruce Hamilton is a member of Team Canada’s management
team.
Let’s go streaking: Nick
Merkley’s 12 game point streak (4+17=21) came to an end Saturday against
Regina. Merkley had the 5th longest point streak in Kelowna Rockets
history. Here are the longest point streaks by a Rockets player over the years.
Tyson Barrie: 21 games
with a point 2009-2010 (5+28=33)
Zach Franko: 13 games
with a point 2010-2011 (9+9=18)
Jesse Schultz: 13 games
with a point 2002-2003 (15+8=23)
Jamie Benn: 13 games
with a point 2008-2009 (15+10=25)
Nick Merkley: 12 games
with a point 2014-2015 (4+17=21)
Rourke Chartier: 10 games
with a point 2014-2015 (15+9=24)
Milestones: Tyson
Baillie is 5 assists shy of 100 for his career…Nick Merkley and Kris Schmidli
are 6 games shy of 100 for their careers…Riley Stadel is 9 games shy of 150 for
his career…Madison Bowey is 7 assists shy of 100 for his career.
This and That: The Rockets
were 15-0-0-0 against Eastern Division teams up until Saturday’s loss to Regina…Nick
Merkley is rated as an ‘A’ prospect by NHL Central Scouting for this summer’s
draft. Teammate Joe Gatenby and Tomas Soustal are ‘C’ prospect in the November
rankings…The Rockets have been held to three goals or less only 7 times this
season….Nick Merkley has 14 multiple point games….Rourke Chartier has been held
off the score-sheet four times this season…In case you are wondering, the
Rockets have not been shutout in 104 consecutive games. The last time the
Rockets were held without a goal was March 3, 2013 in a 3-0 loss in Kamloops…Dan
Lambert won a Memorial Cup with the Swift Current Broncos in 1989. The game was
played against the Blades in Saskatoon. Blades head coach Marcel Comeau, in
1989, was also a coach with the Kelowna Rockets for five seasons…Bruce Hamilton
played his junior hockey with the Saskatoon Blades from 1974-1977. Hamilton was
an assistant coach with the Blades in 1983-84 under then head coach Darrell
Lubiniecki. One of the players on that team was 16 year-old Wendel Clark, who
scored 23 goals that season…Tyrell Goulbourne’s next point will be his 100th
of his career…While Rourke Chartier lead the team with 18+10=28 in November,
Nick Merkley was next with 4+17=21. Jesse Lees was third in scoring during the
month with 5+10=15. Tyson Baillie had 14 points (8+6=14) during the month.
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