Rockets game notes vs.Tips

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play game four of a five game home stand against the visiting Everett Silvertips. This is the second of four meetings between these two teams this season. They meet again tomorrow night at Prospera Place. In the first meeting October 3^rd in Everett, the Rockets earned a 5-4 overtime victory. Cole Linaker scored the game winning goal at the 24 second mark of overtime. Tyson Baillie had two goals in the win. The Rockets are back at Comcast Arena on March 3^rd. The Rockets are coming off a 5-2 home ice loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds last Friday. Nick Merkley and Madison Bowey scored in the team’s 8^th regulation loss of the season. Jackson Whistle was pulled in the third period after giving up four goals on 19 shots. Michael Herringer came into the game in relief and made four stops. The Rockets were 0 for 2 on the power play despite firing 38 shots at the T-Birds net. Following these two games, the Rockets are back on the road this Tuesday for four games in five nights starting against the Red Deer Rebels (Tuesday) before making stops in Edmonton (Wednesday), Lethbridge (Friday), and Kootenay (Saturday). The Rockets next home game after this double header is February 6^th against the Kamloops Blazers.       

Dare to Compare: After 45 games the Rockets have a record of 34-8-3-0. After 45 games last season the team was 37-6-0-2.  The Rockets have scored 192 goals after 45 games. Last season at this point they had scored 193 times. The team allowed 112 goals after 45 games last season. This season the Rockets have allowed 114 goals against.

Rockets catch eye of NHLCSS: Three members of the Kelowna Rockets made the mid-term rankings for NHL’s Central Scouting Service. Nick Merkley is rated 13^th, Devante Stephens is ranked 108^th and 17 year-old defenceman Joe Gatenby is 134^th among North American skaters. Stephens makes his first appearance on the list after failing to catch the eye of Central Scouting in the preliminary rankings. The 2015 draft will be held June 26-27 at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida.
      

This and That: Following these two games against the Tips, the Rockets will have 25 games left in the regular season. Of those 25, thirteen will be played on the road with twelve on home ice…The Rockets are 2-1-0-0 on this five game home stand, having out-scored the opposition 12-11. The Rockets have suffered a 5-3 loss to Medicine Hat, a 7-1 win over Tri City and a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds…The Rockets are just 3-3-0-0 in their last 6 home games….The Rockets started the season with 9 straight wins at Prospera Place…The Rockets have allowed 4 goals or more in five of their six regulation losses at Prospera Place this season. The only game where they didn’t give up 4 or more goals and lost was in a 3-1 home ice setback to the Regina Pats…The teams that have beaten the Rockets on home ice this season are Portland, Regina, Prince George (twice), Medicine Hat and Seattle…The CHL Top 10 rankings again came out this week and the Rockets remain the second best team in the country. Brandon is rated number three while Medicine Hat is number 7. The Everett Silvertips sneak into the top ten at number 10…Former Kelowna Rockets leading scorer Myles Bell was named the MVP in the East Coast Hockey League all-star game Wednesday night. Bell now plays for the Evansville Icemen…Who will score the Kelowna Rockets 5,000^th goal? The next one is the 5,000^th….The Rockets have 769 regular season wins in Kelowna dating back to the start of the 1995-96 season….Justin Kirkland is one goal shy of his career high 17 he scored last season...The opposition has opened the scoring in five of the last eight games…The Rockets played 11 games without Madison Bowey and Josh Morrissey. The Rockets were 9-2-0-0 in those 11 games.…The Rockets have played in 11-one goal games this season. The team is 7-2-0-2 in those games…The Rockets are 40-8-1-1 in the last two seasons against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets have not been shut-out in 121 consecutive games. The last time the Rockets were held without a goal was March 3, 2013 in a 3-0 loss in Kamloops.

Who’s Hot: Madison Bowey has 2+4=6 in his last three games…Leon Draisaitl has points in four of his last five games. The 19 year-old has goals in three of five games and is 3+3=6 in those five games……Tyson Baillie has 6+5=11 in his last 11 games….Rourke Chartier has 6+3=9 in his last 8 games…Chartier has points in 13 of his last 16 games…Cole Martin has 11 assists in his last 13 games…Justin Kirkland has 7+10=17 in his last 12 games…Rourke Chartier has 14 more goals (38) than he had all of last season. Chartier has goals in 20 of his last 27 games….Nick Merkley has 4+4=8 in January. 

Three Star Balloting: *Other first star winners are: Leon Draisaitl, Tyrell Goulbourne and Cole Martin.

Player:                          1^st Star    2^nd Star   3^rd Star   Total 
Jackson Whistle:             7              4              2            13
Rourke Chartier:              6              4              2            12
Nick Merkley:                   5              2              4            11
Tyson Baillie:                   1              5              2             8
Madison Bowey:              2              2              3             7

Walking wounded: 

Tanner Wishnowski: missed 45 games    Mitch Wheaton: missed 40 games
Dillon Dube: missed 25 games                Joe Gatenby: missed 7 games               
Jake Morrissey: missed 6 games.           Justin Kirkland: missed 6 games
Cole Martin: missed 1 game                   Rourke Chartier: missed 1 game.
Total # of games = 159 man games lost to injury and includes departed players. (Unofficial)