Rockets open three game roady

 Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets open a three game road trip tonight when they travel to Prince George to face the Cougars. The Rockets meet the Cougars again tomorrow night before traveling to Seattle (Kent) next Friday to face the T-Birds. The Rockets next home game is Saturday October 12^th against the visiting Kamloops Blazers. The Rockets make three stops in Prince George this season, with a single stop on October 23^rd and back-to-back games February 25^th and 26th. The Rockets had their struggles against the Cougars last season, specifically at CN Centre. The Rockets were 1-3-1-0 in five games and were out-scored 20-12. The Rockets are coming off a 6-1 win over the Tri City Americans last night. Nolan Foote had 1+3=4 and rookie Pavel Novak had 1+2=3 in the victory, the teams’ third straight at home this season. The Rockets have out-scored the opposition at home 14-4.

      Broadcasters Notebook: The Rockets organization has the bragging rights of having 14 former players start the season on an NHL roster. That is the most of any team in the WHL, with Brandon next at 10 and Portland with 9 alumni….The Rockets have the second most games played by alumni in the NHL of any team in the Canadian Hockey League. Only the London Knights of the OHL have more….The Rockets are 3-1-1-0 after five games this season. It took the team 12 games last season to reach three wins.….Last season, the Rockets were 1-4-0-0 after five games….Tonight’s game is the first time the team faces former head coach Jason Smith. Smith was the head coach of the Rockets for two seasons and is now an assistant with the Cougars…Kyle Topping has goals in four of five games this season…Topping will play in his 200^th career WHL game tonight in Prince George….Roman Basran has started in four of five games this season….The Rockets acquired 20 year-old d-man Carson Sass from the Tri City Americans on September 11^th for a 10^th round bantam pick. Sass never played a game with the Americans though, after he was claimed off waivers by the Americans after suiting up for the Red Deer Rebels for over 200 games. Sass was the Rebels third round pick in the 2014 WHL bantam draft…Newly acquired forward Dillon Hamaliuk was selected in the second round by the San Jose Sharks. Hamaliuk was acquired in a trade with Seattle back in May….Jake Lee received a free-agent tryout with the Sharks, attending the teams rookie camp….Leif Mattson and Kyle Topping attended the rookie camp of the Carolina Hurricanes…19 year-old d-man Sean Comrie received an invite to Philadelphia Flyers rookie camp which led to an invite to main camp...Back on October 3^rd, the Rockets were awarded the host site for the 2020 Kia Memorial Cup, beating out bids from Kamloops and Lethbridge. 

      Welcome back! The team essentially welcomes back 17 of the 22 players that wore a Rockets jersey last season. That includes 5 of the teams’ top 6 scorers in Kyle Topping, Leif Mattson, Nolan Foote, Liam Kindree and Kaedan Korczak. Topping led the team with 69 points while Mattson and Foote collected 63 points apiece. Foote led the team in goals with 36. The team said farewell to 20 year-old’s Schael Higson, Dalton Gally and Matt Barberis. The team also parted ways with Lassi Thomson, Conner Bruggen-Cate and Ted Brennan. Adam Foote returns as head coach for his first full season behind the bench with Kris Mallette and Vernon Fiddler as his assistants. Fiddler was added to the staff on July 3^rd.