Rockets eye up Winterhawks this weekend
By Aaron Bell
The Kelowna Rockets have been on a terrific run for the past three months and are looking forward to a visit from the first place Portland Winterhawks this weekend to cement their status as the Western Hockey League’s top club.
The Rockets have won nine of their past 10 games, have at least one point in each of their past 19 games and have won 23 straight games on home ice.
The Winterhawks visit for a doubleheader at Prospera Place on Friday and Saturday.
Before that match-up, the Rockets will look to keep up their winning ways with a visit to Spokane to face the Chiefs tonight.
“As well as we’ve been playing you can’t look past teams,” Rockets’ coach Ryan Huska told the Kelowna Capital News. “Once that game is done, then the guys can look ahead to Portland and we can prepare for that.”
The Rockets and Winterhawks split their first series back in September in Portland and both teams have been anticipating this weekend’s series in Kelowna.
“I know our players have had a circle around Feb. 8-9, because they look at it as our only opportunity to kind of get closer to Portland right now,” Huska told the Kelowna Daily Courier. “We can turn our attention to Portland once we get to Thursday.”
The Rockets’ franchise record is 24 straight wins on home ice – set when the team was in Tacoma, WA in 1992-93. It’s a tall order, but a sweep of the Winterhawks this weekend would set a new team record.
“The guys have had these games in the back of their minds for a while now, they know what they mean and they’re looking forward to them,” said Huska. “But we haven’t really addressed (the streak) it’s something the guys don’t talk a lot about. The guys have done a pretty good job of not looking too far ahead and focusing on what’s next in front of them.”
Overage forward Dylen McKinlay reached a milestone of his own recently when he played in his 300th career game. The Rockets acquired McKinlay from the Kootenay Ice in September and he has been a regular contributor to their impressive season to date.
“He’s been a breath of fresh air for us,” Huska said. “And the other thing that he brings is his speed and quickness, and that helps our team. He plays with a lot of pace in his game, and he gets on defencemen quickly and forces them to make plays under pressure.”
Despite all of their success of late, the Rockets’ coaches feel like there is still some room for improvement as the playoffs get closer. They are in the middle of a stretch of seven games in just 11 days.
“The one scary thing for coaches is we don’t have much practice time, because we’re giving them more rest time, and you can see certain areas that can creep in a little bit,” Huska said. “It would be nice to get a little bit of practice time under our belt, but the important thing for our players in this situation is to make sure they have the proper rest.”