Payworks Recap: Rockets fall to T-Birds in opening game
The Kelowna Rockets fell 6-0 to the Seattle Thunderbirds in the opening game of their first-round playoff matchup on Friday night at the accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Was.
The T-Bird’s dominated the majority of the game with aggressive play all night, holding the Rockets to just five shots in the opening period and six in the second frame. Seattle outshot the Rockets 34-21.
“We knew what was going to happen early, they were going to come out with emotion,” said head coach Kris Mallette after the game to kelownarockets.com.
“We put ourselves in a pretty deep hole with a penalty right off the bat, down three before you could even blink it seemed like. We knew they were going to come out hard, it’s a tough hole to get out of. We couldn’t really find our rhythm, third period I thought we pushed a little more of the type of hockey we need to play to compete.”
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With a Rocket sitting in a penalty box, Jared Davidson (1) opened the scoring 1:37 into the game. Sam Oremba (1) and Lucas Ciona (1) added another two early on in the first.
Matthew Rempe (1) and Jordan Gustafson (1) made it 5-0 in the second period. Jari Kykkanen replaced starter Talyn Boyko in net for the Rockets following Gustafson’s goal.
Davidson (2) netted the Thunderbirds fourth power play goal of the game with under a minute to play in the game.
The Rockets were zero-for-seven on the power play, while the T-Birds went four-for-seven.
Boyko made 17 saves on 22 shots through 33:45 of action before being relieved. Kykkanen stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced through 26:17.
Seattle goaltender Thomas Milic stopped all 21 shots he faced.
The two will face off for game two at 6:05 pm tomorrow at the accesso ShoWare Center. You can watch the game on CHL TV or listen on AM1150.
WHL Playoff hockey is back in Kelowna for the first time since 2018! Cheer on the Kelowna Rockets in round one as they take on the Seattle Thunderbirds, tickets for home games one (Tuesday, April 26) and two (Wednesday, April 27) are now on sale at Select Your Tickets.
Fans can purchase their tickets online at selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or by phone at 250-762-5050. The box office is open 11:00 a.m. to 4:00p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and opens at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday home game days.
