iSight Optometry Recap: Silvertips late goal sinks Rockets

iSight Optometry Recap: Silvertips late goal sinks Rockets

The US Division leading Everett Silvertips scored a late goal in the third period to down the Kelowna Rockets 3-2 on Wednesday night at Prospera Place.

Tied 3-3 heading into the third period, Everett scored the go-ahead goal with 1:31 to go in the game.

“It caught up to us in the end,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette in his postgame interview. “You saw how many times Everett dumped the puck in and just were relentless on the forecheck, just making our defence come back and pick pucks up nonstop. Where we wanted to get cute through the neutral zone, they were able to transition quick and it came back to bite us. We gave ourselves an opportunity to gain a point against a really good hockey club, was it a great game for us to play? No. But we were still able to hang around and the way we lost it, we were basically the hockey gods saying, ‘You know what, you cheated the game and it’s come back to bite you,” and that’s what it was, a bad bounce that will catch up to you when you’re playing that kind of game.”

Seventeen-year-old rookie goaltender Jake Pilon made his fourth straight start for the Rockets, stopping 32 of the 36 shots he faced.

“Jake hasn’t been the issue,” said Mallette on Pilon’s performance. “He’s a young goaltender that’s getting way more experience than I ever think he anticipated, way more starts that he’s gotten. In this game in particular he made some very good saves to keep us around and it’s unfortunate that it ended up that way, the guys (players) should be upset for that.”

HIGHLIGHTS | BOXSCORE | POSTGAME MALLETTE

GAME SUMMARY

Jesse Heslop (13) beat Pilon glove side with a shot from the slot to open the scoring 9:01 into the game. Two and a half minutes later Gabriel Szturc (22) skated from the bottom to the right faceoff circle up along the edge to the top between the two circles where he let a shot go to tie it at one. Seconds after the Rockets five-on-three opportunity became a five-on-four Szturc (23) found the back of the net with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle to push Kelowna ahead.

Tarin Smith‘s (7) power-play drive from the point tied things up just past the midway point of the second frame. Caden Brown carried the puck in on a two-on-one dishing it off to Hayden Smith (7) in front to restore the Tips lead. Fifty-two seconds later Caden Price (7) made a spin move around a Silvertip at the top of the right faceoff circle, skating lower and beating Ethan Chadwick to tie the game up.

With 1:31 to go in regulation Carter Bear (19) cut across the Rockets cease, the second then went off of Price’s skate and into the net.