Gameday: Rockets host Broncos for Hat-Trick Wednesday

TEAM NOTES PREPARED BY REGAN BARTEL OF AM 1150

• Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets close out the home portion of their October schedule with a date against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. It is the lone meeting between these two teams this season. Now that the Broncos have moved to the Central Division, the Rockets do not make a return visit had they still been situated in the Eastern Division. The Rockets make their Eastern Division swing in early December. Last season the Rockets were a 3-2 winner over the Broncos at Prospera Place as Adam Foote made his WHL head coaching debut. After tonight’s game, the Rockets play four straight on the road, including stops in Kamloops (Saturday), Prince George (next Wednesday) and in Victoria for two games (October 29^th and 30^th). The Rockets are coming off a 5-2 home-ice loss Saturday to the Kamloops Blazers. Liam Kindree and rookie Jake Poole scored in the teams’ third loss of the season. The two teams were tied at two after 40 minutes before the Blazers scored three times in the third period.

                                                                                    Tale of The Tape

• Who’s Hot: Forward Pavel Novak is tied for the WHL lead in scoring by rookies. Novak has 4+7=11 in 9 games. Novak has four goals in his last 6 games and has points in four of his last five games…Kyle Topping has points in 6 of the 9 games he has played this season…Nolan Foote has three goals in his last three games and has 11 multiple-goal games over his career…Both Foote and d-man Kaedan Korczak lead the team in shots on goal with 30 apiece…Dillon Hamaliuk leads the team in goals (5) and plus/minus with a +5…Roman Basran has an impressive stat line with a goals-against-average of 2.22 and a save percentage of .926.

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• Broadcasters Notebook: Pavel Novak is a ‘C’ prospect for next June’s NHL Draft. Those rankings released by NHL Central Scouting. A ‘C’ prospect is regarded as a player selected between the 5^th and 7th round. The 2020 NHL Entry Draft will be held in Montreal…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 5-3-1-0 after 9 games this season. It took the team 15 games last season to reach five victories.…Kyle Topping played in his 200^th career WHL game October 4^th in Prince George….Roman Basran has started in eight of nine games this season…. 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…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.
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• That’s a fact – Jack! 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-olds 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.

Purchase the Hat-Trick Wednesday deal from Select Your Tickets before 2:00pm on gameday, you’ll get a pop, a hotdog and your ticket for $19.99 plus fees. Tickets are on sale at selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or by phone at 250-762-5050