RECAP: Depleted Rockets special teams falters in 4-2 loss to Blades
The short-benched Kelowna Rockets fell 4-2 to the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday night at Prospera Place in Kelowna, BC.
The Rockets jumped on the board first 35 seconds into the game, but Saskatoon powered back with two goals in the opening frame. Kelowna tied the game in the middle frame with a short handed tally, but the Blades pushed back with two power play goals in the final frame to sink the Rockets.
“I saw a level of compete and sacrifice that I hadn’t seen in in some time,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette in his post game media avaliability. “It probably didn’t look pretty, but I liked our compete within our group. Obviously at the end of the day special teams killed us on both sides, power play and penalty kill. “We’re going to learn from this and hopefully get some bodies back on Wednesday, that will help bolster our lineup.”
Two more injured players joined the already five players missing, Will Munro and Logan Peskett were both injured in last night’s loss to Prince George. John Babcock (upper-body/day-to-day), Marek Rocak (upper-body/day-to-day), Max Graham (upper-body/2-3 weeks), Ty Hurley (lower-body/week-to-week) and Andrew Cristall (lower-body/week-to-week) were also all out. Cristall and Hurley resumed skating this week.
With all of the injuries, the Rockets dressed 17 skaters, including affiliate players Scott Cousins, Kayden Longley and Landon Cowper.
GAME SUMMARY
Gabriel Szturc (16) worked his way around the net to fire shot past Austin Elliott from the right faceoff cicle 35 seconds into the game. Playing four-on-four, Jordan Keller (10) tied the game. Talyn Boyko made three big saves before Conner Roulette (19) put Saskatoon ahead for the first time in the game.
While short handed Adam Kydd took off up the ice, sending a cross ice feed to an awating Gabriel Szturc (17).
Jayden Wiens (11) and Jordan Keller (11) both scored power play goals in the final frame to lift to Saskatoon to victory.
ADDITIONAL STATS
- Saskatoon outshot Kelowna 39-18
- Talyn Boyko made 35 saves on 39 shots
- Jayden Wiens was the game’s first star, Gabriel Szturc was the second and Jordan Keller was the third star
- Kelowna was 0/4 on the power play, while the Blades were 2/7 on the man advantage
- The Rockets record is now 17-30-3-0
UP NEXT
Kelowna will continue their homestand on Wednesday night against the Everett Silvertips at 7:05 pm.
Single-game tickets for all Rockets home games are on sale at Select Your Tickets. Tickets can be purchased online through www.selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office, or by phone at 250-762-5050.
