Regan’s Notes: Hurricanes at Rockets

TEAM NOTES PREPARED BY REGAN BARTEL OF AM 1150

• Tonight’s Preview: We missed ya. Hello, playoffs. The Kelowna Rockets officially clinched a playoff birth last night with a 6-0 win over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds. It marked the 23^rd time in the 25 year history of the Rockets in the Okanagan that the team was able to qualify for the postseason. Pavel Novak had 2+1=3 in the teams’ 28^th victory, matching its win total from a year ago. Kyle Topping had 3 assists while Roman Basran made 19 saves for his 5^th shutout of his career. Tonight the Rockets welcome the Lethbridge Hurricanes to town for the lone meeting of the season. The Hurricanes are 0 and 2 on a three-game BC Division road trip after losses in Prince George (2-0) and Kamloops (6-3). These two teams met once last season, in Lethbridge, in a 5-1 loss. Liam Kindree scored the lone goal in the setback. The Hurricanes last appearance at Prospera Place came January 17, 2017. Cal Foote scored the game-winning goal in the Rockets 4-3 overtime win. Following tonight’s game, the Rockets host Victoria on Wednesday to conclude a three-game homestand.

• Who’s Hot: Pavel Novak has points in 9 of his last 12 games (6+13=19). Novak has scored 24 goals, 14 of which have come on home ice….Matthew Wedman has points in 8 of his last 11 games (8+8=16)…..Dillon Hamaliuk has points in five of his last six games…Kyle Topping has 2+7=9 in his last 7 games….Jonas Peterek is riding a five-game point streak. The rookie has 1+4=5 over that stretch.

• Broadcasters Notebook: Devin Steffler’s goal last night was his 1^st in the WHL in his 118^th career game….The Rockets are 7-12-2-1 since the trade deadline….The Rockets have taken the title of ‘interim’ head coach away from Kris Mallette. Mallette now wears the badge as head coach after taking over the reins from Adam Foote back on February 19^th…The Rockets have 15 road wins, one better than the 14 they captured one season ago ….The Rockets have 13 home-ice wins. The team had 14 all of last season….Kris Mallette is 10-1-2-1 as a head coach in the WHL.…With 7 games left in the regular season, 5 are on home ice with only 2 on the road. Those road stops include singles in Kamloops and Vancouver… The Rockets were 10-9-1-0 against teams in the US Division….The Rockets are now 20-6-1-0 when scoring the games first goal…The Rockets have played in 33-1 goal games this season…The Rockets are 12-14-1-1 against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets were 5-5-0-0 in December, 4-9-0-0 in January and 5-5-2-0 in 12 games in February.