GAME DAY: Rockets Close WHL Regular Season
Rockets vs. Giants
Saturday March 21, 2015
Game Time ‑ 7:05 pm
Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets wrap up the 2014-2015 regular season schedule tonight against the visiting Vancouver Giants. The Rockets are 7-0-0-0 in the seasonal series, having out-scored the G-Men 34-15. These two teams met last night in Vancouver with the Rockets earning a 4-3 overtime win. Madison Bowey scored the game winning goal on the power play at the 1:05 mark. Leon Draisaitl had 1+3=4 in the clubs 27th road victory of the season. Tyson Baillie and Chance Braid also scored, as the Rockets snapped a five game overtime losing streak. Michael Herringer made 23 saves in goal. The Rockets are 24-8-2-1 since the Christmas break. Overall, the Rockets have points in 21 of their last 26 games (18-5-2-1). The playoffs begin next Friday against either Tri City or Kamloops.
50 Goal Scorers: Rourke Chartier is attempting to join an allusive group. Only seven Tacoma/Kelowna players have hit the 50 goal mark. Four of those seven have hit the benchmark as a member of the Kelowna Rockets. Here are the sharp shooters:
1992-1993: Allan Egeland 56 goals 1995-1996: Robb Gordon 51 goals 2005-2006: Justin Keller: 51 goals
1993-1994: John Varga 60 goals 1997-1998: Jason Deleurme 51 goals
1994-1995: *Vaclav Varada 50 goals 2002-2003: Jesse Schultz 53 goals
Most points in a season: The Rockets have 110 points this season. How does that rate among the highest point totals in club history?
2013-2014: 118 2002-2003: 109
2014:2015: 110 2004-2005: 106
2012-2013: 108
Sharp Shooters vs. Giants: Nick Merkley has 2+9=11 in the seven games against the Giants in the seasonal series. Rourke Chartier has 5+6=11 in six games. Tyrell Goulbourne has a team high six goals and nine points in only six games. Leon Draisaitl has 4+5=9 in only four games against the G-Men. Michael Herringer has played in five of the seven games, posting a record of 5-0-0-0. Jackson Whistle is 2-0-0-0 with a goals against average of 3.50. Giants forward Jackson Houck has 2+4=6 in seven games. Payton Lee has played in four of the seven games with a 0-4-0-0 record and a goals against average of 5.10.
This and That: The Rockets won their 27th road game of the season, which is the second best win total on the road in franchise history. The team won a record 29 times last year on opposition ice….Dillon Dube’s goal Wednesday night was his first in eight games…Madison Bowey had two points last night, tying the career high 60 points he put up last season…Bowey has a career high 43 assists this season…Rourke Chartier has 24 more goals than he scored all of last season…Kole Lind, Jordan Borstmayer and Brayden Chizen have joined the team for the remainder of the season. Lind and Borstmayer played for the Saskatoon Midget Contacts. Borstmayer is a third round pick from 2013 while Lind was the second to last player taken in the fourth round that year. Chizen was a 9th round bantam pick that year…The Rockets hit the 300 goal mark last night. The team has scored 300 or more goals only six times in its 20 seasons in Kelowna. The team has scored 300 or more goals in three consecutive seasons…Nick Merkley is the fastest Rockets player to reach 100 career assists. Merkley hit the milestone in 133 career games. The record was held by Shane McColgan, who had 100 career assists in 150 career games…The Rockets have been held to just one goal seven times this season. Kamloops (road), Seattle (road), Edmonton (road), Calgary (twice – once on road and once at home), Regina (home) and Prince Albert (home) have turned the trick against the highest scoring team in the Western Conference…The Kelowna Rockets have scored the second most goals on the road (147) in the WHL this season…Justin Kirkland has missed fourteen straight games with a LBI…Josh Morrissey is missing his ninth straight game tonight with a LBI.
Dare to Compare: The Rockets have a record of 52-13-5-1 this season, good for 110 points. After 71 games last season the team was 56-11-0-4, which was good for 116 points. The team has scored 300 goals this season. At the same time last year after 71 games, 305 goals were scored and 179 goals were given up. This season the team has surrendered 181 goals against.
Hot to Trot: Nick Merkley has points in five of his last seven games. The 17 year-old has 3+5=8 over that stretch….Madison Bowey has points in nine of his last eleven games. Bowey has 3+8=11 over that stretch….Leon Draisaitl had his thirteen game point streak snapped last Saturday. The 19 year-old had 9+16=25 over that period. Draisaitl has thirty-three points (10+23=33) in his last nineteen games.
Three Star Balloting:
Player: 1st Star 2nd Star 3rd Star Total
Rourke Chartier: 6 7 2 15
Jackson Whistle: 7 5 3 15
Nick Merkley: 5 3 6 14
Tyson Baillie: 4 6 4 14
Leon Draisaitl: 7 3 2 12
Madison Bowey: 3 3 3 9
