Giants down Rockets 7-3
r Photo and Story By Chris Stanford
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r The Kelowna Rockets weren’t exactly Giant-killers, but they did manage to put a short-lived scare into the WHL’s B.C. Division-leaders at Prospera Place Sunday, eventually falling to the Vancouver Giants 7-3.
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r The Rockets started slowly, allowing the Giants to build a three-goal lead after 20 minutes as starter Adam Brown looked less-than stellar in his, and the teams first game back since before Christmas.
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r Brown let in three goals on only nine shots, with two of those coming in less than a minute before he got chased from the net in favour of Mark Guggenberger at 12:46 of the first.
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r Garry Nunn, Kevin Connaughton from a sharp angle, and Mike Piluso did the first-frame damage for the Giants, who never really looked to be in danger of squandering that big a lead, at least until the Rockets caught fire at the end of the second.
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r “We got ourselves back into it with some powerplay goals, but our penalty kill wasn’t very good tonight,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska. ‘That stems a from taking a lot from undisciplined penalties . . . if you take too many they’re going to catch up to you against a good powerplay.
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r “You’ve got to pick and chose your spots the right way. If you’re taking poor penalties you better make sure your penalty kill is killing, and tonight it wasn’t very good” he added.
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r The Rockets were 2/5 on their powerplay while the Giants cashed in three times on their six chances, also outshooting the Rockets 37-21 in the process.
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r Taking advantage of a four-on-three, and then a three-on-five advantage, the Rockets Tyson Barrie and Mitchell Callahan replied with their seventh and 11th of the season respectively as Kelowna did their best to fight their way back and make it a contest in the second period, which they looked to be doing for a time.
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r That was until Kyle Verdino, perhaps trying to keep the energy going for the Rockets in the first half of the third, was handed a four-minute roughing penalty, that ploy backfiring big time as Huska alluded to. The Giants squashed any comeback, with Kevin Connauton getting his second of the game on the ensuing powerplay as he wired a point shot past Guggenberger and as the twine bulged you could see the game slipping away from the Rockets with 12 minutes left to go.
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r Former Rocket Milan Kytnar, back on the Giants bench after missing eight games, added his fourth of the season at the 10-minute mark to make it 5-2 for the visitors. Despite the Rockets Tyler Matheson’s scrambly marker two minutes later, Vancouver wasn’t done and when Greg Lamoureux notched their sixth of the night to restore a three-goal cushion with 6:54 left, there may have been time on the clock, but the game was effectively over.
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r Brett Lyon’s powerplay marker rounded out the scoring on a night Kelowna might like to foregt. The win also gives Vancouver a 3-2 lead in their season series, and pads their lead to 12 points over the Rockets in the B.C. Division standings, who fell into third, one point behind the Chilliwack Bruins.
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r “Our powerplay I though was good when it had an opportunity, said Huska of what the Rockets can take away despite the lopsided scoresheet. “They capitalized on some chances . . . we have find dome positives about our game for sure. We have a lot of work we have to do now.”
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r The Rockets injury woes continued as Geordie Wudrick (in then first), Collin Bowman (in the second) and Codey Ito were all absent from the bench by the end of the game. All three were taken to hospital for examination according to Ryan Huska, but further details were not available.
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r The Rockets next game is against the Kamloops Blazers this Wednesday at Prospera Place at 7 p.m.
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