ROCKETS BACK IN KELOWNA AFTER WEEKEND SWEEP IN PG
By Doyle Potenteau – Kelowna Daily Courier
A great weekend it wasn‘t for the Kelowna Rockets. Not after journeying north for a weekend doubleheader with high hopes to Prince George, only to get swept.
On Saturday, the Rockets were broomed out of the CN Centre, with a 3-0 shutout loss, with Cougars goalie Ty Rimmer blanking Kelowna with a 23-save effort.
Saturday‘s loss followed a 4-2 loss on Friday, a defeat which halted Kelowna‘s seven-game winning streak, a hot stretch which included a pair of lopsided wins over the Cougars – 6-2 on Jan. 19, and 7-3 on Jan. 28, though both those games were played at Prospera Place.
Saturday‘s whitewash loss was also the fourth time that Kelowna had been blanked, with all four shutouts coming on the road.
“On certain nights, you play against goalies who play really well and deserve shutouts,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team was outshot 41-23 on Saturday night. “But we didn‘t test Rimmer really at all. We made it easy on him.”
Huska also said that Saturday‘s effort “was the same type of effort,” as Friday‘s loss.
Asked what the plans were going forward, such as whether the Rockets were going to break down game film or have hard practices, Huska said “it‘s going to be a long week.”
James Dobrowolski, with his 15th goal of the season, tallied at 19:18 of the first period, Taylor Stefishen, with his 16th, and Troy Bourke, with his 14th, scored for the Cougars(26-23-2-1), who led 1-0 and 3-0 at the period breaks.
The loss cost Kelowna (30-22-0-0) a chance to gain ground on front-running Vancouver (29-21-1-4) in the race for the B.C. Division lead. With 60 points, the Rockets trail the Giants by three, though Kelowna has three games in hand over Vancouver, which lost 5-2 to the Kootenay Ice on Saturday night.
Up next for the Rockets is a busy weekend, with three games in three nights. First, Kelowna plays a home-and-home set with Chilliwack (22-26-2-2), starting Friday night at home, with the Rockets then venturing south to Prospera Centre in the Fraser Valley on Saturday night. Both games start at 7 p.m. The weekend then comes to a close in Everett (23-23-4-4) on Sunday at 5 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were RW Mitchell Callahan (head), LW Jason Siebert (wrist), D Colton Jobke (knee) and RW Colton Sissons (groin). . . . The Rockets were 0-for-8 on the power play, while the Cougars were 0-for-7. . . . The three stars were all Cougars: Rimmer, Bourke and Dobrowolski, a 6-foot-3 left-winger who hails from Vernon.
