 |
| Shoot the Breeze Photography |
Tonight’s Preview: The
Kelowna Rockets enter the final weekend of the regular season with a road date
against the Vancouver Giants. The Rockets are 6-0-0-0 in the seasonal series,
having won in Vancouver by scores of 5-3, 4-0 and 5-2. Overall in the six games
the Rockets have out-scored the G-Men 30-12. These two teams close out the
regular season tomorrow night at Prospera Place in Kelowna. The Rockets are
coming off a 3-2 overtime loss Wednesday night to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Rourke Chartier and Dillon Dube scored in the setback, the fifth time the team
has lost in overtime this season. Jackson Whistle made 21 saves and received
third star status. The Rockets were 1/5 on the power play while killing off
five of six penalties. The Rockets are 23-8-2-1 since the Christmas break.
Overall, the Rockets have points in 20 of their last 25 games (17-5-2-1). The
Rockets have three wins in their last eight games (3-3-2-0).
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 108 points this season. How does that rate among the highest
point totals in club history?
2013-2014: 118 2014:2015:
108
2002-2003: 109 2004-2005:
106
2012-2013: 108
Sharp Shooters vs. Giants:
Nick
Merkley has 2+9=11 in the six games against the Giants in the seasonal series.
Rourke Chartier has 5+5=10 in five games. Tyrell Goulbourne has a team high six
goals and nine points in only five games. Leon Draisaitl has 3+2=5 in only
three games against the G-Men. Michael Herringer has played in four of the six
games, posting a record of 4-0-0-0 with a goals against average of 1.25 and a
save percentage of .952. Jackson Whistle is 2-0-0-0 with a goals against
average of 3.50. Giants forward Jackson Houck has 2+4=6 in six games. Payton Lee has played in four of the
six games with a 0-4-0-0 record and a goals against average of 5.10.
This and That: Dillon
Dube’s goal Wednesday night was his first in eight games…Madison Bowey is two
points shy of his career high 60 points accumulated last season….Bowey has a
career high 42 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 are 4 goals shy of
300 this season. The team has scored 300 or more goals only five times in its
20 seasons in Kelowna. The team has scored 300 or more goals in two 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 (143) in the WHL this season…Justin Kirkland has missed
thirteen straight games with a LBI…Josh Morrissey is missing his eighth
straight game tonight with a LBI.
Dare to Compare: The Rockets
have a record of 51-13-5-1 this season, good for 108 points. After 70 games
last season the team was 55-11-0-4, which was good for 114 points. The team has
scored 296 goals this season. At the same time last year after 70 games, 299 goals
were scored and 174 goals were given up. This season the team has surrendered 178
goals against.
Hot to Trot: Nick Merkley has points in five of his last
six games. The 17 year-old has 3+5=8 over that stretch….Madison Bowey has points in eight of his last ten
games. Bowey has 2+7=9 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 twenty-nine points (9+20=29) in his last eighteen 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 3 13
Leon Draisaitl: 7 2 2 11
Madison Bowey: 3 3 3 9
No comments:
Post a Comment