Rockets game notes vs. Cougars

Shoot the Breeze Photography

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play game two of a three game home stand tonight against the visiting Prince George Cougars. The Rockets host the Kamloops Blazers Friday night. This is the eighth and final meeting of the season between two teams that could possibly meet in the opening round of the playoffs. The Rockets are 5-2-0-0 in the first 7 meetings after back-to-back wins in Prince George in mid-February. The Cougars have the bragging rights of beating the Rockets at Prospera Place (2-1) back on October 30^th. In the big picture, the Rockets are 31-8-0-0 in the last 39 regular season appearances against the Cougars and are 14-5-0-0 in their last 19 games vs. their BC Division rivals at Prospera Place. The Rockets power play has just 4 goals in 29 chances (13.8%) while the Cougars are 7 for 25 (28%) in the seven games. Dillon Dube and Tyson Baillie lead the Rockets in the seasonal series with 13 points apiece. Dube has 6+7=13 while Baillie has 3+10=13. Justin Kirkland has five goals in the seven games. Rourke Chartier has been impressive, despite playing in only three games against the Cougars. Chartier has 3+4=7. Michael Herringer is 4-0-0-0 with a goals against average of 2.72 and a save percentage of .924.    

Rockets Recap: The Rockets enter the game five points back of the Victoria Royals for first place in the WHL. The Rockets do have two games in hand on the Royals. The Rockets are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Kamloops Blazers Saturday night. It was only the team’s 5^th home ice loss of the season. It came on the heels of a 3-2 loss in Kamloops Friday night. The team fired 101 shots on goal in the two games. The last time the team lost two in a row prior to this past weekend was on December 18^th and 19^th on a prairie road trip and January 30^th and 31^st.  In the big picture, the Rockets have points in 39 of 51 games (35-13-3-0).

Rockets Career Games Played List:

1)     Jason Deleurme: 341 games   5)  Gavin McLeod: 321 games

2)     Tyler Mosienko: 338 games     6)  Ryan Cuthbert: 319 games 

3)     Brett Palin: 324 games             7)  Brett McLean: 308 games 

4)     Tyson Baillie: 322 games

Number Crunching Michael Herringer has started in 24 of the teams last 27 games…Tyson Baillie is 13 points shy of 100. The last Rockets player to hit 100 points was Colin Long in 2007-2008….Justin Kirkland has scored the game winning goal in three of the teams last 6 wins…The Rockets have won 7 of their last 10 games overall...The Rockets are a combined 72-1-5-0 when leading after two periods when you combine this seasons totals and last seasons….The Rockets are one of only three teams in the WHL that have not lost when leading after 40 minutes. The Rockets are 31-0-2-0. The Kamloops Blazers and Prince Albert Raiders are also without a regulation loss after two periods …The Rockets are a combined 54-19-8-0 against BC Division teams on the road in the last five seasons…The Rockets are 24-4-1-0 when Tyson Baillie scores. The only regulation losses when the 20 year-old finds the back of the net were against Vancouver, Red Deer, Saskatoon and Kamloops…..The Rockets are attempting to become the first team in the WHL to reach the 50 win plateau in four straight seasons. For that to happen, the team must win 6 of their final 7 games…The Rockets have 7 games left in the regular season. Of those 7 games, 4 will be played on home ice. Of those 7 games, 5 are against BC Division rivals…The Rockets were 13-1-0-0 against Central Division opponents this season. The only loss came in Lethbridge in the sixth game of the season….The Rockets have been out-shot in 39 of 65 games this season… Riley Stadel has 12 fighting majors this season and 32 over his career….Justin Kirkland has 33 points in his last 26 games.

Who’s Hot: Lucas Johansen had 2+10=12 in February and has points in 8 of his last 10 games…Johansen has (1+8=9) over that period. Johansen has points in 12 of his last 15 games…Cole Linaker had his 9 game point streak snapped last Saturday. Linaker had 3+6=9 over that period…Linaker has a career high 44 points, five more point than a season ago…Tyson Baillie has points in 10 of his last 13 games…Justin Kirkland has a 10 game point streak (5+10=15)…Kirkland has points in 12 of his last 13 games…The Rockets are 206-57-11-6 in their last 280 regular season games dating back to the start of the 2012-2013 campaign.