Rockets vs. Hitmen

Shoot the Breeze Photography

Game Night Preview: The Kelowna Rockets make their lone appearance in Calgary when the two teams collide for the second time this season. The Hitmen beat the Rockets 4-3 back on October 13th. The Rockets are coming off a 6-4 home ice loss Friday night to the visiting Tri City Americans. The Rockets battled back from two-two goals deficits to tie the score at 4 after 40 minutes. The Americans would score twice in the third, snapping the Rockets 6 game winning streak. Carsen Twarynski, Leif Mattson, Gordie Ballhorn and Kyle Topping scored in the setback. Overall, the Rockets have won 6 of their last 7 games with wins over Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Kamloops (twice), Victoria and Tri City. The Rockets host Spokane Wednesday before traveling to Vancouver Friday and Vancouver Saturday night.

Golden Moment: Dillon Dube and Cal Foote helped Canada earn gold at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Dube and Foote are the 9^th and 10^th members of the organization to win gold. Robb Gordon, Blake Comeau, Shea Weber, Luke Schenn, Tyler Myers, Jamie Benn, Josh Morrissey and Madison Bowey are all on that prestigious list.

January Schedule: The Rockets play 13 games in January. Of those 13, six will be played on home ice. Six of those games are against teams in the Central Division including two each with Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Five of those games are against US Division teams including three against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Broadcasters Notebook: The Rockets out-scored the opposition 25-10 during a recent 6 game winning streak…The Rockets have 12 wins in their last 16 games with those four losses coming to Moose Jaw, Brandon, Swift Current and Tri City…The Rockets were 6-3-0-0 without Dillon Dube and Cal Foote at the World Junior Hockey Championship……The Rockets record after 39 games this season is 24-12-2-1. Last season the hockey club was 23-14-2-0 after 39 games….James Porter was named the WHL and CHL Goaltender of the Week ending December 31^st after posting a 2-0-0-0 record including one shutout with a goals against average of 0.48 and a save percentage of .987…Carsen Twarynski has goals in 11 of his last 17 games…Twarynski had a career high 45 points with the Calgary Hitmen in 2015-2016. The 20 year-old is 2 points shy of that total this season…The Rockets have four hat-tricks this season from Carsen Twarynski (two vs. Portland/one vs. Prince George), and Kole Lind (vs. Prince Albert and Kamllops)…Lind had three goals in a game against the Kamloops Blazers in December, 2015…The Rockets have sent 17 players to Canada’s roster at the World Junior…Kyle Topping and Libor Zabrasky are both rated as ‘C’ prospects for June’s NHL draft by NHL Central Scouting. Topping was not on the ‘Players to Watch’ list in October before appearing in November’s rankings…The Rockets had their 13 game home ice winning streak snapped Friday night. The team racked up wins over Portland, Tri City, Prince George (twice), Vancouver, Red Deer, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Kootenay and Kamloops (twice), Victoria and Tri City….The Rockets played their 16 hundredth regular season game in franchise history November 3^rd in Victoria in a 4-2 win…The Rockets are 4 and 2 in overtime with game winners coming from Kole Lind, Dillon Dube Carsen Twarynski (twice). The only loss in OT came against the Tri City Americans and Portland Winterhawks…The Rockets are 9-5-1-0 in the second of back-to-back games….The Rockets are 12-3-0-0 against BC Division teams this season….The Rockets are 19-1-0-1 when leading after 2 periods…The Rockets are 19-2-1-1 when scoring the first goal of the game….Erik Gardiner has missed 25 games after being injured October 28^th vs. Prince George.

Milestones: Connor Bruggen-Cate played in his 100^th game last Saturday vs. Victoria…Kyle Topping is playing in his 99^th career game tonight – 1 shy of 100….Jack Cowell is playing in his 98^th career game tonight – two shy of 100….Head Coach Jason Smith coached his 100^th career regular season game against the Kootenay Ice on December 2nd…Carsen Twarynski played in his 200^th career game October 28^th against the Prince George Cougars…James Hilsendager plays in his 200^th career game November 14^th vs. Oil Kings. 

Roster Stats:

Player total: 26

Year by Year Breakdown:

20’s (1997) – 3   Ballhorn, Twarynski, Hilsendager           

19’s (1998) - 5   Salmond, Lind, Dube, Cal Foote, Chizen

18’s (1999) - 6   Topping, Mattson, Gardiner, Bruggen-Cate, Cowell, Skvrne

17’s (2000) - 10  Porter, Foote, Belcourt, Zabransky, Kindree, Brennan, McGauley, Kushniryk, Pow, Hair

16’s (2001) - 2   Korczak, Basran

NHL Drafted Players: Cal Foote (Tampa Bay 2017), Kole Lind (Vancouver 2017), Dillon Dube (Calgary 2016), Carsen Twarynski (Philadelphia 2016), Brayden Chizen (Minnesota 2016).  

Game Notes Compiled by Regan Bartel of AM 1150