Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Rockets/Cougars preview


Game Day Preview: The Kelowna Rockets open a three game road trip tonight with a stop in Prince George against the Cougars. The Rockets are 5-0-0-0 in the seasonal series, with two wins in Prince George back on October 6th (7-6 in overtime) and October 7th (4-3 in overtime). The Rockets have out-scored the Cougars 26-19. Three of the five games have been decided by a single goal. Dillon Dube has 5+9=14 in 5 games in the seasonal series. Carsen Twarynski has 7+4=11 in five games while Geordie Ballhorn has a team high +10 in the five games. James Porter has played in three of the five games and has a 2.60 goals against average. Brodan Salmond has appeared in two games and has a goals against average of 5.38. The Rockets are coming off a 6-5 win over the Kamloops Blazers Saturday night. Dillon Dube and Leif Mattson each scored twice in the teams’ 38th win of the season. Overall, the Rockets have points in 22 of their last 30 games (19-8-2-1) and have won three straight overall. The Rockets are in Everett Friday night before welcoming Spokane Saturday at Prospera Place.

Broadcasters Notebook: The Rockets have three-30 goal scorers in Carsen Twarynski (38), Kole Lind (32) and Dillon Dube (32). The last time that happened was in the 2008-2009 season when Jamie Benn (46) and Colin Long/Cody Almond (each 33) found the back of the net 30+ times…With 10 games left in the regular season, 5 of the 10 will be played on home ice. The only five road games are in Kamloops, Prince George (twice), Everett and Vancouver…Of the 10 games remaining, 8 are against teams in the BC Division…Cal Foote has 16 goals. The franchise record is 21 set by Madison Bowey in 2014-2015…..The Rockets have 13 shorthanded goals this season, 1 more than all of last season…The team has 23 wins at home, matching their win total from last season at Prospera Place…If Cal Foote and Dillon Dube stay healthy in the next 7 games, they will both reach the 200 games played mark in the exact same game in Kamloops March 9th….Cal Foote has 12 points in his last 8 games…Erik Gardiner returned to the line-up February 9th in Victoria after missing 39 games with an upper body injury….Kole Lind had his 20 game point streak snapped February 3rd in Everett. Lind had 15+23=38 over that period, which was good for the third longest point streak in franchise history. Tyson Barrie had a 21 game point streak in 2009-2010 while the team record is 24 games set by Brett McLean. McLean had 18+31=49 in the 1996-1997 campaign…The Rockets have four hat-tricks this season from Carsen Twarynski (vs. Portland/Prince George), and Kole Lind (PA/Kamloops)…… The Rockets had their 13 game home ice winning streak snapped January 5th vs. Seattle…The Rockets are 7 and 4 in overtime with game winners coming from Kole Lind (twice), Dillon Dube Carsen Twarynski (twice) and Cal Foote (twice). The only losses in OT came against the Tri City Americans, Portland Winterhawks, Red Deer Rebels and Victoria Royals… …Dillon Dube has scored 20+ goals in three consecutive seasons…The Rockets won their 30th game of the season January 24th vs. Lethbridge, marking the 11th straight season the team has achieved that mark. The last time they fell short was in 2006-2007 when the team earned 22 victories….The Rockets are 3-4-2-0 in their last 9 road games….Dillon Dube hit the 200 point mark in his career Friday February 9th in Victoria….Carsen Twarynski is playing in his 88th regular season game as a member of the Rockets. Twarynski has 85 points in those 88 games….The Rockets are 19-5-1-0 against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets have opened the scoring 35 times this season…The opposition has opened the scoring in 5 of the last 9 games…Goaltender Brodan Salmond has started in 5 of the last 6 games and 7 of the last 10…Defenceman James Hilsendager has missed 12 games with an UBI…The Rockets are 6-4-1-1 in 11 games in February…11 of the teams last 16 games have been decided by a single goal. The Rockets are 7-1-2-1 in those 11-one goal games.

Streaking: Cal Foote has points in 22 of his last 25 games…Dillon Dube has points in 21 of his last 24 games…Leif Mattson has points in 12 of his last 15 games.

Roster Stats:
Player total: 25
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) - 9   Porter, Foote, 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

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