Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Rockets/Giants preview

Carsen Twarynski - Shoot the Breeze Photography

Game Day Preview: The Kelowna Rockets host the Vancouver Giants for the 6th of 8 times this season. The Rockets are 3-2-0-0 in the first five games, winning by scores of 5-4 in overtime, 3-2 and 4-1 while losing by scores of 6-1 and 3-2. The home team has won four of the five games. Carsen Twarynski has 3+3=6 in the five games while Cal Foote has 0+5=5 in the five games. Connor Bruggen-Cate has 3 goals in the seasonal series. Kole Lind, Dillon Dube and Leif Mattson also have two goals against the G-Men this season. Tyler Benson leads all Giants with 4+3=7 in 5 games. These two teams meet again in a home and home series next weekend to conclude the regular season. Overall, the Rockets have points in 22 of their last 34 games (19-12-2-1) but have lost four in a row. In February the team was 6-6-1-1 in 14 games. The Rockets are in Kamloops Friday night.

Lordy. Lordy it’s 40! Carsen Twarynski scored his 40th goal of the season Saturday night in a 4-2 loss to Spokane. The 20 year-old is the first Rockets forward to score 40+ goals since Tyson Baillie (43) in the 2015-2016 season. If Kole Lind can score three more goals to join Twarynski, it will mark the first time since 1996-1997 that the team has had two-40 goal scorers. Jason Deleurme and Brett McLean hold that distinction.

Broadcasters Notebook: Kole Lind signed an entry level contract with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks last Thursday. Lind was a second round pick of the Canucks in last June’s draft…Former Kelowna Rockets goaltender Jordon Cooke has been named Canada West Goalie of the Year for a third consecutive season. Cooke is in his final year with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies…With 6 games left in the regular season, 4 of the 6 will be played on home ice. The two road games are in Kamloops and Vancouver…Of the 6 games remaining; all 6 are against teams in the BC Division…Cal Foote has 17 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 the playoff were to begin tonight, the Rockets would face the Tri City Americans in round one…Former Rockets/Giants goaltender Jackson Whistle helped the Belfast Giants last Sunday to their second ever Challenge Cup Championship. Ex-G-Men forward David Rutherford was a part of the championship squad. The Giants play in the British Elite Ice Hockey League.  

Tell me more: Kole Lind is playing in his 200th career game tonight…Dillon Dube will hit the 200 games played benchmark on Friday in Kamloops while Cal Foote will play in career game #200 Saturday night at home against Kamloops..…Erik Gardiner returned to the line-up February 9th in Victoria after missing 39 games with an upper body injury…The Rockets have five hat-tricks this season from Carsen Twarynski (vs. Portland/Prince George), and Kole Lind (PA/Kamloops/Prince George)……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 are 3-7-2-0 in their last 12 road games….The Rockets are 18-7-1-0 against teams in the BC Division…The Rockets have opened the scoring 38 times this season…Goaltender Brodan Salmond has started in 7 of the last 10 games and 9 of the last 14……12 of the teams last 20 games have been decided by a single goal. The Rockets are 7-2-2-1 in those 12-one goal 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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