Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Rockets game notes vs. Giants

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants are meeting for the second of eight times this season. These two teams met back on October 8th in Vancouver, with the Giants earning a 4-1 win. Colton Sissons scored the lone goal for the Rockets, who were 0 for 9 on the power play that night. Following tonight’s game these two teams meet again November 5th in Vancouver. This evening’s game is the second of four straight games on home ice. The Rockets host Everett Friday before taking on the Brandon Wheat Kings Tuesday night. Then it’s off on the road for two games in Portland October 29th and 30th. Overall, the Rockets are enjoying a stretch of playing eight out of their next 12 games on home ice.

Digging Deeper: The Rockets are 7-8-1-0 in their last 16 regular season home games against the Giants dating back to the start of the 2006-2007 season.

Rockets recent game: Geordie Wudrick scored the lone goal in the Rockets 5-1 loss Saturday night to the visiting Portland Winterhawks. The Rockets trailed 1-0 after one period and 3-1 after 40 minutes. The Rockets were 0 for 5 on the power play while the Hawks were 0 for 1 on the man advantage. The Rockets out-shot the Hawks 34-33 with Adam Brown taking the loss in goal.

Who’s Hot: Shane McColgan is riding a four game point streak heading into tonight’s game. McColgan has 1+6=7 over that period….Rookie goaltender Jordon Cooke is 2 and 0 this season.

This and That: Defenceman Mitchell Chapman is serving game two of a six game suspension for a kneeing major and game misconduct last Friday against the Chilliwack Bruins. Chapman won’t return until a game November 2nd against the Prince George Cougars….Rockets general manager Bruce Hamilton won’t be at the start of tonight’s game. Hamilton is being honoured at the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. Hamilton is picking up the 2010 Business Leader of the Year award… The Rockets have scored 22 goals after nine games this season. Last season after nine games the club had 40 goals….The Rockets have allowed 33 goals against this season. Last season after nine games the team had allowed 29 goals against….Last season the Rockets were 6-2-1-0 after nine games….Rockets have been involved in six-one goal games this season. The Rockets are 3-3-0-0 in those six-one goal games…Rookie Jordon Cooke has started three of the Rockets last four games. The 17 year-old has been named the first star in two of the three games…Rookie Zach Franko and 17 year-old Shane McColgan are tied for the team lead in scoring with seven points. Franko has (3+4=7) while McColgan has (1+6=7)….McColgan has six points (1+5=6) in his last three games….The Rockets are 6 for 26 in their last four games (23.1%) on the power play….The Rockets have not allowed a power play goal in five games. The Rockets are 17 for 17 in penalty kills over that stretch….The Rockets shootout win in Everett October 10th was the franchises 6th shootout victory on the road. The Rockets are 6 and 10 in shootouts on the road dating back to 2005-06, when shootouts were introduced as a way to settle games at the WHL level…..The Rockets were involved in 11 shootout games last season. The Rockets were 7 and 4 in those games…The Rockets have failed to open the scoring in their first nine games this season….The Rockets franchise is playing its 1378th regular season game tonight. The team has 700 regular season wins….The Rockets return six of their top seven point getters from last season. They include Tyson Barrie, Shane McColgan, Mitchell Callahan, Brett Bulmer, Geordie Wudrick and Cody Chikie….Rockets captain Tyson Barrie has missed the last five games with an injury. Barrie has misses a total of six games because of injury this season…Codey Ito has joined the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Notre Dame Hounds. Ito was released by the team last month…Rockets head coach Ryan Huska will guide Team WHL against the Russian Selects when the Subway Super Series makes two stops in BC next month. Huska will attend both games in Kamloops and Prince George November 17th and 18th, with Calgary Hitmen coach Mike Williamson joining him in both games. Also assisting Huska in Kamloops will be Blazers head coach Guy Charrron while Dean Clark of the Prince George Cougars will also be behind the bench when the game is played at the CN Centre….Outside of this season, when was the last time the Rockets lost four of their first five home games? It was the start of the 2007-08 campaign when the Rockets had only one win in five home games. The team was technically1-3-1-0 at Prospera Place to start the season…Rockets rookie forward Andreas Stene celebrates a birthday today, or does he? Stene’s birth date is October 20, 1991, yet eurohockey.net suggests Stene’s birthday is January 3, 1991. Only he really knows.

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