Sunday, January 2, 2011

Game notes vs. Blazers

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets face the Kamloops Blazers for the fifth time this season. The Rockets are 2-2-0-0 in the first four games, having out-scored the Blazers 16-12. These two teams are meeting for the second time four days. The Rockets beat the Blazers Thursday by a 7-1 score. After tonight’s tilt the two teams again collide next Saturday at Prospera Place. Overall, the Rockets enter tonight’s game having won four of their last five and have eleven wins in their last sixteen games. In the big picture the Rockets have seventeen wins in their last twenty-three (17-6-0-0). Following tonight’s game the Rockets host Moose Jaw in a rare Thursday night game.

Rockets recent game: Levko Koper scored three times leading the Spokane Chiefs to a 5-2 win over the Kelowna Rockets last night at Prospera Place. The Chiefs had a 2-0 lead after one period and a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes. Shane McColgan and Colton Sissons scored goals for the Rockets, who lost for the 16th time this season and saw a 4 game winning streak come to an end. The Rockets were 0 for 7 on the power play and registered just 19 shots, with just eight coming over the first two periods.

Who’s Hot: Shane McColgan has 6+4=10 in his last five games and is riding a five game point streak and has goals in four straight games…Mitchell Callahan has 4+4=8 in his last ten games…Brett Bulmer has 3+7=10 in his last five games. Tyson Barrie has gone ten games without a goal yet has points in five of his last eight games (0+9=9)…Geordie Wudrick has twelve goals in his last fourteen games.

Who’s Not: Max Adolph has no goals in his last 20 games. Zach Franko is scoreless in his last eleven. Spencer Main has one goal in his last 19.

Delivering in December: The Rockets top point getter in December was Brett Bulmer. Bulmer had 5+10=15. Shane McColgan was next with 6+7=13 during the month. Geordie Wudrick led the Rockets in goals during the month with seven.

This and That: The Rockets have allowed the fewest amount of goals against on the road in the WHL this season (46)….The Rockets own the 4th best penalty killing unit in the league….The Rockets are the only team in the WHL this season that have not lost in overtime or the shoot-out…Geordie Wudrick has 19 goals this season in 36 games. Last season, Wudrick scored 19 goals in 38 regular season games after being acquired from Swift Current…Adam Brown earned his 9th career shutout Tuesday night. Brown is now one shutout shy of tying Kristofer Westblom, who had 10 shutouts with the Rockets from 2004-2008. Derek Yeomans, who played for the Rockets from 2003-2006, had 11 career shutouts. Kelly Guard is the franchise leader with 19…Tyson Barrie became the 11th player in Rockets’ history to be named to the Canadian World Junior Team. Barrie is joined on that list by Rockets’ defenceman like Shea Weber, Josh Gorges, Tyler Myers and Luke Schenn…Forward Mitchell Callahan was named to the USA World Junior Team…..The Rockets have allowed three power play goals against in their last ten games. The Rockets are 36 for 39 over that period…The Rockets are 7 for 43 on the power play in their last eight games (16.3%).….Adam Brown has the fourth best goals against average in the WHL (2.50)…..Andreas Stene is playing for Norway at the World Junior Hockey Championships….Two members of the Rockets are participating in the Under 17 Hockey Challenge in Manitoba. Rookies Damon Severson and Colton Heffley are part of Team West…. The Rockets have been involved in fifteen-one goal games this season. The Rockets are 10-5-0-0 in those fifteen-one goal games…Adam Brown has started twenty-four of the last 27 games…The Rockets franchise played in its 1400th regular season game December 14th in Medicine Hat. The team has 719 regular season wins….Zak Stebner (309) is one of three Rockets with over 300 penalty minutes in their career. Mitchell Callahan (415) and Geordie Wudrick (341) are the others….The Rockets are 8 and 7 in 15 games this season without Tyson Barrie in the lineup. Barrie missed seven games at the start of the season with a hip injury and eight games as a member of Team Canada… Second year forward Shane McColgan has been named to the CHL Home Hardware NHL/Top Prospects game next month in Toronto. Forty of the top players eligible for this summer’s draft will participate in the two day event (Jan 18-19) at the Air Canada Centre. McColgan will play for Team Orr…Shane McColgan turned 18 on Saturday…The Rockets are entering a portion of their schedule where just two of their next seven games are on the road. The Rockets visit Seattle this Friday. Homes games over this stretch include dates against Moose Jaw, Kamloops, Portland, Medicine Hat and Prince George.

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