Friday, January 14, 2011

Rockets game notes vs. Hawks

Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets face the Portland Winterhawks for the final time this season. The Rockets have lost the first three games by scores of 5-1, 4-2 and 6-1. Overall the Rockets have been out-scored 15-4 in the seasonal series. In fact, the Rockets are riding a seven game winless streak against the Hawks (0-6-0-1). The last win over Portland came March 11/09 in a 6-2 victory. Mikael Backlund scored twice while Jamie Benn scored his 44th goal of the season in the victory. This is the second game of a four game home stand. The Rockets host Medicine Hat tomorrow night before welcoming Prince George on Wednesday. The Rockets then play three straight games south of the border in Seattle, Spokane and Tri City next weekend. The Rockets have allowed the 3rd fewest goals against in the WHL (117). Only Medicine Hat (112) and Kootenay (115) have allowed fewer.

Rockets recent game: Spencer Main (2+1=3) and Tyson Barrie (1+2=3) each had three points in a lopsided 8-1 win over Kamloops last Saturday. The Rockets scored 5 times in the third period in the team’s 22nd win of the season. The Rockets were 2 for 6 on the power play while allowing one goal on five Blazers man advantages. Adam Brown earned the win in goal.

Who’s Hot: Shane McColgan has 6+6=12 in his last eight games but had his seven game point streak snapped last Friday against the T-Birds. McColgan has goals in four of his last seven games…Mitchell Callahan has 5+6=11 in his last thirteen games…Brett Bulmer has 4+8=12 in his last nine games. Tyson Barrie snapped a career high ten game goal scoring drought Saturday. Barrie has points in six of his last nine games (1+11=12)…Geordie Wudrick has fifteen goals in his last eighteen games.

Who’s Not: Max Adolph has no goals in his last 24 games. Kevin Smith has one goal in his last 24 games.

Closing in on personal bests: Forward Spencer Main has one fewer goal than he did all of last season. Main is two points shy of the career high 19 he recorded as a 17 year-old. Kevin Smith has 7 fewer points than he had all of last season. Max Adolph has six fewer points than a year ago. Colton Jobke has one fewer point than the seven he had as a 17 year-old.

This and That: Mitchell Callahan and Shane McColgan are tied for the team lead in multiple point games with ten. Tyson Barrie is next with nine followed by Brett Bulmer with eight multiple point games…Evan Bloodoff has six more goals and 19 more points than a year ago….Jason Siebert is missing his 17th straight games after undergoing surgery on his wrist….Mitchell Callahan has not taken a penalty in the last eight games….Adam Brown is third all-time on the Kelowna Rockets list of games played by a goalie. Brown has played 123 games, 6 fewer than second place Kristofer Westblom. The franchise leader is Kevin Swanson with 167 games played… The Rockets are 3 for 36 on the power play in their last six games (8.3%)…The Rockets have allowed the fewest amount of goals against on the road in the WHL this season (54)….The Rockets have scored 35 more goals at home than on the road. The Rockets have played 21 games at home and 20 times on opposition ice…The Rockets are the only team in the WHL this season that have not lost in overtime or the shoot-out…Geordie Wudrick has 22 goals this season in 40 games. Last season, Wudrick scored 19 goals in 38 regular season games after being acquired from Swift Current…The Rockets have allowed only six power play goals against in their last thirteen games. The Rockets are 53 for 59 over that period…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-seven of the last 31 games…The Rockets franchise played in its 1400th regular season game December 14th in Medicine Hat. The team has 720 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 (343) are the others….The Rockets were 8 and 10 in 18 games this season without Tyson Barrie in the lineup. Barrie missed seven games at the start of the season with a hip injury and eleven games as a member of Team Canada… Second year forward Shane McColgan has been named to the CHL Home Hardware NHL/Top Prospects game this 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…McColgan is rated 102nd among WHL players for this summer’s draft. Zach Franko and Jessey Astles are also rated….Brett Bulmer has one more goal than all of last season….Evan Bloodoff plays in his 250th career game tonight.

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