WHL Kelowna Rockets

Game Day: Rockets Kick off Double-Header in Victoria

Published on November 27, 2015 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Tonight's Preview: The Kelowna Rockets make a visit to Victoria for the first time this season. The Rockets enter the game riding a four game winning streak after a 5-2 home ice win Wednesday against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Kole Lind scored twice in the win while Cole Linaker and rookie Jonathan Smart each picked up two assists. Nick Merkley, Jordan Borstmayer and Tomas Soustal also scored in the team's 18th win of the season. Jackson Whistle was named the second star with a 27 saves performance. This is the second meeting of the season between these two arch rivals. Back on October 9th, Coleman Vollrath made 26 saves in a 3-0 Royals win. These two teams face each other tomorrow night before clashing again on January 2nd at Prospera Place. The Rockets have won 13 of their last 16 games overall (13-2-0-1) and are 9-2-0-0 on home ice and 9-3-1-0 on the road. The Rockets next home game is Wednesday against the Kootenay Ice. Overall; the Rockets have points in 10 straight games (9-0-1-0). Nine of the next 12 games for the Rockets are on the road.

Baillie POW Honours: Tyson Baillie is the WHL Player of the Week. Baillie had 3+4=7 in three wins last week and was a +5. Baillie is second in WHL scoring and leads the team in goals, assists, points, power play goals and is tied for the team lead in game winning goals with three. Baillie is only four points shy of the Rockets lead in penalty minutes.

November Notables: Tyson Baillie has 6+9 in the month of November. Nick Merkley has 7+8 in the month while Justin Kirkland has 3+8. Kole Lind has 5+4=9. Cole Linaker has 2+6=8 in November.

Tyson Baillie hits record books: Tyson now has 257 career points, becoming only the 5th player in Rockets franchise history to reach the 250 point plateau. Brett McLean had 375 points before being traded to Brandon in his 20 year-old season. John Varga had 333 career points with Tacoma. Jason Deleurme had 313 career points while Kiel McLeod had 261 career points.

This and That: The Rockets are 128-29-6-5 in their last 168 regular season games over the last three seasons (taking into account this season, 2014-2015 and 2013-2014). In other words, the team has just 29 regulation losses in the last 168 regular season games...The Rockets lead the WHL with 100 goals scored, or on average 4.2 goals per game...At this point last season the team had scored 118 goals...The teams record after 24 games last season was 21-1-2-0. This season, after 24 games, the hockey club is 18-5-1-0....Three members of the Rockets have been rated by NHL Central Scouting. Lucas Johansen and Dillon Dube are rated as 'B' prospects for June's draft in Buffalo. Tomas Soustal, who was not selected last year, is ranked as a 'C' prospect...Baillie has points in 13 of his last 14 games...Baillie has been held off the score sheet in just five of 24 games...Rookie Gordie Ballhorn leads the Rockets with a +14 rating...Rodney Southam is two goals shy from his career high 7 goals he scored last season...Cal Foote is the next player to blow out candles. Foote turns 17 on December 13th. December birthdays are rare on the Rockets roster. The last December birthday was Cody Chikie and Filip Vasko when the two suited up for the team during the 2011-2012 campaign....The Rockets are rated as the 6th best team in the country according to the CHL Top 10 rankings this week. The Rockets were rated 5th at the start of the season....Six of Justin Kirkland's eight goals have been scored on the road this season....Jackson Whistle has started 15 of the last 19 games...Tyson Baillie has averaged 28 goals over his last three seasons...The Rockets next play three games in three nights January 29th, 30th and 31st with two of those three games on home ice....The Rockets had two players taken in the NHL draft. Nick Merkley was taken in the first round by Arizona. Devante Stephens was chosen in the 5th round by Buffalo...Cole Linaker (Oilers), Tomas Soustal (Flames) and Tyson Baillie (Flames) all received free agent tryouts.

Who's Hot: Kole Lind had a three game point streak snapped Saturday. Lind had 1+2=3 over that period...Rodney Southam has four goals in his last 8 games and 4+3=7 in his last 8....Nick Merkley has 3+3=6 in his last three games....Kole Lind has 4+4=8 in his last 7 games...Tyson Baillie has 10+211 in his last 16 games ...Dillon Dube has 8+10 in his last 10 games....Lucas Johansen has four more point this season as he did all of last year.

Man Games Lost to Injury/Illness/Suspension: 66 games

Jackson Whistle: 3 games Rourke Chartier: 17 games

Nick Merkley: 3 games   Jonathan Smart: 13 games

Dillon Dube - 2 game suspension Tanner Wishnowski - 8 game

Tomas Soustal - 2 game Riley Stadel - 9 games

Dillon Dube - 5 games UBI Lucas Johansen 3 game

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from November 27, 2015


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