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WHL Kelowna Rockets

Preveiw: Rockets At Pats

December 8, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Kelowna Rockets right wing Will Munro
Kelowna Rockets right wing Will Munro
(Kelowna Rockets)

The Kelowna Rockets will open their East Division road trip on Saturday night in Regina against the Pats at 5:00 pm PT.

Following Saturday's game, the Rockets schedule ramps up with four games in five games. Next week as they'll visit Moose Jaw on Tuesday, Brandon on Wednesday, Prince Albert on Friday and Saskatoon on Saturday before heading into the holiday break.

It's Kelowna's first road trip out to Saskatchewan and Manitoba to see the East Division teams since the 2019-20 season. Due to the Hub Season and Covid restrictions, the eastern and western conference teams had not faced one another since before March 2020. The two conferences faced each other for the first time last year, with the East Division teams making the trip out to BC.

Prairie Players

This road trip will offer a handful of the Rockets from Saskatchewan and Manitoba their first chance to play in front of their friends and family, players on the Rockets roster from those provinces include:

Will Munro - Swan River, MB

Michael Cicek - Winnipeg, MB

Trae Johnson - Martensville, SK

Caden Price - Saskatoon, SK

Affiliate call up

Rockets prospect Owen Folstrom will join the team on the trip and is expected to make his WHL debut.

The 15-year-old has posted 14 points (11G, 3A) and six penalty minutes in 15 games this season for the Calgary Flames U18AAA of the AEHL.

The Calgary, AB product was selected by the Rockets in the fourth round of the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft. He appeared in two preseason games for Kelowna before being returned to his U18 team for the season.

A quiet week for the Rockets

The Rockets did not have a mid-week game after playing three games in four nights last week. They were last in action on Saturday night, where their three-game win streak was snapped by the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent.

After goals from former Thunderbirds players Tij Iginla and Ethan Mittelsteadt the Rockets were up 2-1 headed into the third period. The Thunderbirds tied the game 6:16 into the final frame with a goal from Luca Hauf (8). Sam Popowich (5) skated into the Rockets zone 2:48 later, letting a shot fly that would hold up as the eventual game-winner.

A busy weekend of BC visitors for the Pats

The Kamloops Blazers are also visiting the Eastern Division at the same time as the Rockets, they will face the Pats on Friday night before Kelowna rolls in on Saturday.

Prior to Friday, the Pats were last in action on December 2, defeating the Swift Current Broncos 6-5 in a shootout.

ROCKETS ROSTER UPDATES

Fifteen-year-old Owen Folstrom has joined the team for the trip as an affiliate player

Kayden Longley is listed out one week, he has missed the last seven games with a lower-body injury

Trae Johnson time has been updated to 1-3 weeks, he has missed the last six games with an upper-body injury

Ben Thornton is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury

Ismail Abougouche is listed out one week with an upper-body injury, he has missed the last three games

The Rockets injury report is updated weekly and can be viewed here.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

KELOWNA

Defenceman Ethan Mittelsteadt recorded his first goal of the season in the Rockets last game against the Seattle Thunderbirds, his former team.

REGINA

Former Kelowna Rocket Logan Peskett will face his former team for the first time after being dealt to them last month.

SEASON RECORDS

vs REGINA

Dec. 9 at REG

THE LAST TIME THESE TWO MET

vs PATS

This is the only meeting between the two this season

WATCH AND LISTEN

Radio broadcast

Rockets games will be broadcast on 104.7 FM the Lizard this season with Regan Bartel calling all of the action.

Don't forget to download the RocketFAN app and visit rocketfan.ca for more exclusive Rockets content from Pattison. Fans can stream the radio broadcast of all Rockets games on the app.

Online video stream

All Rockets games will be available on WHL Live. WHL Live on is available to fans anywhere in the world, providing high-quality streaming of WHL games on Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV platforms, via mobile with iOS and Android, and on web using Safari or Google Chrome web browsers. Visit watch.chl.ca for complete details and subscription options.

Six and twelve game Mini Packs for the Kelowna Rockets season are now on sale through Select Your Tickets.

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics




Images from this story

Kelowna Rockets right wing Will Munro
Kelowna Rockets right wing Will Munro
   

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