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WHL Kelowna Rockets

Preview: Rockets At Cougars

January 12, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Kelowna Rockets stare down the Prince George Cougars
Kelowna Rockets stare down the Prince George Cougars
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Steve Dunsmoor)

The Kelowna Rockets will hit the road to face the Western Conference and BC Division leading Prince George Cougars this weekend with a 7:00 pm puck drop on Friday and a 6:00 pm start time on Saturday.

The Rockets are coming off of a come-from-behind 5-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Wednesday night at Prospera Place. After allowing back-to-back power play goals, the Rockets man advantage scored twice to tie the game before adding three more unanswered goals.

The Cougars, who did not have a mid-week game, are ranked third on this week's CHL Top-10 Rankings for week 14 of the 2023-24 season. On their American swing last week they took down Wenatchee 6-2 on the 3rd, then topped Seattle 2-1 last Saturday before falling 4-3 to Portland on Sunday.

THE LAST TIME THESE TWO MET

Back on November 19, the Cougars came back to down the Rockets 5-4 at Propsera Place and push the Rockets winless streak to nine games.

Up 4-2 heading into the final frame of the game, the Cougars pushed back in the third period with three goals, including a pair of power-play goals.

ROCKETS ROSTER UPDATES

Ben Thornton remains out indefinitely with an upper-body injury

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

ROCKETS TO WATCH

Entering Friday, Gabriel Szturc sits at 170 career points. He's four shy of passing Vaclav Varada's Tacoma/Kelowna franchise record of 173 points scored by a European player set back in 1996, set seven years before Szturc was born.

Rockets leading scorer Andrew Cristall will enter the game riding a career-high nineteen-game point streak that has seen him record 39 points (14G, 25A) over that span. He has been on the scoresheet for every game since November 11. Previously, his career-best point streak was 12 games set between Oct. 29, 2022 - Nov. 29, 2022, where he posted 30 points (11G, 19A).

Eighteen-year-old left-shot defenceman Carter Kowalyk is expected to join the Rockets this weekend. Kowalyk was acquired on Wednesday from the Edmonton Oil Kings in a three-team trade.

SEASON RECORDS

vs COUGARS

Oct. 3 at PG - 3-2 L

Oct. 4 at PG - 8-1 L

Oct. 13 vs PG - 5-4 W

Nov. 18 vs PG - 5-4 L

Jan. 12 at PG - 7:00 pm

Jan. 13 at PG - 6:00 pm

Feb. 24 vs PG - 7:05 pm

Mar. 13 vs PG - 7:05 pm

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 stare down the Prince George Cougars
Kelowna Rockets stare down the Prince George Cougars
(Steve Dunsmoor)		   

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