Sports stats



WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets Fall In Home Opener To Winterhawks

September 22, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Kelowna Rockets' Owen Folstrom in action
Kelowna Rockets' Owen Folstrom in action
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Steve Dunsmoor )

The Kelowna Rockets opened the new Western Hockey League campaign with a 5-3 loss to the visiting Portland Winterhawks, Saturday night at Prospera Place.

The Rockets fell behind 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 early in the second period but were able to battle back with three goals of their own to level the playing field. Owen Folstrom got the Rockets first goal of the season, his first in his young WHL career to make it 3-1 before Ethan Mittelsteadt followed with a blast from the point just 2:32 following Folstrom's goal to make it 3-2. The Rockets scoring wasn't done there as Levi Benson potted his first career major junior goal off a beautiful feed from Michael Cicek to make it 3-3.

The two teams would go into the third period tied but Diego Buttazzoni scored 26 seconds into the third period to put Portland back ahead and Tyson Yaremko added the insurance marker for a 5-3 Winterhawks victory.

"I think it was probably the best game we've played up until this point, with the four exhibition games," said Rockets Head Coach Kris Mallette. "I think my biggest concern was our older guys who have to set that standard. A costly penalty with (Marek) Rocak late, a missed assignment by Mittsy (Ethan Mittelsteadt) on the penalty kill ... you don't expect that from your veteran players."

"As hard as we worked, we made it harder on ourselves at times."

The Rockets saw seven members of the line up suiting up in their first career Western Hockey League games as Rowan Guest, Kanjyu Gojsic, Levi Benson, Connor Pankratz, Kalder Varga, Jake Henderson, and Jaxon Kehrig all collectively took the customary solo lap to begin warm up.

"It's something to be proud of. They were a very energetic and youthful group in warmups and in the room. I thought that they competed, but they also understand that there's still a long way still for them to go," Mallette said.

"This was their first kick at the can in the regular season and it's just going to get harder from here on out, but I thought top to bottom they handled themselves very well."

GAME SUMMARY

Portland got off to a quick start in this game, registering the first goal of the contest off the stick of Reed Brown when he tapped in a pass from Kyle McDonough. The Winterhawks found their second goal of the evening when Carsyn Dyck broke in shorthanded and beat Jari Kykkanen to make it 2-0 after 20.

Portland's good fortune continued from there as a Kykkanen clearly attempt off a shot from Tyson Yaremko hit Levi Benson and bounced past the Rockets goaltender to make it 3-0 for the visitors. Kelowna wouldn't go down without a fight though as the Rockets scored three goals in just over three minutes to tie the game at three apiece. Owen Folstrom fired a shot past Portland goaltender Ondrej Stebetak to make it 3-1, giving the Rockets and their faithful some life.

Ethan Mittelsteadt would bring the game within one with a bullet from the point that found the top corner on the power play and Levi Benson would score his first WHL goal to make it 3-3 less than a minute after the Mittelsteadt goal off a nice give-and-go play with Michael Cicek.

Diego Buttazoni scored the game winner on a two-on-two rush with a shot that beat Kykkanen to the blocker side and Yaremko would add the insurance marker on the power play with a deflection to give Portland the victory.

ADDITIONAL STATS

Kelowna outshot Portland 39-34

The Winterhawks went 1/3 on the power play while the Rockets went 2/4, Portland also scored shorthanded

Jari Kykkanen made 29 saves on 34 shots

UP NEXT

Kelowna will now wait until Friday, September 27 for their next game when they face the Victoria Royals at Prospera Place.

Tickets can be purchased online at selectyourtickets.com, by calling Select Your Tickets at 250-762-5050 or by visiting the Select Your Tickets box office at the Prospera Place box office. The box office is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and opens at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday home game days.

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics




Images from this story

Kelowna Rockets' Owen Folstrom in action
Kelowna Rockets' Owen Folstrom in action
(Steve Dunsmoor )		   

• Discuss this story on the Western Hockey League message board...

Western Hockey League Stories from September 22, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central