Sports stats



WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets Fuel up for Game 2 vs. Americans

March 23, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Kelowna Rockets vs. the Tri-City Americans
Kelowna Rockets vs. the Tri-City Americans
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Marissa Baecker)

The Kelowna Rockets prepare to host the Tri-City Americans for game two of the first round of the 2018 WHL Playoffs.

After dropping game one 5-0 on Thursday, Assistant Coach Kris Mallette says his team needs to be more persistent on Saturday night.

"We'll need to sustain our compete for 60 minutes regardless of any adversity we may encounter," Mallette said. "We started out well last night and found ourselves trailing after one. Then we started to sway away from our game plan. Our special teams weren't good and we'll need to sharpen that up when given the opportunity. Playoffs means it's the first team to win four games in the series and although we didn't get the result we wanted in game one we need to move on, learn from it, and make the necessary adjustments in order to be ready to go on Saturday night."

Tri-City currently holds a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven.

These two clubs were about as evenly matched as they could get throughout this regular season. With the exception of game one in this playoff series, each team finished the season series with a 2-1-1-0 record. The first time these two teams met this season was back on October 17th when the Rockets visited the Toyota Center in Kennewick, WA. Nolan Yaremko came to play that evening for the Americans scoring his first two goals of the season. Dillon Dube scored late in the game for Kelowna but the Rockets would fall in their first meeting 2-1. They met again 10 days later but this time in Kelowna. Carsen Twarynksi's two goals and an assist carried the Rockets to a 4-3 overtime victory. Less than a week later, Kelowna headed back to Kennewick for another meeting with the Americans, but this time it was Tri-City taking the overtime victory. Kole Lind gave the Rockets a chance with his goal and an assist, but the Americans got a goal and an assist from both Juuso Valimaki and Michael Rasmussen and they edged Kelowna 4-3 in overtime. Their final meeting of the regular season came on January 3rd back in Prospera Place. Carsen Twarynski(2G, 1A) and Nolan Foote(1G, 2A) both had three point nights while Conner Bruggen-Cate added two goals of his own to give the final matchup of the season to the Rockets 5-4. The Rockets fell 5-0 in game one of this playoff series at the hands of Morgan Geekie(2G, 1A) and Michael Rasmussen(2G, 1A), but look to rebound on Saturday night.

Dillon Dube will not face any further discipline following his ejection from game one after being assessed a five minute major and a game misconduct for charging in the second period on Thursday.

After game two on Saturday the Rockets will then hit the road for games three and four at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, WA. on Wednesday and Thursday.

Tickets are available for game two here: https://bit.ly/2FLZp2K

The full first round schedule is as follows:

Game 1 Tri-City @ Kelowna Thursday, March 22 7:05

Game 2 Tri-City @ Kelowna Saturday, March 24 7:05

Game 3 Kelowna @ Tri-City Wednesday, March 28 7:05

Game 4 Kelowna @ Tri-City Thursday, March 29 7:05

Game 5 * Tri-City @ Kelowna Saturday, March 31 7:05

Game 6 * Kelowna @ Tri-City Sunday, April 1 5:05

Game 7 * Tri-City @ Kelowna Tuesday, April 3 7:05

Tickets are available for Rockets home games through selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or by phone at 250-762-5050.

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics




Images from this story

Kelowna Rockets vs. the Tri-City Americans
Kelowna Rockets vs. the Tri-City Americans
(Marissa Baecker)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from March 23, 2018


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