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WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets Get Goals From Seven Different Players In Thanksgiving Victory Over Prince Albert

October 14, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets
Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Steve Dunsmoor)

The Kelowna Rockets and its fans were thankful for seven different goal scorers on Thanksgiving Monday, as those goals propelled the group to a 7-5 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders at Prospera Place.

Andrew Cristall, Ethan Neutens, Kanjyu Gojsic, Max Graham, Michael Cicek, Carter Kowalyk and Brett Calhoon all scored for Kelowna, while Jake Pilon kicked aside 35 shots to move to 3-0. Gojsic's second period marker was his first in the Western Hockey League, marking the second consecutive game the Prospera faithful have seen a rookie pot his first, with Jaxon Kehrig scoring his first major junior tally on Friday against Portland. Gojsic now joins Kehrig, Levi Benson and Owen Folstrom as Rockets who have scored their first goal this season.

The Rockets would once again score the game's first goal, the second consecutive time doing so thanks to a beautiful power play goal from Andrew Cristall off a nice cross seam feed from Tij Iginla.

Kelowna would hold onto that lead into the second period and extend it to 3-0 when Ethan Neutens crashed the net and deflected the puck past Raiders goaltender Max Hildebrand to make it 2-0. The Rockets would get more contributions from their young players as for the second consecutive game the team saw a player score his first goal in the WHL. Kanjyu Gojsic tapped in a nice give-and-go feed from Andrew Cristall to put the home side up by three. Prince Albert would fight back though as Niall Crocker would cut the lead back down to two midway through the second, and after Max Graham scored to put Kelowna back up by three, the Raiders got power play goals from Krzysztof Macias and Tomas Mrsic to make the score 4-3 Kelowna after 40.

The Raiders would feed on that late period momentum as the visitors scored twice before the midway mark of the third to tie the game, off a goal from Harrison Lodewyk, and take a 5-4 lead when Brayden Dube finished off an odd man rush. The Prince Albert lead would be short lived however, as less than a minute after Michael Cicek was able to shovel home his fifth of the season to bring the game back on even footing which set the stage for two unlikely heroes as stay-at-home defenceman Carter Kowalyk would score the winner and Brett Calhoon would add the insurance marker at 17:33 to give the Rockets a 7-5 win.

Kowalyk's marker was his first of the season, and seventh of his career as the 19-year-old rearguard has suited up in 134 WHL games, while Calhoon's goal was his second of the season and sixth of his career.

"It's got to be by committee," said Rockets Head Coach Kris Mallette about the Rockets seeing seven different players end the afternoon with a goal. "We're going to have some nights where the big boys are going to need some help carrying the mail, so you need those contributions. But on the flip side, we need everyone playing the right way. I think when we got away from it five-on-five, you got a good team in Prince Albert play a simple game and came towards us and were rewarded for it so you're trying to instil those details and habits positionally."

"When you do it right, you're usually going to get rewarded and I think that's what you saw from some of those goal scorers tonight. It wasn't anything spectacular, wasn't anything high risk, high reward ... it was just simple, strategic, structured hockey and they got rewarded for it."

ADDITIONAL STATS

Prince Albert outshot Kelowna 40 to 27

Kelowna went 1/3 on the power play while Prince Albert went 2/7

Caden Price finished the afternoon with four assists

The Rockets game winning goal came from defenceman Carter Kowalyk, his seventh career goal

UP NEXT

Kelowna will now head back to the United States for a pair of weekend games against the Wenatchee Wild on Oct. 18 and the Tri-City Americans on Oct. 19. The team will then return home to host the Victoria Royals on Wednesday, Oct. 23. Puck drop for that game will go at 7:05 PM.

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

Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets
Andrew Cristall of the Kelowna Rockets
(Steve Dunsmoor)		   

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