Sports stats



WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets Grab A Point From Shootout Loss To Americans

February 17, 2025 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


Kalder Varga of the Kelowna Rockets faces off with the Tri-City Americans
Kalder Varga of the Kelowna Rockets faces off with the Tri-City Americans
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Steve Dunsmoor)

The Kelowna Rockets gained a point in a 3-2 shootout loss on Family Day Monday to the Tri-City Americans at Prospera Place.

Michael Cicek opened the scoring and Levi Benson continued his strong play with seventh goal of the season in the loss. Jake Pilon had a solid performance in net, turning aside 43 shots.

Kelowna opened the scoring on the power play when Michael Cicek took the puck near the point, walked in and beat Americans goaltender Lukas Matecha to put Kelowna ahead 1-0, giving the Rockets the lead heading into the intermission.

Levi Benson scored his second goal in as many games as a Rockets power play expired when he found the loose puck at the side of the net to double the Rockets lead to 2-0. Kelowna would hold that lead until past the midway point of the third period when Max Curran found the back of the net with his 17th of the season, cutting the Kelowna lead down to one.

Tri-City tied the game with less than a minute left as Savin Virk found a loose puck at the side of the Rockets net and beat Pilon to bring the score to 2-2, as the goal came with the extra attacker on the ice.

Overtime solved nothing as the game went to a shootout where Cruz Pavao was the only scorer of the six total shooters, giving Tri-City the victory.

Despite the loss, Rockets Interim Head Coach Derrick Martin was proud of how the group battled today with several key pieces out due to injury and illness.

"I thought the group was good," said Martin. "We needed our whole bench tonight. I thought everybody showed up and gave us an honest effort."

ADDITIONAL STATS

Tri-City outshot Kelowna 46-44

Kelowna went 1/5 on the power play while Tri-City went 0/3

Jake Pilon made 43 saves

UP NEXT

The Rockets will finish off their three-game home stand on Friday night against the Vancouver Giants with puck drop going at 6:05 PM. Kelowna will then set out to the Vancouver area for a rematch with the Giants the following night, beginning an eight game road trip which takes the Rockets to Vancouver, Prince George and then off to Alberta.

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

Kalder Varga of the Kelowna Rockets faces off with the Tri-City Americans
Kalder Varga of the Kelowna Rockets faces off with the Tri-City Americans
(Steve Dunsmoor)		   

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

Western Hockey League Stories from February 17, 2025


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