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WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets' Playoff Positioning Push Continues Wednesday against BC Division's Best

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


Kelowna Rockets centre Gabriel Szturc vs. the Prince George Cougars
Kelowna Rockets centre Gabriel Szturc vs. the Prince George Cougars
(Kelowna Rockets, Credit: Steve Dunsmoor)

The Kelowna Rockets will wrap up their season series against the Prince George Cougars on Wednesday night at Prospera Place. It's a Fan First Menu game, which means $2 hot dogs and Luck Lager on for $5.

The Rockets pushed their win streak to five games with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night at the Sandman Centre. At the midway point of the third period, the Rockets power play struck for the third time, this time Hiroki Gojsic (20) ripped a one-timer past Edmonstone from the left faceoff circle to tie the game. With 5:18 to go in regulation, the Blazers power play went to work for the first time on the night after Kayden Sadhra-Kang took a penalty for checking from behind. While down a man, Szturc was able to chase the puck deep into the Blazers zone and pressured Edmonstone's pass to a defenceman Logan Bairos. Barios then made a pass to the middle of the point that was mishandled by Matteo Koci where Tij Iginla (45) picked it off and beat Edmonstone with the game-winner on the breakaway.

With the win, as of Tuesday morning, the Rockets jumped the Victoria Royals for sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference and are two points back of the Wenatchee Wild for fourth. The Vancouver Giants who have a game in hand on the Rockets and two on Victoria sit in seventh place with 62 points. The Rockets, who have gone 7-0-1-0 over their eight games, will wrap up their final two games of the regular season against the Giants later this month.

The Cougars, who have clinched a playoff berth and have won the BC Division title for this season, enter Tuesday morning atop the Western Conference standings with a 43-15-1-3 record. Prince George was last in action over the weekend at home where they took down the Vancouver Giants 5-3 on Friday and again on Saturday by a score of 6-3.

A LOOK AT THE WEEKEND

The Rockets will have live music once again this weekend as Chick Jagger will be playing throughout the game when they host the Everett Silvertips on Saturday.

TICKETS

Single-game tickets for all Rockets games are on sale at Select Your Tickets.

Tickets for Rockets games are only available at Select Your Tickets, they are the official provider of Rockets tickets. To view pricing and a seating map please click here.

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.

ROCKETS ROSTER UPDATES

Rookie defenceman Landon Cowper timeline for his lower-body injury has been updated to indefinite, meanwhile, forward Ty Hurley has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury that is listed as week-to-week on the weekly report.

ROCKET TO WATCH

The Western Hockey League announced on Monday that Andrew Cristall was been named Tempo WHL Player of the Week for the week ending March 10, 2024 after posting nine points (3G, 6A) through three games. With a chance to clinch a WHL playoff berth on the line, Cristall erupted for a seven-point night against Kamloops on March 8. After notching four straight helpers to put Kelowna up 4-0 over Kamloops, the Burnaby, B.C. product tore past the Blazers netminder and deftly tucked the puck in for his 36th goal of the season and 100th point of the campaign. Cristall would add another in the third period with a nifty deke and backhand goal to make it 7-1. The Rockets alternate captain capped off the night with an assist on Max Graham's powerplay marker to seal a 9-1 Kelowna victory and berth in the 2024 WHL Playoffs. Cristall's career-best two-goal, five-assist night earned him first-star honours.

SEASON RECORD

vs COUGARS (2-4-0-1)

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 - 5-2 L

Jan. 13 at PG - 3-2 SOW

Feb. 24 vs PG - 6-5 SOL

Mar. 13 vs PG - 7:05 pm

THE LAST TIME THESE TWO MET

The Prince George Cougars swiped away a shootout victory from the Rockets to lock up the BC Division title for the 2023-24 season on Feb. 24 at Prospera Place.

The Rockets hung around with the high-flying Prince George Cougars in a game that saw ten goals scored between the two. Tied at five through regulation and overtime, the game headed to a shootout where Ondrej Becher scored the lone goal in the skills competition. Rockets goaltender Jari Kykkanen stopped 19 of 20 shots fired his way to pick up his 21st win of the season.

CONFERENCE STANDINGS

as of Tuesday morning

# TEAM GP W L OTL SOL PTS

2 xy Prince George Cougars 62 43 15 1 3 90

2 x Portland Winterhawks 61 43 15 2 1 89

3 x Everett Silvertips 64 41 18 2 3 87

4 x Wenatchee Wild 62 32 26 4 0 68

5 x Kelowna Rockets 63 31 28 3 1 66

6 x Victoria Royals 64 28 27 5 0 65

7 x Vancouver Giants 62 29 29 4 0 62

8 Spokane Chiefs 62 27 29 5 1 60

9 Seattle Thunderbirds 63 24 37 2 0 50

10 Tri-City Americans 62 22 37 2 1 47

11 Kamloops Blazers 63 20 37 3 3 46

x denotes playoff spot clinched, y denotes Division title clinched

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.

ONLINE 50/50

The Kelowna Rockets online 50/50 is back for the 2023-24 season!

The online 50/50 will give fans in Rockets fans located in British Columbia and those who are attending the game the chance to win during every Rockets home game this season. The 50/50 will also raise important dollars for the Kelowna Minor Hockey Association.

Tickets will be available for purchase on all game days starting at 9 a.m. PT and end at the start of the third period on the same day.

LINEUP SHEET + GAME DAY PROGRAM

Printed lineup sheets will not be available at games this season, they can be accessed online by visiting the game day program.

The Game Day Program will be available in the same spot, it comes complete with game notes, stats, team rosters and entry forms for the Rockets intermission contests.

The sheet and program will be uploaded by 3:00 p.m. on game days

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics




Images from this story

Kelowna Rockets centre Gabriel Szturc vs. the Prince George Cougars
Kelowna Rockets centre Gabriel Szturc vs. the Prince George Cougars
(Steve Dunsmoor)		   



Western Hockey League Stories from March 12, 2024


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