Thankfully for the Kelowna Rockets, the bad luck on Fridays in October at Prospera Place came to an end with a 4-3 overtime decision over the Tri City Americans.
The Rockets played home games on the last three Fridays this month, losing the first two before the win over the Americans. The Rockets have now won 14 straight at home against the Ams.
“You saw some character and you saw some hard work,” said Rockets bench boss Jason Smith. “We had some lulls, but we competed. It was an all around decent effort.”
The Americans scored first, a weird goal at 7:45 of the first period.
Rockets goalie James Porter won a race to a loose puck along the boards in the defensive zone and slid the puck to Jack Cowell at the blueline. When Cowell picked up the pass, Amerks forward Parker Aucoin hit Cowell’s stick and the puck slid slowly into the empty net from about 60 feet away. While Cowell could have been stronger on the puck, Aucoin’s persistence was rewarded with a shorthanded goal.
It was the second shorthanded goal scored against Kelowna this season. Last year, the Rockets were the only team in the WHL that did not surrender a shorthanded goal during the regular season.
At 10:28, Dillon Dube won a faceoff deep in the Ams zone, and the Rockets won the puck along the wall. The Calgary Flames prospect managed to corral the loose puck, turned toward the net and beat a screened Patrick Dea to tie the game at 10:28. It was Dube’s fifth goal of the season.
Late in the second period, Dube made a pair of Amerks defenders miss at the blueline with a toe-drag that sprung him toward the net. As he moved in on goalie Patrick Dea, he dished off to Carsen Twarynski who wired a one-timer to stake Kelowna to a 2-1 lead.
Tri City scored early in the third period on the power play when Aucoin picked up a loose puck in the slot and beat Porter high stick side for his second of the night. Then four minutes later at 7:09, Nolan Yaremko beat Porter again high stick side to put the Americans up by a goal.
The Rockets applied pressure late in the game and Gordie Ballhorn made a strong play on the puck to work deep into the Americans zone. He let go a hard shot along the ice from in close and the puck glanced in off Leif Mattson at 17:44 to tie the game at 3-3.
With the Amerks applying late pressure, James Hilsendager took a checking from behind penalty deep in the Rockets zone with only seven seconds to play. The penalty would give Tri City a 4-on-3 man advantage heading into overtime.
Then at the buzzer, Erik Gardiner was hit in the side of the head by a Dylan Coghlan shot from the point. He stayed down on the ice during much of the break before overtime, receiving assistance from the training staff.
But the second year forward was able to return to the penalty killing unit as the Rockets played a man short. During the Americans overtime onslaught, another shot-block by Gardiner dropped the feisty forward in front of the Rockets net.
Gardiner’s efforts late led to an interference penalty to Ams forward Jordan Topping at the 1:34 mark of overtime, giving the Rockets the man advantage for 1:40.
On its power play, the Rockets sealed the win when Gardiner sent a long pass up ice to Twarynski, who walked in on Dea and ripped a shot high over his glove at 3:28.
“Erik competes and plays the game the way you want every guy on your team to play the game. He’ll do anything for the team, whether it’s blocking shots or killing penalties or battling in the corners. He does things the right way.”
Kelowna played at Prospera Place on three consecutive Fridays in October and ran the risk of dropping all three games until the overtime heroics played out. The Rockets have won two in a row now and improved to 5-0-0-1 when taking the lead into the third period. It was the team’s third overtime win of the season. Tri City entered the game riding a five-game winning streak.
The Prince George Cougars roll into town tonight, its first visit to Kelowna this season. After their four-game home stand, the Rockets head to Kennewick for a game against the Americans on Wednesday, then to Vancouver Island to take on the Victoria Royals in a weekend doubleheader.
Post game interview: Erik Gardiner (click here)
Post game interview: Jason Smith (click here)
Rockets Fuel…Kelowna outshot the Americans, 37-31…Three stars were Dube, Twarynski, Gardiner….The Rockets scratched Kelvin Hair, Konrad Belcourt, Wil Kushnyrik, Colum McGauley and Liam Kindree…Goaltender Brodan Salmond returned to the lineup…Announced attendance was 4,539…The Rockets are 3-3-0-1 at home and 3-2-1 on the road…Kelowna has won two in a row…The Prince George Cougars make its first visit to Prospera Place on Saturday. Puck drop is 7:05…A huge stick tap to Kevin Bain, Director of Media Relations for the Rockets. Bain supplied the laugh-out-loud moment of the night with a self-deprecating account of his experience with a trampoline, a golf ball and a riding lawn mower. Absolute gold, KB!
