The Seattle Thunderbirds battled their way into the snow bound Okanagan Valley, victims of a wonky bus, then forced the Kelowna Rockets to dig deep for an edgy one-goal victory on Friday night.
Each of the combatants had plenty to play for in their fourth and final meeting of the regular season. Kelowna is in position to land another B.C. Division title, while the T-Birds are fighting to hang on to the final wild-card berth in the western conference.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start, then did some real good things through the middle of the game,” said Rockets head coach Jason Smith. “We made a few mistakes managing the game that allowed them to tie it up.”
Donovan Neuls, one of the T-Birds 20-year-olds, got Seattle rolling at 7:26 with his 20th of the season, a nifty backhand deflection off a Turner Ottenbreit point shot. Four minutes later, Dillon Hamaliuk skated through the crease and stuffed a pass from Matthew Wedman under Rockets starter Brodan Salmond for his 14th of the year.
Kelowna evened the score early in the second period, scoring on its first two shots.
Dillon Dube raced into the Seattle zone and dropped a pass for Cal Foote in the high slot. Foote, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, rifled his 16th of the season high glove side past Luding at the :19 mark.
At 2:13, Leif Mattson carried the puck deep and drove the net before dishing to Dube at the top of the crease. Dube, a Calgary Flames prospect, jammed a one-timer past Luding for his 30th of the season.
The Rockets added two power play goals early in the third period to take a 4-2 lead.
Jack Cowell forced a loose puck behind the T-Birds goal and passed it into the slot where Mattson buried his 19th of the season at 2:46. Kelowna used efficient puck movement on its next power play and Kaedan Korczak drifted a shot from the point that appeared to bounce in off Cowell at 7:13.
While it then appeared Kelowna had taken complete control of the affair, Seattle created some anxiety in the building, scoring twice in a 31-second span to knot things at 4-4. Wedman, with his 15th and Zach Andrusiak with his 24th brought the T-Birds bench to their feet with 4:45 remaining.
Kelowna won it with a late goal from Kole Lind.
The Rockets leading scorer, a Vancouver Canucks prospect who was largely ineffective for much of the evening in his first game back after a four-game absence, gave the 4,859 faithful at Prospera Place another glimpse of his elite skills.
Lind took a quick feed from Carsen Twarynski in the neutral zone, burst into the Seattle zone on the off-wing and wired a wrister past a stunned Luding with 1:21 to play. It was his 32nd goal of the year.
Seattle pulled Luding with just over a minute to play but were unable to score the equalizer.
The Rockets are now 37-14-4-2 for 80 points.
Combined with the Victoria Royals 2-1 loss to Portland, Kelowna now has a five-point lead atop the B.C. Division standings. The Rockets are 15-4-5-1 in one goal games.
Seattle drops to 28-23-7-2, but thanks to the Tri City Americans 4-2 victory over Kamloops, the T-Birds remain six points ahead of the Blazers for the final wild card spot. Seattle also has two games in hand on Kamloops.
“Generally our guys have stuck with it and grinded it out pretty good,” Smith said when asked about winning close games. “We can do a better job of managing the game when we’re ahead, but throughout the season we’ve done a pretty good job keeping the lead or battling back to take the lead.
“I think that’s a sign of a team that competes and plays hard.”
Kelowna took five minors on the night to Seattle’s four and the teams split four fighting majors.
Post Game Interview: Jason Smith (click here)
Post Game Interview: Leif Mattson (click here)
Rockets Fuel…Kelowna outshot Seattle, 29-27 and is now 22-10-1-2 when outshooting opponents….Three stars were Dube, Mattson and Hamaliuk. Hamaliuk collected three points on the night…Rockets scratches were James Hilsendager, Nolan Foote, Kyle Topping, Colum McGauley and Roman Basran. Hilsendager, a 20-year-old defencman, missed his 11th game in a row. Prior to Friday’s absence, Topping had played in all 60 games this season….The Rockets host the Kamloops Blazers tonight at 7:05pm.
(DUBNetwork thanks Kevin Bain and the Kelowna Rockets for the audio/video)
