Rockets do battle with Royals again
Dillon Dube netted his first WHL hat trick and the Gardiner brothers scored in the same game for the first time as the Kelowna Rockets routed the Victoria Royals 9-2 on Friday night to sweep their island doubleheader.
Kelowna, which also won 4-3 on Wednesday, had not beat the Royals in consecutive games at Victoria since Oct. 25-26, 2013, and had not scored nine goals in a road game since Dec. 31, 2013 in a 9-3 blowout at Portland.
Kelowna’s dominance was inflated by bad Victoria goaltending, but the Rockets did outshoot the Royals 43-21 overall.
James Hilsendager, Devante Stephens, Tomas Soustal and Jack Cowell rounded out the scoring for the Rockets (26-153-0), who took over sole possession of second place in the B.C. Division standings — two points up on the Kamloops Blazers (25-16-1-2) and now seven points clear of the Royals (22-18-4-0).
The Prince George Cougars (30-12-2-0) maintained their seven-point lead atop the division by rallying for a wild 6-5 shootout win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday.
Kamloops was blanked 4-0 at home by the U.S. Division-leading Everett Silvertips (27-5-6-1), who the Rockets will visit for a Monday matinee before hosting the Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday at Prospera Place.
Kelowna goalie Michael Herringer had a relatively easy night against Victoria, only needing to make 19 saves and getting ample run support from the Rockets’ high-powered offence.
Dube led the charge with his fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the season — his first of the game sure to make the WHL’s weekly highlights.
After Hilsendager had opened the scoring early on, Dube actually tallied twice within a 21-second span to give Kelowna a 3-1 lead at the first intermission.
The Rockets poured it on with five more in the second period, chasing Royals starter Griffen Outhouse, but his backup Dean McNabb — an affiliated player making his WHL debut — didn’t fare any better in allowing two goals on four shots.
Outhouse returned to the crease, but the damage had been done with Kelowna ahead 6-1 at that point.
Reid Gardiner made it 7-1 with a 5-on-3 power-play goal and younger brother, Erik, later added the lone goal of the third period.
Carsen Twarynski had two assists — his first points as a Rocket in his second game since being acquired by Kelowna ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline — and 13 players recorded at least a point in the blowout.
Jack Walker and Ethan Price replied for the overmatched Royals. Outhouse stopped 32 of 39 shots.
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna scratched D Gordie Ballhorn (hand), who is expected to return for Wednesday’s home game, C Kyle Topping (upper-body, day-to-day) and LW Nolan Foote (upper-body, also day-to-day).