Rockets close out regular season with victory in Vancouver

The Kelowna Rockets did their part, and Dylan Ferguson almost did them a favour.

The Rockets swept the Vancouver Giants in convincing fashion to close out the regular season, winning 7-0 at home on Friday night and pulling away for a 5-2 victory in Langley in Saturday’s finale.

Unfortunately for Kelowna’s pursuit of first place in the B.C. Division, the Kamloops Blazers couldn’t deliver a regulation win in Prince George last night. Instead, the Blazers beat the host Cougars 2-1 in a shootout thanks to 47 saves from Ferguson — their backup goaltender, who also stopped six of eight in the tiebreaker.

That loser point was enough for the Cougars (45-21-3-3) to claim the B.C. banner, by one point over the Rockets (45-22-5-0).

As a result, Kelowna settled for second place and will clash with third-place Kamloops (42-24-2-4) in the first round of the WHL playoffs for the second straight year, with that best-of-seven series beginning at Prospera Place. The schedule hasn’t been released, but Games 1 and 2 will likely be this coming Friday and Saturday in Kelowna.

Last year’s series was a back-and-forth barnburner that required overtime in the seventh-and-deciding game, with Tomas Soustal scoring the winner for the Rockets.

Kelowna went on to knock out Victoria in the second round — again prevailing in OT of Game 7 — before getting swept by Seattle in the Western Conference final.

At Langley, Kole Lind scored his 30th goal of the season and added an assist to finish with a team-leading 87 points, while earning first-star honours as Kelowna overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in the first period.

Reid Gardiner also scored again, his 18th, with the trade-deadline ringer only getting held off the scoresheet three times in 28 games since joining Kelowna, including a 15-game point streak that was halted in Wednesday’s 4-1 home loss to Everett.

Nolan Foote, with his 19th, Leif Mattson, with what stood up as the game-winner late in the first period, and Devante Stephens, with his 13th, also bulged the twine, and Kelowna’s other trade-deadline addition, Carsen Twarynski, tallied two assists.

Michael Herringer backstopped the sweep, making 29 saves in Saturday’s rematch after pitching a 21-save shutout on Friday night. Herringer finished with 33 wins on the season.

Jordan Borstmayer, who was traded from Kelowna to Vancouver ahead of the Jan. 10 deadline, had one of the goals for the last-place Giants (20-45-3-3), who missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season.