Rockets power past Chiefs 9-5
Reid Gardiner leads charge with 2 goals and 2 assists
Now that they are fully healthy, finally, the Kelowna Rockets are flashing some serious firepower.
Attacking in waves, the Rockets blitzed the Spokane Chiefs on Sunday, roaring out to a 7-0 lead en route to scoring a 9-5 road victory.
Granted, Spokane’s goaltenders struggled mightily — allowing seven goals on just 12 shots in the first half of the game, and nine on only 22 total — but Kelowna’s offence was firing on all cylinders throughout the contest.
Trade-deadline acquisitions Reid Gardiner and Carsen Twarynski continued to pay dividends by both scoring twice, with Rockets captain Rodney Southam also netting two goals. They were three of Kelowna’s seven players with multi-point efforts, led by Gardiner and defenceman Devante Stephens with four points apiece.
Dillon Dube and Nick Merkley had three-point performances, both with a goal and two assists, and Nolan Foote had two helpers.
Brodan Salmond stopped 21-of-26 shots for the victory as the Rockets (37-21-5-0) won two of three on their weekend road trip to close within one point of the second-place Kamloops Blazers (37-21-2-4) in the B.C. Division standings.
Kelowna still has a game in hand on Kamloops, with the Rockets down to nine games remaining in the regular season — next hosting the division-leading Prince George Cougars (40-19-3-2) on Wednesday, 7 p.m. at Prospera Place.
Prince George is six points up on Kelowna heading into that finale of their season series, which the Cougars lead 4-3-0-0 despite the Rockets winning three straight meetings this month.
The Chiefs (25-27-6-3) are likely to miss the playoffs — nine points out of the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot with 11 games left — but Spokane had Kelowna’s number prior to Sunday.
In fact, the Chiefs were the only Western Conference team that the Rockets had yet to beat this season, losing each of their first three games in overtime.
It was a weekend of firsts for Kelowna — first win over Spokane and first win in Kamloops, having halted a seven-game losing skid at Sandman Centre dating back to last season with Friday’s convincing 8-2 victory over the rival Blazers before falling 5-3 in Kent, Wash., to the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday.