Win tonight against lowly Giants won’t be enough to guarantee Rockets 1st place in B.C. Division
The Kelowna Rockets no longer control their own fate in pursuit of first place in the B.C. Division. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Rockets (43-22-5-0) can clinch home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a win tonight in closing out their six-game homestand (4-1-0-0) against the last-place Vancouver Giants (20-433-3). Puck-drop at Prospera Place is 7:30 p.m., with the game being broadcast on Sportsnet. OK, back to the bad news. Entering the final weekend of the WHL’s regular season, the Rockets must cheer for the rival Kamloops Blazers (41-232-4) to at least split their homeand-home against the Prince George Cougars (44-21-3-2), who remained two points up on Kelowna after the Rockets lost 4-1 to visiting Everett on Wednesday.
That setback to the Silvertips halted several streaks for Kelowna, including a seven-game winning streak, a 15-game streak of scoring three or more goals, and also Reid Gardiner’s 15-game point streak.
The biggest blow, though, pertained to the standings.
Now Prince George can stay ahead of Kelowna and claim the B.C. banner by sweeping Kamloops this weekend. The Cougars swept the Blazers in a two-game set at P.G. earlier this month, and have won four of six in their season series (4-1-1-0).
That home-and-home starts tonight in Kamloops and Kelowna will be scoreboard watching, though the Rockets still have to take care of business against the Giants in a home-and-home that wraps up the regular season on Saturday night in Langley.
If Kamloops splits, Kelowna needs to sweep Vancouver.
If Kamloops were to sweep P.G., Kelowna would only need a split.
If Prince George sweeps, Kelowna finishes second and hosts Kamloops in a rematch of last year’s first round, which the Rockets won on Tomas Soustal’s overtime winner in the seventh-and-deciding game.
Should Kelowna and Prince George finish even in the standings, the Rockets hold the tiebreaker and would take the top seed. Thus the reason Kelowna only needs Kamloops to split, providing the Rockets sweep the Giants.
That season series has been lopsided in Kelowna’s favour (5-1-0-0), and Vancouver was outplayed and outshot 36-25 in its only win, 5-4 in Langley on Jan. 20.
Since then, the Rockets have beat the Giants 6-0, 5-0 and, most recently, 8-1 last Friday.
Vancouver is playing for pride at this point, but the Giants did defeat playoff-bound Victoria 5-3 on Tuesday and could play spoiler for Kelowna.
Ideally, the Rockets would have beat Everett on Wednesday and swept Vancouver to go into the playoffs on a 10-game winning streak.
However, a little bit of adversity at this time of year might help more than it hinders — especially if the Rockets are still able to take the B.C. title and open the post-season against a wild-card team, be it Victoria, Tri-City or Portland.
Humbling as Wednesday’s defeat was — the Silvertips played a perfect road game and won the special-teams battle, opening the scoring on a power play and killing off all five penalties — it should serve as motivation for the Rockets going forward, regardless of where they rank or which playoff opponent they draw.
“It’s disappointing when you lose a game, but normally when you put together a streak like we had, there are some things that creep into your game. Whether it’s details, structure or compete, there’s things you can kind of get away from,” Rockets head coach Jason Smith said on the team’s website. “Losing (Wednesday’s) game is, again, disappointing, but we have a great opportunity to bounce back here (tonight).”
Long story short, the Rockets still have a shot at first place and avoiding Kamloops in the first round, but Kelowna needs a favour from the Blazers.
That begs the question: Who would Kamloops rather face in the opening round, Kelowna or Prince George? It will be one or the other, and tonight’s result in Kamloops could be a determining factor.
There is no reason to believe the Blazers would throw tonight’s game — you have to think Kamloops will be trying to win its home finale, trying to earn some redemption against Prince George, and trying to gain momentum going into the playoffs — but, in saying that, the Blazers may prefer to avoid the Cougars and take their chances against the Rockets.
The Blazers have had more success against the Rockets — winning the season series 6-30-1, though Kelowna won the finale 8-2 in Kamloops on Feb. 24.
Kamloops may get to pick its poison with its performance this weekend, but the entire B.C. Division bracket is going to be gruelling in the post-season no matter the matchups. Kelowna will be in that mix — with as good a chance as anybody of advancing to the Western Conference final — but first place is always better than second.
First place would also secure home-ice advantage in the second round should the Rockets get there. But first things first, Kelowna must focus on beating Vancouver tonight.
“We’re not looking at playoff matchups at all. As a group, we’re worried about the game we’re playing (tonight),” Smith said. “We need results in that game to help determine what’s coming in the future.”
ICE CHIPS: The Rockets will be wearing special St. Patrick’s Day-themed jerseys tonight, which will be presented to fans following the game as part of Kelowna’s “Jersey off the Back” promotion. Fans who have entered that draw throughout the season will have a chance at taking home a specialedition jersey . . . . There will also be a massive puck-toss during the second intermission tonight. The toss involves the first 6,000 fans through the gate at Prospera Place tonight, with each getting a free puck to throw. The winner of the puck-toss will be taking home an ATV valued at over $7,599, a 2016 Can-Am Outlander 450L DPS.