Puck drops tonight on first round of WHL playoffs in Kelowna
The Kelowna Rockets are set to embark on their quest for WHL supremacy, starting tonight at Prospera Place when the Tri-City Americans roll into town for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.
In winning a seventh B.C. Division title, Kelowna secured home-ice advantage over the first wild-card team in Tri-City.
Though the Rockets are the higher seed, video, development and goalie coach Adam Brown says they aren’t going to be taking anything for granted.
“It’s going to be a tough matchup, they have a highly skilled team and they play the game hard, so it’s going to be a good battle,” said Brown. “They have some guys that when they’re out there, we have to be aware. They love jumping up into the rush, so we have make sure we’re not getting beat up ice.
“We have a confident group,” he added. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we need to play the game the right way and we need to play the game hard, and if we do that, we have a chance to win every night.”
These two teams were about as evenly matched as they could get in the regular season. Having played each other four times, each team finished the season series with a 2-1-1-0 record.
The first time they met was back on Oct. 17 when the Rockets visited the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Wash. Nolan Yaremko came to play that evening, scoring his first two goals of the season for the Americans. Dillon Dube scored late in the game for Kelowna, but the Rockets fell 2-1.
They met again 10 days later, on Oct. 27, but this time in Kelowna. Carsen Twarynski’s two goals and an assist carried the Rockets to a 4-3 overtime victory.
Less than a week later, Kelowna headed back to Kennewick for another meeting with the Americans on Nov. 1. Kole Lind gave the Rockets a chance with a goal and an assist, but Tri-City got a goal and an assist from both Juuso Valimaki and Michael Rasmussen as the hosts edged Kelowna 4-3 in overtime.
Their final meeting of the regular season took place on Jan. 3 at Prospera Place, when Twarynski (2G, 1A) and Nolan Foote (1G, 2A) both had three-point nights while Conner Bruggen-Cate added two goals to give the Rockets a 5-4 win.
Kelowna finished the regular season with a record of 43-22-5-2 for 93 points and first place in the B.C. Division. Tri-City wound up with a record of 38-25-8-1 for 85 points and fourth place in the U.S. Division.
These teams are no strangers to meeting in the playoffs either, as this will be the seventh time they meet in post-season play.
Kelowna has a 4-2 record in those series and has gone on to win the Memorial Cup (2004) or Ed Chynoweth Cup (2009 and 2015) following three of those victories over Tri-City.