Rockets regroup for Game 2
Now seeking a split at home, Kelowna getting Dube back for tonight
The Kelowna Rockets are set to host the Tri-City Americans for Game 2 of their first-round WHL playoff series tonight, 7:05 p.m. at Prospera Place.
After falling 5-0 in Game 1 on Thursday, assistant coach Kris Mallette says his team needs to be more persistent tonight.
“We’ll need to sustain our compete for 60 minutes regardless of any adversity we may encounter,” Mallette said on Friday as the teams looked back on Game 1 and ahead to Game 2. “We started out well last night and found ourselves trailing after one. Then we started to sway away from our game plan. Our special teams weren’t good and we’ll need to sharpen that up when given the opportunity.
“Playoffs means it’s the first team to win four games in the series, and although we didn’t get the result we wanted in Game 1, we need to move on, learn from it, and make the necessary adjustments in order to be ready to go (tonight),” added Mallette.
Tri-City currently holds a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven. The Americans pulled away with three straight power-play goals in the third period of Game 1. Morgan Geekie and Michael Rasmussen paced that victory for Tri-City, each with two goals and an assist.
The Americans’ power play went to work when one of Kelowna’s top forwards, Dillon Dube — who captained Canada to world-junior gold in January — was ejected for charging, handed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a collision with Tri-City goaltender Patrick Dea in the dying seconds of the second period. Kelowna was trailing 2-0 at the time, but on a power play that would have carried over to the third period.
Dube will not face any further discipline and will be back in Kelowna’s lineup tonight.