Rockets bonding ahead of season-opening weekend

From biking to cooking, the Kelowna Rockets have been spending their share of time away from the rink — bonding off the ice in preparation for this weekend’s season-opening home-and-home series against the rival Kamloops Blazers.

The 2018-19 WHL campaign starts Friday in Kamloops, with Kelowna’s home opener against the Blazers set for Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Prospera Place.

This past Saturday, the Rockets visited the Myra Canyon Trestles for a team-building exercise that saw the group ride bikes for 24 kilometres.

Then on Monday evening, the Rockets tested their skills in the kitchen, competing in their own version of Master Chef.

Split into five teams of five, the players battled against one another to win the judges over in a taste contest.

Each group was provided $50 to purchase ingredients for the dish of their choosing.

The groups had 35 minutes to create their dish and present their finished product to a panel of coaches, who scored each dish to determine a victor.

They had to budget appropriately with the $50 in order to prepare one dish for the coaches to judge and enough additional food for each team member to eat.

Each coach ranked the dish on a scale of 1 to 5 — with 5 being the highest — for a cumulative score. A prize was awarded to the winning team. The cooking rosters were as follows:

Team 1: Dallon Wilton, Nolan Foote, Ted Brennan, Braydyn Chizen, Cayde Augustine

Team 2: Mark Liwiski, Wil Kushniryk, Kaedan Korczak, Roman Basran, Conner Bruggen-Cate

Team 3: Devin Steffler, Jack Cowell, Liam Kindree, Libor Zabransky

Team 4: Ethan Ersnt, Leif Mattson, Kyle Pow, James Porter, Ryan Bowen Team 5: Kyle Crosbie, Erik Gardiner, Kelvin Hair, Lassi Thomson, Kyle Topping

Team 1 cooked their own version of Hunter Chicken with asparagus and potato.

Team 2 went with a Ukrainian dish that featured perogies, sausage and coleslaw. Team 3 opted for a classic chicken alfredo. Team 4 prepared a pork schnitzel with potatoes and asparagus.

And last but not least, Team 5 made a crispy chicken sandwich.

The coaches were most impressed with Team 3 — consisting of Steffler, Cowell, Kindree and Zabransky — and declared them victorious with 139 of a possible 210 points for their chicken alfredo.

Now, the focus is back on the ice.