Rockets split weekend
Roman Basran capped off a busy weekend with a 27-save effort Sunday as the Kelowna Rockets edged the Portland Winterhawks 4-3 at Prospera Place in front of 4,769 fans.
The regulation victory was worth an important two points in the standings as the Rockets (2730-5-1) have now taken rather a strangle-hold on third place in the B.C. Division playoff race.
“We beared down and blocked shots,” said Basran. “I mean you see Teddy (Brennan) out there blocking a shot of the back of his head, it’s pretty dangerous stuff, so, it was all around a pretty good team effort.”
Basran came on in relief of James Porter on Friday against Vancouver, then started both games against Portland (38-19-3-3) this weekend. The 18-year-old, who does not mince words, has handled the bulk of the workload for the Rockets this season.
“I don’t really get tired during games,” Basran said, when asked about playing in three straight contests. “So, it’s not a big deal for me.”
On Sunday, the Rockets took an early 2-0 lead.
Cole Carrier, playing his third game as an affiliate player, gained the Winterhawks blue line and slid a pass through the slot. Cayde Augustine took a shot that glanced off a Portland defender and Ted Brennan (2) scooped the rebound past Shane Farkas at 6:00.
A minute later, Nolan Foote beat a defender at the Winterhawks blueline and skated the puck into the attacking zone. Foote dished over to Leif Mattson who onetimed a shot past Farkas for his 22nd of the campaign.
Portland cut into the lead at 12:39 of the second stanza when Josh Patterson tipped in a point shot from Nick Cicek.
Sustained pressure on the power play early in the third period led to the Rockets third goal. Foote and Kyle Topping worked the puck to Lassi Thomson, who drilled his 17th off the season off the goal post past Farkas at 1:53.
The excitement in the building quickly turned to trepidation 14 seconds later when Mark Liwiski made contact with Seth Jarvis at the Winterhawks bench. Jarvis lay motionless after the check and was eventually helped off the ice. Liwiski was assessed a fiveminute boarding major and game misconduct.
Then with 1:08 left in the major penalty, Thomson took a delay of game minor, which led to the Winterhawks second goal. Jake Gricius tapped in a feed from Joachim Blichfeld at 7:26.
Portland completed its comeback at 13:58 with another power play tally when Brendan De Jong sifted a shot from the point that a screened Basran couldn’t track down.
For Rockets head coach Adam Foote, there were some mixed emotions evident when he was asked about the Winterhawks pressure and his team’s parade to the penalty box.
“It’s hard,” Foote said. “It’s happened before but you have to move on. You’re frustrated.
“There’s been something going on here all year. I don’t know what it is, but we’ve been on the wrong side off the calls. It keeps on coming. I hope it’s addressed. I don’t get it.
“But, we’ll try to take the positive that we got a chance to work on our penalty killing and we showed a lot of sacrifice and will to win.
“They were able to get us on the ropes. But, what I loved was when they scored, we didn’t crumble, we didn’t get out of structure.”
Fifteen seconds after Portland made it 3-3, Dallon Wilton converted a feed from Liam Kindree at the top of the crease and his fourth goal of the season stood as the game winner.
The contest concluded a rather productive weekend for the Rockets and now the team has the week off. With only five games to play, Kelowna is seven points ahead of the Kamloops Blazers for third place in the B.C. Division.
The Blazers dropped the first two games it played on the weekend, but salvaged a point when Jermaine Loewen scored a late goal in Langley on Sunday to take the Giants to overtime. Vancouver won 5-4.
Kamloops has a pair of games in hand and the two Okanagan rivals will meet twice this weekend — Friday in Kamloops and Saturday in Kelowna.
There is little to chose from based on the eight previous meetings this season as both clubs have compiled head-to-head records of 4-3-1. Each team has scored 17 times during the season series. The Rockets are 3-1 at home against the Blazers, and 1-2-1- in Kamloops PORTLAND 2 KELOWNA 1
(OT)
On Saturday, before a crowd of 5,430 at Prospera Place, Jaydon Dureau scored his 12th goal of the season 1:22 into the overtime period to give the Winterhawks the win.
Portland entered the game as the highest scoring team in the Western Conference, but the Rockets and Basran held the Winterhawks to one goal through 60 minutes.
Gricius gave Portland the early lead with a power play goal at 1:06 of the first period. At 14:56 of the third period, Alex Swetlikoff re-directed a point shot from Schael Higson to send the affair to overtime.
The Rockets record in overtime this season is 3-5.
ICE CHIPS… Portland outshot Kelowna on Sunday, 30-19…Three stars were Kaedan Korczak, Gricius and Basran… Kelowna was 1-for-2 on the power play. Portland was 2-for-4…Rockets scratched F Ethan Ernst and D Matt Barberis… Last season, the Rockets scored 280 goals in 72 regular season games, which translates to 264 goals in a 68-game season. During the current campaign, the Rockets have scored 158 goals through 63 contests - ninth overall in the conference. Portland leads the conference with 242 goals through 63 games.