Rockets’ winning streaks halted by Thunderbirds
Special to The Okanagan Weekend
On a night when junior hockey fans in the Okanagan could be excused for honing in on Team Canada’s gold-medal victory at the World Junior Hockey Championship, it was certainly apparent that the Kelowna Rockets and Seattle Thunderbirds were completely focused on each other at Prospera Place.
From a Rockets’ perspective, the overall effort was not nearly efficient enough and the T-Birds managed to waltz out of Kelowna with a 6-4 decision.
“I think we let that one get away from us,” said over-age defenceman Gordie Ballhorn. “We’ve got to do a lot better job on the defensive side of the puck. We can’t be swinging and looping in the neutral zone and through the D-zone. They’re a quick team. We knew that from the pre-scout and didn’t do a good enough job getting back to pucks to make those quick little plays to get out of the zone.”
Seattle opened the scoring at 1:36 when Aaron Hyman drifted a shot from the blue line past a screened James Porter. Dillon Hamaliuk extended the lead when he jammed in his seventh of the campaign at 13:52.
It was the first time the Rockets have trailed 2-0 in the first period at home since Oct. 20 against the Portland Winterhawks, which was also their last loss at home.
Leif Mattson narrowed the gap at 16:11 when he beat two defenders to the puck in the slot and stuffed it under Seattle goalie Liam Hughes for his 11th of the season.
The teams combined for five goals in the wild second stanza.
At 7:23, Donavon Neuls restored Seattle’s two-goal margin with a power-play goal, then Ballhorn finished off some crisp puck movement on the Rockets’ power play when he one-timed a blast from the top of the circle at 8:25.
At 10:10, Kyle Topping — the only member of the Rockets to appear in all 39 games this season — corralled a rebound and deposited his 15th of the campaign.
Then Carsen Twarynski, who was foiled by a goalpost early in the period, took a pass from Kole Lind inside the T-Birds’ blue line and fired a laser over Hughes’ shoulder for his 27th of the season at 17:16.
The Rockets’ only lead of the game was short-lived.
Neuls answered for the T-Birds at 18:19, knotting the match 4-4 after 40 minutes.
Nolan Volcan and Austin Strand tallied in the third frame to give Seattle a 6-4 lead and the Rockets were unable to solve Hughes the rest of the way.
On a brighter note, reinforcements are on the way for the Rockets as Dillon Dube and Cal Foote could be ready to suit up as early as Wednesday against the Spokane Chiefs at Prospera Place following their gold-medal triumph with Canada at the world juniors.
“I guarantee they’re pretty happy,” said Rockets head coach Jason Smith, when asked about his own experience winning a gold medal at the 1993 edition. “It’s a lifelong memory of playing with a group of guys you’ll remember forever.
“It was a different tournament back then . . . standing on the blue line singing the national anthem was pretty special.
“They’re going to come back and they’ll have energy and be excited. The guys will be really happy to see them.”
ICE CHIPS: The Rockets had two winning streaks halted by Seattle — 13 in a row at home and six straight overall — but still sit atop the B.C. Division standings at 24-12-2-1 . . . . Announced attendance was 5,230 . . . . Kelowna outshot Seattle 30-27 . . . . The three stars were Neuls, Matthew Wedman and Nolan Foote, who chipped in with two assists . . . . Kelowna scratched Konrad Belcourt, Erik Gardiner, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Liam Kindree . . . . Next game is on the road Sunday against the Calgary Hitmen with a 3 p.m. PT start.