Rockets open road trip with win over Seattle

The streaks continued for the Kelowna Rockets on Friday night.

First and foremost, the Rockets (8-10-0-0) won their fourth straight game and seventh in their last nine by defeating the host Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1 in Kent, Wash. That nine-game window followed consecutive losses to Seattle, 4-1 in Kent on Oct. 6 and 9-6 at Prospera Place in Kelowna on Oct. 10.

For Adam Foote, he’s still undefeated as a head coach in the WHL, improving to 4-0 after previously winning three straight home games since replacing Jason Smith on Oct. 23. For Nolan Foote, his goal-scoring streak is now up to six games — with eighth goals over that span — after netting his team-leading 11th of the season to give Kelowna a 3-0 lead in the second period of Friday’s victory.

For Kyle Topping, the game’s first star, he’s riding a five-game goal-scoring streak after getting the Rockets on the board with a power-play marker in the first period and bringing his season total to eight goals.

Topping also extended his points streak to 12 games, later assisting on Foote’s goal for a two-point night. He leads the Rockets with 25 points through 18 games and is tied for 11th in the WHL scoring race.

For Lassi Thomson, Kelowna’s impressive Finnish import on defence, he tallied two more assists and has registered three straight multi-point efforts. Thomson is still tied for the WHL lead in goals among blueliners with seven, and his 16 points are tied for seventh overall but tops among rookie defenders.

For Roman Basran, who finished with 32 saves and stopped all 13 shots he faced in a scoreless third period, it was his third straight win and his best save percentage of the season thus far at .970.

Libor Zabransky, with his second, also lit the lamp for the Rockets, who led 1-0 and 3-1 at the period breaks.

Zack Andrusiak, with his seventh, scored the lone goal for the T-Birds (7-7-2-0), who got 30 saves from Kelowna product Liam Hughes.

Seattle has been struggling as of late, with Friday’s setback stretching its losing streak to four games. The Thunderbirds have only netted four goals during that skid, previously getting shut out 2-0 in Prince George last Saturday, while also falling 4-1 to P.G. and 4-1 to Spokane last week.

Kelowna’s six-game road trip continues in Portland this weekend with a twinbill against the Winterhawks (10-6-0-1) tonight and Sunday before trekking to Prince George, Red Deer and Edmonton next week.

ICE CHIPS: The Rockets are fully healthy to start the trip, opting to scratch RD Devin Steffler, LD Kyle Pow, RW Ethan Ernst and RC Kyle Crosbie . . . . Friday’s three stars were Topping, Thomson and Andrusiak.