Rockets lose rubber match against Thunderbirds

Kelowna will look to rebound tonight in hosting rival Victoria

Cole Tisdale got to make his WHL debut — and did decent in relief of Brodan Salmond — but that was both good and bad news for the Kelowna Rockets.

That the 15-year-old affiliate goaltender was thrust into the net was the sign of a bad night for Kelowna in falling 7-2 to the host Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Wash., on Friday. Tisdale took over after the T-Birds stretched their lead to 5-1 midway through the second period.

These playoff rivals — Seattle has ended Kelowna’s season the past two years — were clashing for the third straight Friday, having split the previous meetings.

On Jan. 5, the Thunderbirds took the first game in Kelowna, beating the Rockets 6-4. Kelowna evened the season series last Friday with a 6-2 win at Kent, but the T-Birds avenged that loss convincingly in the rubber match.

Salmond had a rough outing in his second start since returning from a knee injury, getting chased by Seattle after allowing five goals on just 16 shots through 33 minutes 40 seconds.

Tisdale, called up due to injuries to both James Porter and Roman Basran, came in to stop 15 of 17 shots. Dillon Dube, with his 20th goal of the season to get Kelowna on the board in the second period after Seattle raced out to a 3-0 lead, and Conner Bruggen-Cate, cutting the deficit to 6-2 in the third, scored for the Rockets (2814-2-1), who return home to host the rival Victoria Royals (27-16-3-1) tonight. Puck drop is 7 p.m. at Prospera Place.

That will be a first-place showdown after the Royals edged the Vancouver Giants 4-3 in a shootout at Langley on Friday night to close within one point of Kelowna for top spot in the B.C. Division. The Giants (25-14-4-3) are also just two points behind the Rockets now.