Kelowna Rockets face busy 3 days after week off

3 games in 3 nights will be anything but a holiday break

The Kelowna Rockets are in store for a busy weekend as they play three games in as many days.

The Rockets travel to face the Vancouver Giants on Friday night before returning home to meet the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday and Sunday.

Kelowna picked up two wins last weekend as they downed the Spokane Chiefs 4-3 in a shootout Friday night and shut out the Kamloops Blazers 2-0 Saturday night at home. Goaltender James Porter says that the Rockets have to be ready to go out of the gate.

“Being off this week, we need to come ready and prepared for when it comes to game time in Vancouver,” said Porter. “It’s going to be a big game, with two very important points on the line. Right after that, we come home and we need to be ready for Portland. We’re excited to get going after having the week off.”

Kelowna has already played the Giants six times this season, with Vancouver winning five of those games.

The Rockets claimed their first victory in the season series Jan. 27 in Langley where Leif Mattson scored the shootout-winning goal. They last played on Feb. 6 when the Giants downed the Rockets 2-0.

The Rockets (26-29-4-1) are third in the B.C. Division with two weeks to play in the regular season. They’re five in front of the Kamloops Blazers, but nine points back of Victoria.

Everyone is chasing Vancouver (41-14-2-2).

The Winterhawks will host the Spokane Chiefs on Friday night before heading to Kelowna. They’ll play the Rockets at 7 p.m. on Saturday and 5 p.m., Sunday.

The two teams played back-to-back games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in November. Portland blanked the Rockets 3-0 and then defeated them 4-2 the next night.

The Winterhawks (37-17-3-3) are second in the U.S. Division and trail the Everett Silvertips by eight points.