Rockets Number One in BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten
The Kelowna Rockets are ranked as the number one team in the second to last BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten Rankings of the 2002-03 season. The weekly rankings of the top ten teams in the Canadian Hockey League is created by a panel of National Hockey League scouts.
The Rockets won twice last week as they won a pair of home games defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-1 on Friday and the Tri-City Americans 8-3 on Saturday to remain in a tie for first place overall in the Western Hockey League with the Red Deer Rebels. Kelowna has a won-lost-tied-overtime lost record of 48-14-6-1 as they move into the final week of the WHL’s 2002-03 regular season schedule. The Rockets will close out the regular season with a home game on Wednesday with the Kamloops Blazers and with a home and home series on Friday and Saturday with the Vancouver Giants. Kelowna will host Vancouver on Friday and then end the regular season in Vancouver on Saturday.
The Red Deer Rebels are ranked as the number two team in this week’s BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten Rankings. The Rebels, who have been listed in all 22 of this season’s rankings, won two of three games on the road last week. Red Deer will end a four game road trip on Wednesday when they visit the Calgary Hitmen in a game that will be telecast live on Rogers Sportsnet’s West and Pacific Regions. The Rebels will end the regular season with a home and home series with the Kootenay Ice that begins in Red Deer on Friday and concludes in Kootenay on Saturday.
The Baie-Comeau Drakkar are listed as the third team in the BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten Rankings for the second week in a row. The Drakkar, who are on a six game winning streak, are in first place overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with a record of 47-14-6-2 and they led the second place Halifax Mooseheads by four points. In action last week, Baie-Comeau won three times as they posted a 9-5 road win in Chicoutimi over the Sagueneens on Tuesday and then returned home for a 3-2 win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Friday and a 4-0 win over the Rimouski Oceanic on Sunday. This week the Drakkar have two road games visiting the Quebec Remparts on Saturday and Chicoutimi on Sunday.
The Kitchener Rangers won three times last week to extend their winning streak to seven games and the Rangers are ranked number four in this week’s BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten. The Rangers, who have a two point lead over the Ottawa 67's in the overall Ontario Hockey League standings, have four games left to play in the 2002-03 regular season schedule. On Friday Kitchener will visit the Guelph Storm in the first game of a home and home series that will conclude in Kitchener on Friday in a game that will be telecast live on the Rogers Sportsnet National network. The Rangers will travel to Plymouth on Saturday to face the Whalers who are ranked seventh in this week’s rankings, and then close out the regular season at home on Sunday against the London Knights.
Listed below is this week’s BMO Bank of Montreal Top Ten Rankings. Next week’s rankings, which will be released on Monday, March 17, will be the final rankings of the season.
Rank Team
1 Kelowna Rockets
2 Red Deer Rebels
3 Drakkar de Baie-Comeau
4 Kitchener Rangers
5 Ottawa 67's
6 Halifax Mooseheads
7 Plymouth Whalers
8 Brandon Wheat Kings
9 Sarnia Sting
10 Titan d’Acadie-Bathurst
