Rockets reach halfway point of prairie road trip tonight in Moose Jaw, take on the Broncos tomorrow
The Kelowna Rockets are in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan tonight to take on the Moose Jaw Warriors at 5:00pm before heading to Swift Current tomorrow to face the Broncos.
Kelowna will be without Tampa Bay Lightning prospect and Rockets Captain Cal Foote, Calgary Flames prospect and Rockets Assistant Captain Dillon Dube, and Vancouver Canucks prospect Kole Lind on Tuesday as the three will be chasing their World Junior dreams attending the National Junior Team Sport Chek Selection Camp for Team Canada beginning today in St. Catharines, Ont.. The camp runs December 12th-15th.
Moose Jaw will be without their Captain Brett Howden on Tuesday night as he will also be attending Canada’s selection camp.
Swift Current will be without Tyler Steenbergen(Canada), Aleksi Heponiemi(Finland), and Artyom Minulin(Russia) on Wednesday.
Assistant Coach Travis Crickard says losing Dube, Foote, and Lind is tough on the Rockets, but obviously they aren’t the only team dealing with losing their top players to World Juniors.
“Despite the loss of Howden, Moose Jaw is still stocked with offensive weapons in their three 20-year-olds. They also have some very smooth defensemen. One player doesn’t make a team so I do not expect Moose Jaw to take a step backwards in any sense,” Crickard said. “As for Swift Current, Heponiemi and Steenbergen have scored 44% of Swift Currents goals. When you subtract that from the lineup a team will be missing a large chunk of its offensive production.”
The Rockets face two of the stingiest defences in the league thus far, with Moose Jaw only having allowed 94 goals against, and Swift Current only allowing 95. Those numbers are good enough for third and fourth fewest goals against in the league. Crickard says he is confident in his teams scoring abilities, even with out top talents like Dube, Foote, and Lind.
“I don’t think goal scoring has ever been a problem for us. We have always been an organization that finds a way to score by committee,” told Crickard. “So I expect no less from our current players, but they must play to their individual strengths in order to so.”
The Rockets enter Tuesday night with a record of 18-9-2-1 that gives them 39 points. That’s good enough for second place in the B.C. Division, four back of the division leading Victoria Royals, and five ahead of the third place Vancouver Giants.
The Warriors enter Tuesday night with a 25-5-1-1 record that places them in first in the East Division as well as the entire WHL with 52 points. The Swift Current Broncos trail the first place Warriors by 6 points in that division. The Broncos host the Prince Albert Raiders this evening, they enter Tuesday night with a record of 22-7-2-0.
Following Wednesday night Kelowna heads to Prince Albert to face the Raiders on the 15th before finishing off their prairie road trip in Saskatoon on December 16th.
The next home game for the Rockets will be December 27th when they host the Kamloops Blazers at Prospera Place for a holiday B.C. Division battle.
Tickets are available for Rockets home games through selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or by phone at 250-762-5050.
