Rockets try to continue success
The Rockets look to keep the good times rolling against the Tri-City Americans on Friday night.
Coming off of a big 4-3 overtime win, the Rockets are in a better mood than they have been recently.
Assistant coach Kris Mallette feels there are still strides to be taken, but last night was definitely a good step.
“Obviously we’ve been rolling through some tough times, but the starts to our games have been really good we just have to put sixty minutes together” said Mallette. “The guys are feeling much better. Three and eight would’ve been a little demoralizing so four and seven, we’ll take it and just keep moving on and trying to build that sixty minute game.”
Much to the pleasure of Mallette, the Rockets held a two goal lead after the first period last night which is something the Rockets have been able to do only once before so far this season.
“It’s nice to score early. Our first periods are usually pretty strong so it was nice to actually get that two goal lead heading into two. They weren’t pretty goals, but it’s guys doing the little things and getting pucks to the net and when you do that good things happen” Mallette said. “It wasn’t a six goal game but goals are goals, and we will take them when we can.”
Mallette also touched on the improvement in discipline.
“We still took four, and I’d say two of the four are not penalties that we’d like to take, but is it better than six? Yeah” said Mallette. “I thought our penalty kill was a lot better as well even though they did get one on the powerplay we didn’t have much of a chance on it. But it’s something we have to continually touch on so that we can make sure these guys hold each other accountable so that we’re not killing penalties all the time.”
The assistant coach couldn’t stress enough that the Rockets need to carry a sixty minute game into Friday night against the Americans.
“Consistency. We have to be able to build and play for sixty minutes. We’re going to keep touching on the same things; Pucks to the net, discipline, skating hard, and hopefully we can come out with the same result.”
Kelowna heads into Friday night with a 4-7-0-0 record that has them in fifth in the B.C. division, just two points back of third.
The Americans head into the matchup with a 6-4-0-0 record that has them placed in third in the U.S. division.
The Rockets are back in action again on Saturday when they head to Seattle for a short one game road trip.
The Rockets then return home to host the Victoria Royals on Wednesday night for another Hat-Trick Wednesday.
Tickets are available for Friday’s game and Wednesday’s game through www.selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or by phone at 250-762-5050.
