Castanet: Rockets win
r Cindy Rogers photo
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r By Wayne Moore – Castanet.net
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r Kyle St. Denis snapped a 1-1 tie with his 12th of the season late in regulation time, lifting the Kelowna Rockets to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels Wednesday afternoon at Prospera Place.
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r St. Denis cut in from the right face-off circle and backhanded the puck past Rebels net minder Darcy Kuemper at 14:26 for what proved to be the winning goal.
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r "I was coming down the middle of the ice and Shane (McColgan) got the puck and slid it through their d-man to me," says St. Denis of the winning goal.
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r "I had that breakaway earlier in the game and I didn't finish so I wanted to finish it this time."
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r Adam Brown did the rest, making 32 saves including a couple from point blank range over the final five minutes to preserve the one goal victory.
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r "I was just trying to do what the coach asked me to do, to keep the team in the game," says Brown.
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r "I knew we would eventually get something going whether it took 60 minutes, overtime or a shootout. I just tried to hold the team in the game."
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r Lucas Bloodoff scored the other Rockets goal, deflecting home Tyson Barrie's shot during a second period power-play.
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r The lone Rebels goal came off the stick of Josh Cowan with just two seconds remaining in the opening period after Brown appeared to have been run over by a Red Deer forward.
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r Rockets coach Ryan Huska said after the game the referee admitted he missed the call when they talked prior to the start of the second period.
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r For his part, Brown says the non-call was something he had to forget about quickly.
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r "It was a bit of a tough break not getting the call, but you can't harp on it too much. Stuff like that happens during a game so you have to shrug it off and keep going."
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r Both teams seemed to be a little sluggish throughout the game, which may have been understandable for the Rebels, who played the previous night in Kamloops.
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r As for his team, Rockets coach Ryan Huska says he didn't think the 2 p.m. start had anything to do with his teams sluggish play.
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r "I think they had a reason to be a little sluggish. I thought they actually worked pretty hard for the situation they were in with the short turnaround from last night," says Rockets head coach Ryan Huska.
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r "You expect that everything would get compressed a little bit and it would be like a regular game day."
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r Despite the way the team played at times, Huska was more than impressed with the way Brown stood up to the pressure Red Deer was able to mount at different points throughout the game.
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r "It allows everybody to get a little bit more confidence if you know your goaltender is going to make saves," added Huska.
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r "I think Adam had that feel tonight. The way he looked I didn't think anything was going to get past him tonight."
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r The flow of the game was halted not once, but twice, when panes of glass shattered in the Rebels corner. The first occurred from a Curt Gogol slap shot in the second period while the second came off what looked like an innocent wrist shot from Cody Chikie in the third.
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r The game was delayed a total of about 26 minutes because of the two delays.
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r The Rockets, 11-8-1 on the season, jumped back ahead of Kamloops into second spot in the B.C. Division.
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r Kelowna now hits the road for three, all against teams in the U.S. Division.
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r They'll play in Everett Friday, Portland Saturday and Spokane Sunday.
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r Thus far this season, the Rockets are 0-5 against teams from the U.S. Division.
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