Courier: Peaks and valleys
r By Doyle Potenteau – Kelowna Daily Courier
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r Over the course of a season, teams travel through peaks and valleys. For the Kelowna Rockets, things will start looking up.
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r At Portland, the host Winterhawks rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to beat the Rockets 3-2 in WHL action on Saturday night. The loss was Kelowna‘s second in a row, a streak which started Friday night with a 4-2 loss in Everett, the first of a three-game road trip which concludes tonight in Spokane.
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r “I thought our first period and third period were good,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team outshot Portland 28-24. “But in the second, we struggled and we were in our own zone a lot. We‘re finding ways to lose right now, and that‘s the tough part.
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r “The guys worked hard, and, again, I thought they deserved to score a goal in the third to tie it up. But things aren‘t going our way right now, and we‘re finding ways to lose games instead of finding ways to win them. This is just one of those things, and we have to find a way to get through this. We‘re really hoping to get a couple of points in Spokane, but this is going to be a big challenge for us.”
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r Stepan Novotny, with his 14th goal of the season and second marker in as many nights, and Cody Chikie, with his eighth goal, scored for Kelowna (11-10-1-0), which led 2-1 after the first period. Ryan Johansen, with a power-play goal at 14:37 of the first, Luke Walker, with his 12th goal of the season late in the second, and Riley Boychuk, at 4:14 of the third, replied for Portland (15-7-0-0). Kelowna is now 0-7 this season against U.S. Division teams.
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r Chad Ketting, making his second start for Kelowna, made 21 saves for the Rockets, who were without captain Lucas Bloodoff (undisclosed reason). Kurtis Mucha turned aside 26 shots for the Winterhawks.
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r Tonight, Kelowna does, indeed, have a challenge on their hands in Spokane.
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r After a slow start to the season, Spokane (10-7-1-0) has found its form, and has won five of six games this month, including a 6-1 victory over the visiting Kamloops Blazers (10-11-2-0) on Saturday night.
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r The Chiefs, offensively led by Mitch Wahl (seven goals, 25 points) and Kyle Beach of Kelowna (18 goals, 24 points), is 5-1 when leading after the first period, but 8-0 when leading after two. Yet, strangely, the Chiefs are 0-3 when they‘re outshot, and the Rockets have outshot their opponents in their last two games, albeit both in losing causes.
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r Conversely, the Rockets are 5-2-1 and 6-2-1 when leading after the first and second periods, and are 3-4-1-0 when outshot. Game time between Kelowna and Spokane is 6 p.m.
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