Rockets Hang On

r The thought of overtime had to send a tremor of nerves through the Kelowna Rockets’ bench on Saturday night.

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r After all, the visitors had entered the third period with what looked to be a comfortable 3-0 lead in game one of the Western Conference Finals pitting provincial rivals Kelowna and Vancouver against one another.

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r But, after Alex Henry had snuck a 55 foot snap shot past Mark Guggenberger with 5:59 to play, it was suddenly a one-goal game. Fortunately, the Rockets stiffened up, held their composure and scored an empty net clincher to secure a 4-2 victory.

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r Mikael Backlund was the game’s first star, scoring a beautiful goal and setting up both of Ian Duval’s markers on the night. Unless you saw Backlund’s second period goal that opened the scoring, you really missed something.

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r With a full head of steam taking him through the neutral zone, the dynamic Swede crossed the Vancouver line before cutting outside, then quickly back in and launching a searing wrist shot that beat Tyson Sexsmith cleanly, low on the glove side.

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r Then, after Mitch Callahan had made it 2-0, Backlund turned ‘Super Hero’ again. As Craig Schira was edging the puck out of the Vancouver zone, Backlund chased him down from behind, lifted his stick and stole the puck.

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r Before Schira knew what had happened, Backlund had reached Duval with a tape to tape pass. From beneath the right wing circle, Duval drilled one off the post to make it 3-0 after 40 minutes.

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r The Rockets ran into penalty trouble in the third and allowed the Giants to slowly bring the game’s momentum in their favour. A too-many-men call led to Lance Buoma’s goal that made it 3-1 at 3:35.

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r Shortly thereafter, Guggenberger shut the door on Evander Kane who was set up, dead in front.

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r Despite seeing their lead dwindle, the Rockets kept the Vancouver scoring chances to a minimum. Following Henry’s goal, Sexsmith was called to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:30 left. But, the Giants couldn’t maintain possession inside the Kelowna zone and Backlund helped seal the game for good.

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r When his own two shots at the empty net were blocked, Backlund dove to poke a pass to Duval along the right wing boards. From there, Duval backhanded his 7^th of the playoffs, high into the vacated net.

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r The teams will face-off Sunday at Pacific Coliseum for game two before the series moves to Kelowna for games three and four next week.

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