Rockets lose 5-1 in Spokane
r By Doyle Potenteau – Kelowna Daily Courier
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r So much for Kelowna‘s winning ways.
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r At Spokane, Wash., Kyle Beach had a wild game for the Chiefs, scoring his 52nd goal of the season and taking three minor penalties in leading Spokane to a 5-2 win over the Rockets in WHL action on Tuesday night. The result snapped Kelowna‘s modest three-game winning streak, which included back-to-back shutouts.
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r Levko Koper, with his 27th goal of the season, Blake Gal, Stefan Ulmer and Kenton Miller also scored for Spokane (43-21-3-2), which led 1-0 and 4-1 at the period breaks. With the victory, the Chiefs, sitting fourth in Western Conference standings, hit 91 points and climbed to within two of the third-place Everett Silvertips.
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r In turn, Everett, with 93, is tied for first with the Tri-City Americans, who regained top spot after the ‘Tips lost 3-0 in Portland to the fifth-place Winterhawks last night. Portland has 87 points in what‘s been a wild race for positioning between the top four U.S. Division teams.
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r Shane McColgan, with his 25th marker, a power-play tally that made it 2-1 at 5:30 of the second, and Brandon McMillan, with his 20th, replied for Kelowna (33-31-2-4).
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r Should the Rockets finish sixth, they‘ll head south to play an U.S. team in the first round of the playoffs. And if the post-season was to start today, Kelowna would play Everett. However, the Rockets are just two points up on seventh-place Kamloops. Both teams have two games left, with the seventh-place team taking on the second-place Vancouver Giants.
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r Ironically, the Rockets‘ next game is Friday in Vancouver (40-24-2-3), which lost 3-0 in Kelowna on Saturday. Last Wednesday, the Chiefs were dumped 3-2 at Prospera Place by Kelowna.
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r “(Our work ethic) was OK,” Rockets head coach Ryan Huska said of Tuesday night‘s loss. “At one point, it was 2-1 and we were getting into the game, and then they score to make it 3-1 off a nothing play.
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r “That was the play that changed the game.”
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r Mark Guggenberger started for Kelowna, but lasted just two periods before getting pulled. He made 13 saves on 17 shots. Adam Brown was 13-for-14 in relief. James Reid made 30 stops for the Chiefs.
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r With Beach registering his 52nd goal, it‘s believed he‘s only one of two Kelowna products have hit the 50-goal plateau in the WHL, with the other being former Rocket Jason Deleurme, who had 51 goals in 72 games in 1997-98.
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r ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were C Cody Chikie (shoulder, 4-to-6 weeks), C Sean Aschim, RW Jessey Astles and RW Kyle St. Denis (concussion, indefinite). . . . Kelowna was 1-for-3 on the power play, while Spokane was 1-for-2. . . . The attendance was 4,643.
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