Off Day for Rockets on the Road
As the Kelowna Rockets prepare to continue a six game road trip Tuesday night in Brandon, let’s take a look back at last night’s 4-1 loss in Moose Jaw.
That put the Rockets at 0-1-0-1 on the trip so far after a 4-3 shootout loss in Swift Current on Friday.
After last night’s game Kelowna bussed to Regina where it will remain for the rest of the trip. Tuesday they play Brando and Wednesday they meet Regina.
Here’s Larry Fisher’s story on the game last night as posted on Dubnation.ca
By Larry Fisher
The Daily Courier
Moose Jaw is really good at home.
Kelowna, not so much on the road.
That was evident on Saturday night as the host Warriors scored four power-play goals in a 4-1 win over the visiting Rockets in WHL action. It was Moose Jaw’s league-leading 15th home-ice win, while the Rockets lost for the 10th time in 13 road games this season.
“They play a good, simple game and they work,” said a complimentary Ryan Cuthbert, Kelowna’s assistant coach who is filling in for head coach Ryan Huska, an assistant with Canada’s national junior team. “They didn’t do anything out of the ordinary; they didn’t cycle us to death or anything like that. They just kept it simple and made good on their power plays, and did a good job on their (penalty kill) for the most part.”
Indeed, special teams were the difference. Moose Jaw went 4-for-7 on the power play in their new $60-million arena, Mosaic Place, while Kelowna was 0-for-5.
Shane McColgan, with his ninth goal of the season for his team-leading 33rd point, scored shorthanded for the Rockets (12-15-2-2). Kelowna (3-7-2-1 on the road) was coming off a 4-3 shootout loss in Swift Current on Friday to open its six-game, pre-Christmas trek across the Prairies.
From Moose Jaw, the Rockets were heading to Regina later Saturday, that being Kelowna’s new home base until Wednesday. Cuthbert said the team would do off-ice bonding today, then practise on Monday before travelling to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (19-12-1-1) on Tuesday. Then it’s back to Regina to face the Pats (16-14-1-1) Wednesday, before wrapping up the trip with stops in Prince Albert and Saskatoon next weekend.
Kenton Miller, with two goals, Sam Fioretti and Andrew Johnson, all on the man advantage, paced the Warriors (20-9-3-1). Luke Siemens backstopped the win with 27 saves for Moose Jaw (15-3-2-1 at home), though the Rockets outshot their hosts 28-24, including 11-3 in a scoreless third period.
Adam Brown took the loss for the Rockets, making 20 saves.
The goals Moose Jaw scored weren’t pretty passing plays, rather rebounds and redirections.
“It was nothing crazy that they did,” said Cuthbert. “They put pucks to the net and we didn’t tie up sticks, so they basically had four easy goals and that was the game.”
The turning point came in the second period, shortly after McColgan cut the deficit to 3-1 at 14:09. On his next shift, McColgan took exception to a Moose Jaw hit and ended up fighting Fioretti at 15:56. McColgan was assessed the instigator and a 10-minute misconduct, and, just six seconds into that power play, Miller netted his second of the night at 16:02 with an assist from Kelowna product Cody Beach, who otherwise had a quiet night.
“They should’ve had a penalty (for the initial hit), there’s no way we should’ve ended up short,” Cuthbert said. “I do understand the instigator call because (McColgan) did come over. It’s a situation where Shane’s one of our better guys and I know he’s sticking up for a teammate, but we could’ve used him for those 17 minutes for sure. It was a combination of everything. We had a couple bad (calls) for sure, but no excuses. That’s the way it goes sometimes and we need to step up and kill penalties.”
Both teams played without their top forwards, with Kelowna’s Brett Bulmer and Moose Jaw’s Quinton Howden attending Canada’s world-junior selection camp in Calgary this weekend. Howden is a veteran from last year’s silver medal-winning squad, while Bulmer is also expected to challenge for a roster spot.
Kelowna also lost another forward in Saturday’s setback, with centre Colton Heffley leaving the contest with a lower-body injury that Cuthbert said would be further evaluated today.
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna scratched LW Bulmer, C Cody Chikie (upper-body, 3-4 weeks), C Spencer Main (upper-body, 3-4 weeks) and D Myles Bell (lower-body, day-to-day).
