Rockets Stay Hot

r The Rockets picked up their ninth victory in their past 10 starts on Saturday night.

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r Mikael Backlund scored twice and added an assist to pace the Kelowna attack in a 5-1 win over the Prince George Cougars.

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r Backlunds line mates, Ian Duval and Cody Almond, each had a couple of points in the game – Duval a goal and an assist and Almond, two assists. Adam Brown got the start in goal and stopped 25 of 26 shots to improve his record to 15-4-0-1 in this, his rookie WHL season.

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r The game wasn’t nearly as entertaining as Friday’s. Then again, the Rockets’ 3-2 overtime win over the Giants 24 hours earlier was likely the game of the year so far in Kelowna. The good news Saturday was the absence of any letdown on the part of the Rockets who improved their home record to 24-7-0-0 with the victory.

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r Backlund tapped in a bouncing puck to open the scoring at 4:10 of the opening period – a goal that touched off a 3-goal first period for the home side. Duval backhanded a rebound home at 10:08 before Lucas Bloodoff spun from the slot and whipped home his 16^th of the year at 15:24.

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r The Cougars showed some zip in the early moments of the middle period and pulled to within a couple. Sixteen-year-old rookie, Greg Fraser, scored on a determined individual effort at 3:28. Fraser fought off a trio of Kelowna defenders before depositing his 6^th of the year.

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r But, that was as close as the visitors would come on this night. Ryley Grantham tipped in Lucas Bloodoff’s point shot to send the bouncing puck past a startled Joe Caligiuri in the Prince George goal.

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r Backlund closed out the scoring when he tipped in Tysen Dowzak’s point shot at 10:07 of the third.

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