Nevlach

Character win last night. Was on the edge of my seat just listening!

Ah I just noticed that I read the whl schedule wrong - no games tonight! So Kelowna doesn't have to do 3 in 3...phew.

Oh wow - another back to back with Kamloops for 3 games in 3 nights for Kelowna....who made this schedule, a Blazers fan??

We gotta pick it up. We're dominating crappy teams but losing to teams we need to beat (Portland and Kamloops in particular).

For sure.

I haven't noticed people saying Ballard has been much better than Garrison, but then again I haven't been on CDC in awhile. That surprises me to hear that though. I never said Garrison made a bad play on the fluke goal, only that he was on the ice, and he got caught flat footed when he should have been able to take Tootoo out along the boards and keep pressuring him he stopped moving his feet and had to settle for reaching. In anycase I just hope this isn't the best we see of him. He has potential and I hope he fulfills it.

2 Detroit PP goals = 0 2 Detroit goals = -2 2 Canucks goals = +2 Net = 0

He does have a cannon from the point. I like that he's not afraid to shoot. Even though he only has 2 goals in 18 games he's not afraid to get the puck to the net. Goals will go in eventually. I'm just hoping he settles in a little bit better on the back end. He hasn't been horrible this year but also not worth more than a couple million at most.

Umm he didn't contribute anything to either goal. And he got caught flat footed on the Tootoo goal, stopped moving his feet and just reached in. All Ballard did was have the puck bounce in off his backside and from that angle yes Ballard should be in the slot because a Detroit player was there...it's called covering your man. Right play, bad bounce. Why blame Luongo at all for that he likely didn't have a chance with such a fluke deflection. It wasn't Garrison's worst play of the game by any means - as you say he did keep Tootoo to the outside...nevertheless if he had kept moving his feet Tootoo wouldn't have got around him and gotten a shot so easily. You're pretty sure of yourself for not reading the rest of my argument. Garrison did not have a good game. If you think I'm wrong explain why he had a great game. I'm interested to know how someone can be on the ice for 4 goals a game and have it considered one of his good games...

Yeah boxscore didn't say so I watched the highlights. On for 4 Detroit goals (looked bad on 3 of them) and on for 2 Canucks goals where he contributed exactly nothing to the play.

So he was on for Tootoo's goal which may have been a fluke off Ballard but Garrison looked pretty flat footed after Tootoo got around him when Garrison stopped skating, then 2 of 3 PP goals (Cleary was his man and Cleary scored, then he fell and spun as the Detroit player scored the 3rd PP goal), then just standing there on the 8th goal where he skates over to cover a guy who is already covered.... Sure he was on for Sedin's second goal in which he was just standing there and didn't contribute to the goal so yay free +1, same thing with Higgins goal he was on ice but didn't contribute just standing at the blue line. Now does this mean he is a bad player? No. But he sure had a bad game. Cause for concern? Maybe.

How many goals was Garrison on for in the Detroit game? Had to be atleast 5...

Gettin kinda screwed having to play 3 in 3 while Kamloops only has to do the back to back with us. Hopefully we'll be able to give decent efforts throughout.

Well Kelowna split with Portland in a back to back in Portland earlier this season. And we were in the first game but seemed to take the 2nd game off here in Kelowna. It'd be an interesting playoff series but Kelowna would need to be a little better obviously to have a chance.

Dissappointing weekend for Kelowna. Thought it would be a split for sure.

Man I thought we deserved that one. Showed a lot of heart - we were a missed offside away from being in OT right now. Themsthebrakes I guess.

Yeah missed offside for sure. Also we've had the better chances and are outshooting them 11-8 - just got no breaks in that period. Portland goalie looking good.

Portland strikes first but Kelowna definitely getting their chances.

Tough game tonight - both Kelowna and Portland coming off of rare losses!

Well we lost - ending our 17-0-2 run. First loss since Dec 16. Good news though is Portland lost too. Maybe we're just focussing on the back to back coming up to care about Calgary and Spokane in between

29 second longest is 24 - but we'll need to be the Winterhawks twice to get past it. We sit at 23 and we have back to back vs. Portland for games 24 and 25. Bad timing!

Man 17 straight games since returning from Christmas and NO regulations losses... I can't believe this team!

Dylen McKinlay could remember a time when Prospera Place haunted the visiting team. The home rink of the Kelowna Rockets then featured a team with soon-to-be NHL regulars in Jamie Benn, Tyler Myers and Mikael Backlund alongside outstanding juniors Cody Almond and Colin Long. The 2008-09 Rockets had a decided home-ice advantage five seasons ago, and a team like McKinlay's Chilliwack Bruins would need four visits before narrowly edging out the home side in a shootout. "That was a tough place to play," McKinlay recalled. "I think when they lost those players maybe it went down a bit." It was a slow decline in the seasons that followed. Home-ice dominance in British Columbia's interior began dissipating, and eventually turned into a sub-.500 record last season. Suddenly, the tough rink where visiting teams could mostly only hope to walk away with points became one where road teams collectively won more than the home team. "Last year, I was with Kootenay and came in and we won here," McKinlay said. "I guess last year was easier." It became such a troubling trend for the Rockets that head coach Ryan Huska and team captain Colton Sissons took it to heart in their discussions during the summer. "We knew that our rink wasn't a very difficult rink to play in for the past few seasons," Sissons said. McKinlay, who was acquired from Kootenay in September, would soon learn his new team yearned to return to those days. The crowd at Prospera Place had always made for an intimidating opposition, but the team they backed wasn't backing up their enthusiasm last season. The Rockets finished with a 16-18-0-2 mark at home in 2011-2012, the first sub-.500 season on home ice since 1999-2000. Huska knew a return to prominence coincided almost entirely with success at home. "You have to make your home days count," he said. "All the top teams have great home records. We wanted to try to bring our crowd back into the game. We wanted to bring some excitement into it and, most importantly, we wanted our players to bring back the pride they have in the front of the jersey and that's something that's been important to our guys." Success didn't come immediately, as the Rockets lost two of their first three home games this season. That's also where the losing stopped. The Rockets restored home-ice dominance with a current run of 21 straight wins at Prospera Place. The previous record in Kelowna was 18, while the franchise record is 24 from the team's days in Tacoma, Wash. The Rockets have enjoyed so much success this season, even their captain couldn't have envisioned this type of dominance when he discussed the issue with his teammates. "We're all pretty surprised in our dressing room about it," Sissons said. "That's one thing we focused on coming into camp and we did a great job turning that around." Huska acknowledges a streak such as theirs requires some luck and a few bounces, but the main ingredient to the Rockets' success is the style in which they play. Like the rankings before the season began, opposing teams hadn't thought of the Rockets as one of the league's elite. "I think we caught a lot of teams by surprise," Huska said. "We don't get any easy games here (anymore). Everybody's coming in with their best games, which is forcing us to be better every night." What makes the Rockets so difficult to play against is their balanced lineup. As Huska and Sissons readily admit, there's no superstar in Kelowna. But a team with four solid lines trumps one team laden with a few superstars and lacking depth. "Any given night, we have a different line stepping up," Huska said. "If somebody does get shut down so far this year, we've had other lines that have stepped up and contributed. I think it makes us harder to play against, because you can't key in on one or two lines because we have all sorts of different guys that can generate offence." McKinlay noticed his new team's depth quickly when a different line adorned the top of the rotation before almost every game. "I've never been on a team where we have four lines that can contribute and produce every night," he said, adding such an approach helps team morale. "There's no cancer on our team or no one that doesn't hang out with the group. We're definitely very tight." The bond with the community is just as tight. The pride in wearing the Rockets uniform is restored, just as is the pride with fans eager to share their enthusiasm when encountering players outside of the rink. "That makes it all worth it at the end of the day," said Sissons, "when people take time like that to let you know that you're doing something right." http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/juniors/2013/01/31/king_kelowna_rockets_success_at_prospera_place/

Hard to be doom and gloom after overtime loss Losing in overtime never feels good. But realistically, if you throw in all of the variables it is hard to feel discouraged after a 6-5 overtime loss last night to the Kamloops Blazers. The Rockets were playing their fourth game in five night's and simply ran into penalty trouble. When you are not sharp mentally, which fatigue plays a factor, you take undisciplined penalties that normally you wouldn't take. I am not here to make excuses, but the game was clearly decided on the power play. Had the Rockets not taken those trips to the penalty box, the chances of the Blazers scoring three even strength goals were slim. I thought the Rockets were the better team five on five. Only when the Blazers had the extra man on the ice were they able to dominate the play. Sure, the Rockets gave up two - two goal leads in the third period, but at the end of the day with the schedule this team has endured in January, picking up a point in a building where the home team has lost just four times in regulation is a pretty decent accomplishment. I could come on this blog and be negative after the loss, but honestly I can't. Against elite teams like Kamloops their is a fine line between winning and losing. You can't take bad penalties, you need great goaltending and you need a good response from your own specialty teams unit. The Rockets fell short in those three areas and still managed a point. Tough to leave the Interior Savings Centre feeling glum when you look at the big picture of how the visiting team played. The Rockets could have won this game as easily as the Blazers. Zach Franko hits the goal post in overtime on the teams only shot on goal. It was one of three goal posts and two breakaways the visiting team failed to convert on. The coaches won't complain about it, but I thought the penalty in overtime was questionable. In a tied game, against two marquee teams, Rockets forward Dylen McKinlay attempts to check Blazers forward Tim Bozon with his stick in the neutral zone. Bozon goes down, what I would consider easily, and the Blazers go to the power play. Good on Bozon for going down. Veteran move. That call essentially put a gun to the head of the Rockets. If the call went the other way the Blazers would have been pleading for mercy. It's a death sentence. Kamloops is an elite team that when given the power play chance, specifically on a 4 on 3, will beat you. In my opinion the tough penalty to take was the slash Carter Rigby took when the Rockets had a 5-3 lead. It gave the Blazers momentum and the game tilted in their favor after that. A tough night for the goaltenders. Cole Cheveldave fought the puck and was suspect on Rigby's second period goal which made the score 5-3. Cheveldave even had one squeeze past him, and with a fresh sheet of ice, the puck may have slowly slid past the goal line. It is safe to say Jordon Cooke had his struggles too. JC Lipon's wrister from just inside the blue line less than a minute into the third period would have been stopped 99 percent of the time. Instead the shot beat him blocker side and the Rockets two goal lead was reduced to one. But, lets not forget Cooke's tremendous save against Blazers d-man Marek Hrbas on a grade 'A' chance in overtime. It should have been game over, but Cooke came up large. It was Cooke's first loss in 21 starts. That is a WHL record, even though that achievement isn't technically kept by the league. Chase Suoto scored the game winner after he redirected a puck - in the air - from a point shot. I have mentioned on this blog before that I've been impressed by Suoto's improvement as a player. He came into the WHL wanting to be a scrapper, to antagonize and be a disturber but concussions have likely forced him to change his game. The change has been for the better. Blazer forwards Colin Smith and Tim Bozon receive a lot of positive press for the dynamic plays they make. What shouldn't be lost is the contribution that Matt Needman and Cole Ully make. Blazers fans can disagree with me if they want, but I thought 5 on 5, Needman and Ully were more affective. I predicted this season that Brendan Ranford would score 50 goals this season. The Blazers sharp shooter is no where near that total. It has been a tough season for the 20 year-old, who looked like a 50 goal man last night with 1+2=3. It would be interesting to know how many wins/points the Blazers have earned with late third period rallies. They are the kings of the third period comeback. Either they score the tying goal late or score the game winner. In the two wins against the Rockets, the Blazers have scored the tying goal or game winner with 33 second left (3-2 win Sept 22) and the tying goal with 22 second left (last night) in regulation time. Interesting to note that both those goals were scored on the power play. These two teams are evenly matched. It would make for an outstanding playoff series where home ice advantage would be crucial. My gut feeling is these two won't meet in the post season though, so enjoy the final five meetings of the season between the two teams. For the credibility of the three stars, I think the Blazers organization has to rethink their approach. Whoever selects them must take a more balanced approach. Giving the Blazers all three stars looks bad on them. If you want to go that way, mention that the 'Blazers three stars are' and take that approach. My good friend Jon Keen, who see's the game very well, gave Rockets forward Myles Bell the third star on his broadcast. A few more positive notes. The overtime loss still earned a point for the Rockets, who moved within three points of Portland for first place in the overall WHL standings. The Rockets lead in the BC Division was reduced by just one, so they still have a 7 point lead on Kamloops with a game in hand. With one game left in January, the Rockets are 11-0-2-0 in the month. Can you honestly be critical of that record? If you do, please go see a doctor. From Regan Bartel's blog

*pretends the refs had nothing to do with the outcome*