The Kelowna Rockets have developed a rich history since relocating to the Okanagan in the summer of 1995.
Three WHL championships, several B.C. Division banners and even a Memorial Cup victory on home ice at Prospera Place in the spring of 2004. But the team first took root in Tacoma, Wash., with the inaugural season being 1991-92, and several franchise records were established in that Seattle suburb of approximately 200,000.
Among them: Longest winning streak on home ice - 24 games, from Oct. 28, 1992 to Feb. 13, 1993. That is second only to 29 straight home wins by the Kamloops Blazers in 1993-94.
Since moving northwest to Kelowna, the most consecutive home victories for the Rockets is 18 - a mark set in 2002-03 and matched with Wednesday's 5-3 win over the Spokane Chiefs at Prospera Place.
So while many have hailed Wednesday's win as a franchise record-tying achievement, the Rockets still have six more to go to equal their Tacoma total.
That said, Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska was thrilled about Wednesday's victory.
"It's something our room should be proud of," he said. "We talked before the year started about being better at home here, and our guys have taken a lot of pride in trying to make this a hard building to play in.
"We're proud of the effort they've put forth so far at home and we're happy that they've put themselves in with some pretty elite company."
That company being the 2002-03 team, which won Kelowna's first WHL title with Huska serving as an assistant coach.
Jesse Schultz led that squad in scoring, with 53 goals and 104 points, while the roster also featured a handful of current NHL players - Duncan Keith, Shea Weber, Josh Gorges, Blake Comeau, Nick Tarnasky and Troy Bodie.
"The team that we tied was quite the team," Huska said. "They had a lot of character in the room at that time."
Gorges took to Twitter earlier Wednesday in response to a tweet by Rockets play-by-play caller Regan Bartel: "ya I remember (the 2002-03 streak) and I know they are built the same way we were that year #unselfish and #determined … go get it!!"
Huska retweeted Gorges' well wishes and the current edition 'got it' done in front of 5,017 fans at Prospera Place.
The Rockets (32-10-2-1) make the return trip to Spokane to rematch the Chiefs (28-15-1-0) tonight, before hosting the last-place Vancouver Giants (12-33-0-0) on Saturday night in hopes of earning a Kelowna-best 19th win in a row at home.
The puck drop on Saturday is 7 p.m. at Prospera Place.
"I'm excited to get back down there (to Spokane)," said Rockets captain Colton Sissons, who tallied a goal and an assist in Wednesday's 5-3 win, which saw Kelowna build a 4-0 lead before surviving a late Chiefs rally.
Undoubtedly, Sissons and his teammates will also be excited to get back home, where the Rockets are enjoying a turnaround from last season. To date, Kelowna is 19-2-0-0 at home this season, with its last loss at Prospera Place coming on Oct. 10 - a 6-4 setback to Spokane. Since then, the Rockets have been unbeatable here. Last season, not so much - Kelowna finished the 2011-12 regular season with a 16-18-0-2 home record.
Overall, the Rockets already have more wins than last season when Kelowna finished third in B.C. Division standings at 31-31-4-6.
This year, after scoring win No. 32 on Wednesday, the Rockets are topping the B.C. Division - four points up on the rival Kamloops Blazers (29-13-2-3). As a result, Kelowna moved up another spot, to fourth, in the CHL top-10 rankings this week.
ICE CHIPS: As for individual streaks, Rockets goaltender Jordon Cooke won his 16th straight start on Wednesday.