Drew Owsley stood tall for the Tri-City Americans on Tuesday night.
The Kelowna Rockets, meanwhile, didn‘t have many legs to stand on.
Owsley made 30 saves for Tri-City, including stops on what looked to be two sure, momentum-turning goals, as the Americans bested the Rockets 4-2 in WHL action at Prospera Place.
Had it not been for Owsley, Tuesday‘s outcome might have been different.
Then again, maybe not, as the Rockets fielded a shortened roster, with five regulars and two rookies out with injuries.
Chief amongst Kelowna‘s missing was forward Brandon McMillan, the team‘s leading scorer, who will be out of action for likely the next two weeks with a fractured toe on his right foot. The five-foot-11 swingman sustained the injury blocking a shot in Saturday‘s 7-1 home win over Prince George.
On Tuesday, he was wearing a cast.
"When you take one of your leaders out of the lineup, you can‘t replace that one guy," said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team‘s six-game winning streak came to an end.
"Brandon‘s a big part of the pace that we do play with. But other guys are expected to step up and contribute in other players‘ absences."
Kruise Reddick, Jarrett Toll, Russian rookie Sergei Drozd, with his first WHL goal, and Johnny Lazo, with a breakaway insurance marker, scored for Tri-City (6-2).
The Americans, who won their fourth straight game, led 2-0 and 3-1 at the period breaks despite getting outshot 32-23.
Kyle St. Denis, with his fifth and sixth goals of the season, replied for Kelowna (6-3-1). Adam Brown made 19 saves for the Rockets.
Kelowna‘s coach was impressed with Owsley.
"He played well," said Huska. "Tri-City has a knack, for whatever reason, of finding good goaltenders, and (Owsley) played well. But we hit a couple of posts, and maybe if those go the other way, maybe it‘s a different outcome."
Said Owsley: "I think I made some timely saves out there, but I was just trying to give my team a chance to win. Whatever I can do to give us some momentum, I‘ll do. But that was a big game for me and the team, as we capitalized on our chances.
"We knew they were gong to come out hard because they had won six in a row. They took it to us a little in the first, but a couple of timely goals gave us the momentum, and we kept rolling."
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna‘s scratches were RW Brandon McMillan (toe, 2 weeks), D Tyson Barrie (knee, shoulder, 1 week)
D Mitchell Chapman (shoulder, 1 week), C Max Adolph (ankle, 4 weeks), LW Evan Bloodoff (knee, 6 months), G Mark Guggen-berger (sports hernia, indefinite) and D Kyle Verdino (ankle, 2 weeks). Tri-City‘s scratches were D Zachary Yuen, LW Neal Prokop (groin, day to day), D Brock Sutherland, RW Patrick Holland and RW Mils Moser.
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