If the Kelowna Rockets were an uptight bunch, they certainly didn‘t show it on Friday.
Matter of fact, they seemed as cool as this month‘s unseasonable weather.
The Western Hockey League championship series between Kelowna and the Calgary Hitmen resumes tonight with Game 6 at Prospera Place. The Rockets lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, though Calgary has made a late charge, winning the last two games by blowouts.
On Wednesday, facing a 3-0 deficit, the Hitmen posted a 6-2 decision in Game 4 to prevent a Kelowna sweep. Twenty-four hours later, Calgary won again, this time 6-1 on home ice at the Saddledome in Game 5. A Hitmen victory tonight would not only level the series, but force a Game 7 in Calgary on Monday.
Mind you, a Rockets win tonight ends the series. And it‘s been a long, long time since Kelowna lost three in a row – the middle of January, when the Rockets dropped four in a row after the WHL trade deadline, and the team was busy readjusting itself. But after that, the Rockets won 21 of 25 regular-season games, and 15 of 21 playoff games.
Little wonder, then, why they didn‘t seem uptight on Friday.
“The guys are excited about the opportunity we have,” said Rockets centre and captain Colin Long, who has three goals and 14 points through 21 playoff games.
“If someone told us we‘re gonna be up 3-2 with a chance to close out the WHL final at home, before this started, the guys would have quickly taken it. So we‘re really excited about what‘s in front of us.”
After Game 5, Rockets head coach Ryan Huska was asked if there was a fear factor in Kelowna‘s dressing room, that Calgary may have unstoppable momentum after scoring 12 times in two games. The Hitmen had just three goals in the first three games.
“Unstoppable? Come on, we won three in a row (to start),” said Huska. “So we‘re definitely not out of it and we don‘t feel that in our dressing room. Our group isn‘t going to roll over just because we lost two in a row, I can tell you that much.”
Huska was also asked if fear can lead to inspiration.
“Inspiration should be winning one more game to win a championship,” said Huska. “That‘s really all that should be said about that. When you look at this whole series, we weren‘t expecting to win in four, to be quite honest. We weren‘t expecting to be up three (wins). We definitely didn‘t expect the type of game we had (Thursday), but we have to get ourselves retooled, refocused and really looking forward to our game (tonight).”
One of Calgary‘s keys to success the past two games has been jamming traffic in front of Rockets netminder Mark Guggenberger. Another key has been good puck movement on the power play, though the big question for tonight is which Kelowna team will show up: Will it be the one that blitzed Calgary 5-2 in Game 2 or the stand-around-and-get-blitzed team from Game 5?
“Thursday night, we didn‘t play our game. Anybody who watched it saw that,” said Rockets defenceman Tysen Dowzak. “We altered our style from the first three games we played. We weren‘t being physical and we weren‘t playing as tight a checking game that we should have been. Calgary‘s a good team and they made us pay for it.”
“We didn‘t come out ready to play and they took it to us,” added Guggenberger. “We sat back on our heels a little bit and it really showed.”
And this from 6-foot-8 defenceman Tyler Myers: “It was just one of those days where the team had an off game. It‘s something we‘re putting behind us, and we‘re focusing on Game 6.”
The Rockets had a great chance to knock Calgary backwards in the early stages of Game 5.
Joel Broda was tagged for tripping just 57 seconds after the opening faceoff, but on the ensuing power play, Kelowna managed little offence, and the Hitmen escaped from stumbling into an early hole.
By game‘s end, the Rockets were 0-for-4 on the power play, much like their 0-for-5 showing in their 6-2 loss in Game 4 on Wednesday.
“A lot of our power play has kinda been that way the last few games,” said Huska. “We‘re not hungry enough to get second- and third-chance opportunities in front of the net. We‘ve had a lot of chances, but it‘s guys off to the side a lot, and they‘re not burying rebounds when they‘ve been given opportunities.”
“We have to sharpen up a little bit in certain parts of the game,” added Guggenberger. “But it just comes down to hard work, how much we want it and how hard we‘re willing to work.” Top of Page
