RIMOUSKI, Que. – The Kelowna Rockets spent part of Wednesday zipping around on ziplines. Maybe it‘ll help Mikael Backlund put some zip into his game.
Through three games of the 2009 Memorial Cup, Backlund has registered three points, all assists. He had two points in Kelowna‘s 4-1 win over the Rimouski Oceanic on Friday, then one point in the Rockets‘ 6-4 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Monday. In Tuesday‘s 2-1 loss to the Windsor Spitfires, he, like most of his teammates, was pointless.
That he has points, though, is surprising, for the 6-foot-1 forward from Sweden and world junior standout has been mostly silent inside Rimouski‘s loud arena.
“My tournament isn‘t going good,” said Backlund. “I had a good first game, then I have been really bad the other two games.
“I don‘t know why. . . . I have to forget about them, learn from what I did and play better in the final.”
The Rockets say that while Backlund hasn‘t been at his best, they expect him to be so in Sunday‘s championship game (1:30 p.m. PT, Sportsnet).
“No, he hasn‘t been at his best, and I think he‘d be the first to admit that,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska. “Mikael is a guy who can take games over on his own, and, right now, he‘s having a harder time getting his legs going and getting things started.
“But we have a lot of confidence and a lot of belief in Mikael. Whenever there is a big game, and there is no bigger game than Sunday for a junior-hockey player, he‘s always at his best. And we know we‘re going to get that from Mikael on Sunday.”
In Tuesday‘s loss to Windsor, the Rockets had some jump in their step, but not enough to defeat the OHL champions.
“We played up and down,” Backlund said. “At some points, we played pretty good, and then we‘d go down again. We weren‘t sharp enough and there was no urgency. . . . (Goalie Mark Guggenberger) saved us a lot of times. We should have been sharp, but maybe knowing we are in the final was why (we weren‘t urgent). We played well in the playoffs, but here, we haven‘t shown what we can do in the Memorial Cup yet.
“Hopefully we can show what we can do in the final.”
“We‘ll watch the games and get back into a positive attitude,” said Rockets defenceman Tyler Myers. “We‘ll have some good practices, and I‘m sure we‘ll be ready for the final.”
On Wednesday, the Rockets travelled 30 minutes from Rimouski to spend some time on ziplines.
“It was up in the mountains, and they had these ziplines from tree to tree,” said Huska. “It was almost like you were in a massive treehouse, and it was a really neat thing that our guys enjoyed. They got to do some long, fast runs and do runs where they had to maintain their balance.
“It was a lot of fun for them, and then we took them to a little diner for some poutine and some hamburgers to get them away from everything.”
With no games until Sunday, Kelowna plans on having another easy day today before putting their noses to the grindstone on Friday and Saturday.
“We‘ll start preparing ourselves for whoever our opponent might be,” said Huska. “The first couple of days, we‘ll do things within our game that have to be better.
“Then once we get to Saturday, and we know who we‘re going to play in the final, then we can maybe tweak a few more things to focus more on our opponent.” Top of Page
