Inconsistent Rockets leaving fans in confused state

[Malc]

By Doyle Potenteau

Bruce Hamilton wants to believe the Kelowna Rockets can make noise in the playoffs. Yet...

“I‘m not yet convinced,” said Hamilton, Kelowna‘s president and general manager.

Frankly, it‘s hard to fault him after the team‘s performance the past two weeks.

On Saturday, Kelowna closed out a three-game Central Division road trip with a solid 2-1 victory over the league-leading Calgary Hitmen. In Calgary, nonetheless, where the Hitmen were tied with Vancouver for the WHL‘s best home record.

Yet, just one night earlier, the Rockets posted a lazy 3-2 loss in Red Deer, which was preceded by a 6-1 win in Medicine Hat on Wednesday.

Confused? So is most of Kelowna on how the Rockets play well against strong teams, then don‘t against weaker squads.

“You can see the team is growing,” Hamilton said from Calgary on Sunday. “Against Calgary, the guys were outshot (35-17), but, to me, the shots weren‘t indicative of the play. Most of Calgary‘s shots were from outside, and I thought the guys did a great job of keeping them to the outside.

“Travel-wise, the team has been through a lot the last three weeks, and I was really proud of their effort on Saturday. But we have to admit that we really dropped the ball in Red Deer... we didn‘t get enough mileage from the guys we needed to play well.

“If we don‘t lose games to Red Deer or Chilliwack (or Portland) like we have this season, we‘d be ahead of Tri-City in points. If we win those, then the standings are different. It‘s good to come back and beat big teams, but real good teams don‘t give away games.”

In the Western Conference, the Vancouver Giants lead the race with 112 points. The Tri-City Americans (97) are next, with the Spokane Chiefs (85) in third, followed by Kelowna (84). The Chiefs have one game in hand on the Rockets, who entertain Spokane on Wednesday night at Prospera Place.

If the playoffs were to start today, Kelowna (40-21-1-3) would play fifth-place Seattle (31-29-1-4), while Spokane (41-20-0-3) would meet sixth-place Kamloops (30-30-2-4). Kelowna is 3-0-1-0 against Seattle this season, though since moving from KeyArena to Kent, Wash., on Jan. 3, the T-Birds are 15-2-0-2 at home and 17-8-0-2 overall.

Against Spokane, Kelowna is 2-0, with a 3-0 home-ice victory on Jan. 2 and a 2-1 road win on Feb. 8. If the Rockets finish in third place, they‘ll likely play Kamloops, which is 0-6-0-1 against Kelowna this season.

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stories_local_sports.php?id=168433

[Malc]

By Larry Fisher

Would the real Kelowna Rockets please stand up?

Not to steal lyrics from Eminem, but that‘s all anyone is really asking. From front-office staff, including team president and general manager Bruce Hamilton, to the casual fan, supporters of the local WHL franchise are going grey trying to comprehend what the future may hold.

And not so much the playoff future, but the immediate future with the Rockets preparing for another big week.

With seven regular-season contests to go, the next seven days will see fourth-place Kelowna host the third-place Spokane Chiefs on Wednesday and the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Giants on Saturday. Kelowna also travels to face the ninth-place Chilliwack Bruins on Friday.

That‘s six points hanging in the balance, but it could just as easily be a goose egg, depending which Rockets team takes the ice.

The relentless squad that outworked the Eastern Conference-leading Calgary Hitmen to score a 2-1 win on Sunday, and also pummeled the playoff-bound Medicine Hat Tigers 6-1 to start the weekend road trip through Alberta, poses a threat to any team on any given night. However, the uninspired Rockets that showed up in the meantime and coasted to a 3-2 defeat against the lowly Red Deer Rebels, could be their own worst enemy going forward.

Of course, that setback came on the heels of similar lacklustre efforts which resulted in recent losses to Chilliwack and last-place Portland.

“We just, for whatever reason, don‘t come out to play as hard against the teams that are below us,” Rockets goalie Mark Guggenberger said of the alarming trend. “But we find a way to come to play when the big dogs are in town. And that‘s all that matters.”

It‘s true. The Rockets beat Vancouver twice in the month of February and also edged Spokane 2-1 on the road. The latter was thanks, in part, to Guggenberger‘s 24-save performance, but is that all that matters?

Head coach Ryan Huska, for one, begs to differ. He wants Guggenberger, who was pulled in the aforementioned Portland blunder, and the rest of the Rockets‘ leaders to perform on a regular basis.

“Your leaders have to be your best guys, and over the last little while against the better teams, they‘ve been great for us,” Huska said. “But sometimes when we‘re playing the so-called lower-end teams, they‘ve been non-existent. And that‘s the difference a lot of nights.

"We need them to be paying the price all the time, no matter who we‘re playing or what the game may be. And if they do, then everybody else has no choice but to follow.”

That shift in mentality and subsequent work ethic has to be in place before Friday‘s contest in Chilliwack. And it had better be in place for Wednesday night‘s game against visiting Spokane, as the Rockets could overtake the Chiefs for third place.

Game time at Prospera Place is 7 p.m.

Spokane (41-20-0-3), who has a game in hand to be played tonight in Seattle against the fifth-place Thunderbirds, is one point up on Kelowna (40-21-1-3).

“We‘re in a tight race with them right now, and I‘m sure it‘s going to go right down to the wire. So these games against them are going to be huge,” Rockets defenceman Tysen Dowzak said.

“It‘s such a close race right to the finish, so you can‘t be taking any games off or overlooking any single game. We just have to make sure we buckle down and focus real hard for these last few games.”

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stories_local_sports.php?id=168686