Malc
03-27-2009, 01:38 PM
by Wayne Moore
Kelowna Rockets can do nothing more than practice, prepare and wait.
The Rockets won't know until at least Saturday night who their opponent will be for round two of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
Kelowna, which dispatched of the Kamloops Blazers in four straight in round one Wednesday, will face Tri-City, Spokane or Seattle in the second round.
Tri-City lead their series with Everett 2-1 with games four and five Friday and Saturday. Spokane leads Seattle 3-1 in the other series.
The Rockets will face Tri-City should the Americans win or the Spokane-Seattle winner if Everett were to come back and upset Tri-City.
While he has no preference one way or the other, Rockets head coach Ryan Huska admits he would prefer to have home ice advantage in round two, something which could only happen if Everett were to be victorious against Tri-City.
The Rockets will move into round two on a 12 game winning streak, having won eight straight to close out the regular season before winning all four against the Blazers.
More important than winning, Huska says is how the club has been winning.
"The thing we liked is that we were winning in different ways, we weren't relying on one part of our game to win. I thought our goal tending was very good, the next night our five-on-five play was very good and we had different individuals contributing for our club."
Huska says game three in Kamloops was a pivotal game in learning what the team is all about.
He says they really believe in themselves and believe they can accomplish something special.
"That third game in Kamloops, we were behind 2-0 and there was no quit, we found a way to come back and you almost had a sense on the bench that we had to keep going because it was going to come. The mentality was we were not going to lose that game. I think that was a big step for our hockey club."
Despite the good things that came out of the series, Huska says the team has got to use the time off between series to re-discover the power-play.
The Rockets went just 4-33 with the man advantage against the Blazers.
That included an 0-21 stretch.
Huska says the Blazers did a good job of changing things on their penalty kill, but says they weren't as sharp or as focused as they needed to be.
"We'll have to be that much more intense and focused on our power-play in the next round."
Part of the success of the power-play in the next round could centre around the health of forward Mikael Backlund.
The 20-year-old, who missed the opening two games of the Kamloops series with an upper body injury, left Wednesday's deciding game in the first period with what Huska describes as a lower body injury.
"We're going to try and get him back and hopefully he'll be ready for the start of the second series."
Huska says Kyle St. Denis, who has missed the last 17 games after suffering a concussion February 18 against Chilliwack, likely will not be ready for the start of the next round.
The Rockets took Thursday off and Huska says he'll likely give the team another day away from the rink next week.
Kelowna Rockets can do nothing more than practice, prepare and wait.
The Rockets won't know until at least Saturday night who their opponent will be for round two of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
Kelowna, which dispatched of the Kamloops Blazers in four straight in round one Wednesday, will face Tri-City, Spokane or Seattle in the second round.
Tri-City lead their series with Everett 2-1 with games four and five Friday and Saturday. Spokane leads Seattle 3-1 in the other series.
The Rockets will face Tri-City should the Americans win or the Spokane-Seattle winner if Everett were to come back and upset Tri-City.
While he has no preference one way or the other, Rockets head coach Ryan Huska admits he would prefer to have home ice advantage in round two, something which could only happen if Everett were to be victorious against Tri-City.
The Rockets will move into round two on a 12 game winning streak, having won eight straight to close out the regular season before winning all four against the Blazers.
More important than winning, Huska says is how the club has been winning.
"The thing we liked is that we were winning in different ways, we weren't relying on one part of our game to win. I thought our goal tending was very good, the next night our five-on-five play was very good and we had different individuals contributing for our club."
Huska says game three in Kamloops was a pivotal game in learning what the team is all about.
He says they really believe in themselves and believe they can accomplish something special.
"That third game in Kamloops, we were behind 2-0 and there was no quit, we found a way to come back and you almost had a sense on the bench that we had to keep going because it was going to come. The mentality was we were not going to lose that game. I think that was a big step for our hockey club."
Despite the good things that came out of the series, Huska says the team has got to use the time off between series to re-discover the power-play.
The Rockets went just 4-33 with the man advantage against the Blazers.
That included an 0-21 stretch.
Huska says the Blazers did a good job of changing things on their penalty kill, but says they weren't as sharp or as focused as they needed to be.
"We'll have to be that much more intense and focused on our power-play in the next round."
Part of the success of the power-play in the next round could centre around the health of forward Mikael Backlund.
The 20-year-old, who missed the opening two games of the Kamloops series with an upper body injury, left Wednesday's deciding game in the first period with what Huska describes as a lower body injury.
"We're going to try and get him back and hopefully he'll be ready for the start of the second series."
Huska says Kyle St. Denis, who has missed the last 17 games after suffering a concussion February 18 against Chilliwack, likely will not be ready for the start of the next round.
The Rockets took Thursday off and Huska says he'll likely give the team another day away from the rink next week.