by Wayne Moore
Tonight was 'Not The Night' for the Kelowna Rockets and, if things don't change soon things are not 'Gonna Be Alright.'
The Rockets were a non-factor in their return from a 10 day Christmas break losing 4-1 to the visiting Spokane Chiefs before 6,237 quiet fans at Prospera Place Tuesday.
"It's pretty disappointing. We went on the road on that eastern swing and we competed hard every single night," says assistant coach, Dan Lambert.
"Tonight the compete just wasn't there. It's not about them being that much better. If you don't want to work and you don't want to win battles, you're not going to win too many hockey games in this league."
The Rockets had several chances to get on the board first but were unable to take advantage of three early power-plays.
Instead, it was the visitors who broke out on top with a pair of power-play goals from Mitch Holmberg late in the first and Marek Kalus midway through the second.
On both goals, Liam Stewart did all the hard work in from of the net.
Stewart, son of rock legend Rod Stewart (hence the cheesy music reference at the top), provided a perfect screen on Holmberg's blast from the left circle and again wrecked havoc in front of Brown on Klaus' marker which turned out to be the game winner.
Collin Valcourt, 90 seconds after Klaus beat Brown and Holmberg with his second also scored for the Chiefs.
Reid Gow and Steve Kuhn each had a pair of helpers for the winners.
Mac Engel lost his bid for his first shutout of the season when Brett Bulmer beat him from about 20 feet out with less than two minutes to go in the game.
The goal extended Bulmer's point streak to 10 games (11 goals, 5 assists).
Lambert says the power-play was the difference but wasn't the only reason the Rockets came up short.
"We knew how they were going to kill penalties and we had a pretty good idea what their power-play was going to do. Special teams was one area they got goals in but, realistically, if it wasn't for Adam Brown they might have got nine or 10 tonight."
The Rockets played much of the game without defenceman Mitchell Chapman who was suffering from a bout of the flu.
He played just the first period.
Kelowna also went without Madison Bowey, Jesse Lees and Tyson Baillie who are all at the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge and injured players Damon Severson, Tyrell Goulbourne, Colton Heffley (3 17yo's) and Spencer Main.
D Stewart Coyle (16), C Cole Linaker (16) and RW Justin Kirkland (15) filled out the roster.
Things don't get any easier for the Rockets who travel to Tri-City Thursday. The Americans are the number one team in the WHL on home ice with a sparkling 14-2 record.
http://www.castanet.net/news/Sports/...holiday-return
