PHOTO CREDIT STEVE DUNSMOOR
The Kelowna Rockets will head to the United States for the first time this season this weekend where they'll face the CHL's seventh-ranked team in the country, the Portland Winterhawks, on Friday and Saturday.
Puck drop at Veterans Memorial Coliseum is set for 7:00 pm on Friday and 6:00 pm on Saturday.
"I think in order for us to have success we have to get back to simplifying our game," said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette when asked what the team needs to do this weekend prior to departing for Portland. "Our structure and our compete needs to be much higher in those one on one battles."
Kelowna will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak. They were last in action last Saturday against the number-one-ranked team in the country, the Winnipeg ICE. It was a heartbreaker of a loss, as the Rockets battled back to tie the game with 30 seconds left in the third period, but Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie scored the game-winner just seven seconds later.
"When our team is focused and determined we can play," said Mallette about the Rockets game last weekend. "You saw that we just worked as group and put ourselves in a position to almost have a point at least against one of the best teams in the league. Just cleaning up a couple of those puck decisions could turn the tides a lot in our favour. We're close, we just need to make sure that we're eliminating those chances and really working as hard as a group collectively."
Portland enters the weekend with a record of 7-1-0-0. They played one game last weekend, falling 7-3 to Tri-City–the squad’s first loss of the season after winning its first seven.
The last time these two met
Kelowna opened the regular season against the Winterhawks on September 24th falling 6-5 in overtime.
Falling behind twice, Kelowna pushed back to take a 3-2 lead heading into the third period. The Rockets created a two-goal cushion early in the third, but Portland pushed back. Kelowna once again restored the two-goal lead just before the middle of the third frame, but Portland responded with two straight goals to force overtime, where they eventually won the game.
Players to watch
Kelowna
Portland
Roster Updates
The Rockets will be without forward Colton Dach (upper-body) and defenceman Elias Carmichael (lower-body) this weekend.
Both are listed as week-to-week on the injury report for this week. To view the Rockets injury report click here.
Dach, who was injured on October 14th against Everett, resumed skating on Thursday morning after the team departed for Portland