The Seattle Thunderbirds snapped the Kelowna Rockets two-game win streak and extended theirs to three games with a 5-4 win over the Kelowna Rockets on Friday night at Prospera Place in Kelowna, BC.
Edmonton Oilers 2022 first-round pick Reid Schaefer led the Thunderbirds offence with a pair of goals, while goaltender Thomas Milic turned aside 32 of the 38 shots the Rockets fired at him.
"I'm happy with the effort, I really am," said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette following the game.
"That's a team that everyone is talking about, right? Seattle is a very complete team—goaltending, defence, out to their forwards. People don't talk about the Kelowna Rockets. And you know what, spotted them a couple, at times in our defensive zone was interesting, to say the least. But you know what, our guys battled to the end and I'm happy with that, it's game five for us, a great measuring stick for our group."
On the Rockets side of things, Andrew Cristall earned the game's first star after scoring the first two goals of the game and adding an assist to extend his point streak to five games.
"It was a chippy game out there, I think we're both physical teams," said Cristall in his post-game interview.
"I think from our side the intensity was there, if we just had some better starts to the periods there this game could've been different, but the intensity throughout the game I liked it a lot."
The Rockets will head to Victoria for games against the Royals on Tue, Oct. 11 and Wed, Oct. 12, puck drop is set for 7:05 pm.
The Rockets next home game will be their Pink in the Rink game against the Everett Silvertips on Friday, October 14th.