The Kelowna Rockets saw their win streak snapped after they lost a wild 6-5 contest to the Tri-City Americans Saturday night in Kennewick.
The Rockets got out to 1-0 and 4-1 leads but Tri-City would score four unanswered goals in the second and third period and game the game winning goal from Max Curran at 11:44 in the third.
GAME SUMMARY
Kelowna would strike first just over halfway through the first period as Michael Cicek would score his sixth of the season for a 1-0 lead. Kelowna would hold that lead until late in the frame where Tri-City would get a goal from Jake Gudelj with 20 seconds remaining in the period to tie it at one apiece.
Kelowna would come out firing in the second period as two Max Graham tallies would sandwich an Andrew Cristall breakaway goal which saw him make a nifty deke around the Americans goaltender, sliding it through the five hole on the backhand to make it 4-1 Rockets. The Americans would get themselves back into the game with two quick goals from Brandon Whynott and Gavin Garland late in the period to cut Kelowna's lead back down to one after 40 minutes of play.
Tri-City would keep the momentum they gathered from their late second period push as Cruz Pavao would tie the game 1:06 into the third on the power play and Shaun Rios would put the home side ahead for the first time in the game with the 5-4 goal coming four minutes into the period. The Rockets would get back on even footing thanks to a goal from rookie Jaxon Kehrig, as his second of the season would fool Lukas Matecha but Tri-City once again found the answer Curran scored the game winning goal with 8:26 remaining on the clock.
ADDITIONAL STATS
UP NEXT
Kelowna will return home to host the Victoria Royals on Wednesday, Oct. 23. Puck drop for that game will go at 7:05 PM.
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ROCKETS GET SHUTOUT VICTORY IN WENATCHEE
The Kelowna Rockets have won four consecutive games after they shutout the Wenatchee Wild 4-0 on Friday night at Town Toyota Center.
Goaltender Jari Kykkanen pitched a 26 save shutout and the Rockets got goals from Kayden Longley, Tij Iginla and rookie Kalder Varga who scored his first career Western Hockey League goal in the second period.
GAME SUMMARY
The game was scoreless through the first 20 minutes of play, before Kelowna found a second gear for three goals in the second period. Longley scored his first of the season when he was sprung on a partial breakaway from Jakub Stancl and beat newly acquired Wild goaltender Zach Zahara with a high blocker side shot to put Kelowna ahead 1-0. Tij Iginla would make it 2-0 on a shorthanded goal which saw him strip the Wenatchee defender of the puck with a toe drag, break in on Zahara and beat him with a forehand, backhand deke that went high glove side. The goal was Iginla's fifth of the season and fourth in the past three games. Varga would continue the onslaught when he bust in down the right side and fired a bullet over Zahara's glove for his first career goal.
Varga now joins Kanjyu Gojsic, Jaxon Kehrig, Jakub Stancl, Levi Benson and Owen Folstrom as Rockets who have scored their first major junior goal at the start of this young season.
The third period saw Kykkanen turn aside 11 Wenatchee shots and Iginla score his second of the game into the empty net for a 4-0 victory.
ADDITIONAL STATS