Photo credit: John Hill

By Regan Bartel

Movin on up the standings

‘It was a successful weekend for sure’ – Rockets AC Josh MacNevin

Mar 10, 2024 | 8:00 AM

It took them 17 road games, but the Kelowna Rockets finally figured out how to win after trailing after two periods.

Three power-play goals and the game-winner shorthanded from Tij Iginla, his team-leading 45^th of the season with under four minutes left to play in regulation time, lifted the Rockets to a 4-3 road victory Saturday night over the Kamloops Blazers.

Entering the contest, the Rockets were 0-16 when trailing after 40 minutes on the road.

“We are finding ways to score goals,” assistant coach Josh MacNevin told RocketFAN. “It was a weird game. They [Kamloops] obviously did a better job, but we stuck with it.”

Coming back from two-goal deficits – twice – the Rockets ramped up the territorial play by outshooting the Blazers 14-5 in the second period, with Andrew Cristall scoring his 38^th of the season with the extra man, before Hiroki Gojsic’s found the back of the net with another power play tally, his 20^th of the season, making it a one-goal game heading into the third period.

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“Credit to them [Kamloops], they came back hard,” MacNevin added after beating the Blazers 9-1 the night prior. “They executed their systems well, and they weren’t giving us odd-man rushes and it frustrated some of our point-getters, but it was nice to find a way.”

The Rockets allowed the Blazers just one power play chance when d-man Kayden Sadhra-Kang took a checking from behind penalty with 5:18 left on the clock.

“We did a great job of staying out of the box,” MacNevin added, with Iginla getting the team its fourth shorthanded road goal of the season. “I would like to see us quit the stuff after the whistles. They egged us into a couple of scrums. The messaging is to play within the whistles and play hard.”

In the last three road games, the Rockets are 6 for 12 with the man advantage, which is a sharp contrast in success considering the team still owns the least efficient five-man unit on the road when the opposition is forced to play a man short.

“The power play was good [tonight] and we generated a lot of chances, and that young goalie they had played good,” he added.

Firing 40 shots at 16 year-old rookie Logan Edmonstone, who made his Blazers debut, the Rockets now have points in eight straight games (7-0-1-0) while having won a season-high five consecutive games, the first time that has happened since winning six in a row back in the 2021-2022 campaign.

The victory moved the team into fifth place in the Western Conference, leapfrogging Victoria, who have held the position for several weeks. Now the Rockets are one point ahead of the Royals and sit two points back of Wenatchee for fourth.

“We are blocking lots of shots and a better commitment to sacrificing,” MacNevin suggested after his team improved to 13-13-2-1 against those in the BC Division. “At the start of the season, we were one of the teams that didn’t block shots and realized how important it is. Specialty teams are rolling when we need them too.”

With five games left to go, three of those will be against high-powered Prince George on Wednesday before a home-and-home series against high-flying Everett next weekend.

“We can’t read too much into victories and too much into losses,” MacNevin concluded.

“We have to just reset and go. We are moving on.”