Photo credit: Gordon Rufh

By Regan Bartel

The two teams meet in a rematch today

Rockets ride strong goaltender in defeating Royals

Dec 8, 2024 | 7:00 AM

Rhett Stoesser didn’t win a road game on his own Saturday night, but the Kelowna Rockets newly acquired goaltender was instrumental in a 4-2 win over the Victoria Royals. 

Obtained 17 days ago from the Red Deer Rebels, the 19-year-old made 49 saves and was named the first star in helping his team earn its first win at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in over two years. 

“He [Stoesser] was square to shots. He gave us an opportunity to clear some pucks in front of him,” Rockets assistant coach Derrick Martin said after the game. “He did everything we asked of him, and maybe a little bit more tonight.” 

Stoesser was especially good in the third period , when he faced 21 shots and his team held a two-goal lead. Leading scorer Andrew Cristall scored into an empty net for the team’s 12th win of the season. 

“You can’t use fatigue as an excuse,” Martin added after traveling up earlier in the day from Everett, Washington, followed by a ferry ride to the Island to face the Royals for the third time this season. “It is a league of travel. Everyone is doing it. I thought as a group we showed up and weren’t looking for excuses. We went out and tried to dictate the pace of the game early on.” 

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Cristall scored a shorthanded goal to open the scoring before Hiroki Gojsic and Jakub Stancl found the back of the net on consecutive power plays to build up leads of 2-1 after one period and 3-1 after 40 minutes. 

“What I liked about this evening’s effort was it took everybody,” Martin said. “Everyone contributed in different ways and the end result is two points.” 

Coming into the game, the Rockets owed the worst road power play in the WHL, which let them down on three chances the night prior in a 4-1 road loss to the Everett Silvertips. 

“You want that puck on the stick of Hiroki Gojsic, and you want him to be a shooter,” Martin added about the one-timer that the Nashville Predators draft pick blew past Royals starting goalie Jayden Kraus. “He is drafted to the NHL for a reason, and he showcased that tonight. We would like to see more of that from him, so hopefully that is something he can build off.  

“While the other goal [Stancl’s power play] came off a broken play, it gave us momentum, it gave us looks and opportunities and helped us whittle down the clock, so we will take it.” 

In a bold decision to shake things up, head coach Kris Mallette elected to start the game with sixteen year-old Kanjyu Gojsic playing on the top-line with Cristall and Stancl. The younger brother of Hiroki played well penciled on the right-side with teammates that are both three years older than the wide-eyed rookie.   

“He is a young man that has earned that opportunity,” Martin told RocketFAN. “We went 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, which allowed us to welcome Landon Cowper back to the lineup, and I thought he played really well.” 

Cowper was playing his first game since last February when he suffered a season ending knee injury against the Tri-City Americans. 

“When you go with that many forwards, you are going to see him go into a blender a little bit, but we are 26 games into the season, so there is chemistry in that group and the guys did a good job of answering the bell.” 

The win was the Rockets first against the Royals on the road since October of 2022 when Colton Dach scored in overtime in a 2-1 victory. 

“I think Jacob Henderson played well,” Martin noted. “He is really starting to come into his own. He is playing with some confidence with the puck, and his game away from the puck has really improved. Rowan Guest also answered the bell after they went after our best player.” 

Guest ended up fighting Royals forward Reggie Newman in the second period after he took a run at Andrew Cristall, knocking him down just outside the Victoria blueline.  

“There were so many players up front that did the little things like block shots, broke pucks out, and I thought our battle level to get pucks out was much better in both the second and third period,” Martin concluded. 

“I liked our game.”