Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Thin margins, higher expectations

A fine line between winning and losing

Oct 27, 2025 | 8:00 AM

The Kelowna Rockets are 11 games into their season, sitting at 4-5-1-1. Every one of their four wins has been decided by a single goal. Every loss feels close enough to sting. Head coach Derrick Martin isn’t concerned, but he’s not satisfied, either.

“It’s not about the panic button at this time,” Martin said. “We’re still chasing putting everything together for a full game, and I don’t want to be talking about this two months from now.”

The Rockets’ record is deceiving. They’ve rarely been out of a game. Of their five losses, four have been decided by two goals or fewer – just a post, a bounce, or a single mistake away from points. But as Martin sees it, close enough isn’t nearly good enough.

“When you’re middling in the pack and you’re a goal short in four games, that really leaves a burning in the back of your mind,” he said. “Points at this time of the year are critical, and they’ll matter at the end of the year. We’ve got to find a way to rectify that.”

Complicating the picture is the schedule. A quiet opening month left Kelowna with fewer games played than almost everyone else.

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“We feel like our schedule’s been a little lethargic at times to start the year,” Martin said. “We had that weekend off and we’re a couple games behind just about everybody in the league. To be completely honest, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is for us right now – we just want to play games.”

For a team still trying to form its identity, rhythm and repetition matter more than anything. Health, too. And for the first time all season, the Rockets are finally getting their full roster back.

Forward Tij Iginla has only appeared in two games so far.

“Selfishly, for sure you’d like to have him in all eleven,” Martin said. “But having him up at the NHL was really good for Tij and by association, good for us. Sometimes people get sick, that’s human nature. He’s healthy now, he’s feeling good and we’ll get him back into games. I’d rather have dealt with this stuff at this time of the year than when we’re playing playoff games.”

Levi Benson also returns to the lineup after an injury pause.

“He looked really confident before he went down,” Martin said. “He was playing with some swagger. He’s good under pressure, he’s good at making plays and he’s quite a bit stronger than he was last year. Anytime you get an injury, it’s a setback, but he’ll be back in and get a chance.”

With Benson and Iginla reunited alongside Hiroki Gojsic, Martin hopes to spark chemistry and depth throughout the lineup.

“Tij [Iginla] can help drive that line, and if we can get Hiroki going where we know he’s capable of playing, and where he’s working really hard to get to, then that’s a win for us,” he said. “At the same time, Carson Wetsch and Tomas Poletin have found some chemistry early on this season. Getting healthy makes us a harder matchup.”

Health isn’t the only area trending the right way. Discipline, a problem in a handful of early-season games – steadied in their recent road performance.

“We talked about it before the game,” Martin said. “We didn’t want to give up power play goals, and in order to do that, we had to stay off the penalty kill. Some guys that have gotten into penalty trouble recently showed their maturity and their buy-in. It was a huge help for us to play five-on-five.”

One area he isn’t worried about? Goaltending. Between the pipes, the Rockets are as strong as any team in the league—and Martin knows how rare that is.

“They’re both big advocates of themselves and big advocates of each other,” he said. “They’re very different personalities but both carry a lot of humility. When you tell them they’re going in, they’re excited. When you tell them the other guy’s going in, they’re genuinely excited for the other guy. Our goaltending hasn’t let us down yet.”

That support between the pipes has allowed Kelowna to survive stretches where their play faltered.

“Look at the Victoria game where we give up too many shots in the first period and Josh Banini plays really big for us,” Martin said. “It allows us the opportunity to find our footing and gain our confidence. In the second and third, we were a really good hockey team in front of him. That’s what good teams do, they pick each other up.”

Martin’s message is clear: the pieces are there. The margins are small. And now, the challenge is to stitch those moments together into an identity that lasts longer than a good period or a one-goal edge.

“It’s a really important time of year,” he said. “We’re finally starting to get healthy. Guys are breeding familiarity with each other. It’s great to do that in practice, but you’ve got to do that in games.”

Close games may define the Rockets right now, but they don’t have to define their season.