Rockets refuse to fold

That belief looked fragile early.

The Silvertips, a 57-win powerhouse and one of the WHL’s most complete teams, dictated the opening 40 minutes. They capitalized on mistakes, built a 3-0 lead, and seemed poised to complete a series sweep. The Rockets, outshot and chasing the game, could have easily accepted their fate.

McMillan admitted as much.

“They could have mailed it in,” he said. “They could have said, ‘We don’t want to get on the bus tomorrow.’ But the effort…unbelievable. Our leaders kept everyone in it.”

A turning point came in goal.

With momentum slipping, the Rockets turned to Josh Banini, who hadn’t seen game action in weeks. What followed may have been the quiet backbone of the comeback.

“He came in and did an unbelievable job,” McMillan said. “We didn’t have a lot of life at that point, and some of his saves got the group going. Everyone saw how hard he was battling. It lifted us.”

Still trailing by three heading into the third, the message inside the Rockets’ dressing room was simple and desperate.

“It’s the final 20 minutes of your playoffs,” McMillan said. “You just go out there and lay it all on the line.”

The shift wasn’t immediate, but it was inevitable.

The Rockets began to push. They found life on special teams, scoring twice on the power play, including a 6-on-4 opportunity late. For a team that had struggled to generate offense in the series, with four goals in three games, it was a breakthrough at exactly the right time.

And then came the moment that changed everything.

With the goaltender pulled and time nearly gone, the Rockets found a way. With just 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation, the tying goal was scored when Shane Smith fired home his first of the playoffs in a chaotic crease scramble, sending the building into disbelief.

“I felt like we finally got a bounce,” McMillan said. “We haven’t had a lot of those in this series. But we stuck with it and earned one.”

Suddenly, a game that looked finished was alive again.

Overtime demanded composure.

“We wanted to stay even keel,” McMillan explained. “There was a lot of emotion after tying it late, but we needed to reset. Be smart with changes, attack early, and carry that momentum.”

The Rockets did exactly that.

After a couple of key saves from Banini to keep the game alive, Kelowna transitioned quickly. A 3-on-2 rush developed, with speed wide and a creative feed into the middle. The puck found Tij Iginla at the top of the crease, the place where playoff games are won.

He didn’t miss.

Iginla buried the winner 2:30 into overtime, his second goal of the night, ending a three-game scoreless stretch emphatically.

“That’s where you score this time of year,” McMillan said. “Right in those hard areas. That’s how you win playoff games.”

The celebration that followed was equal parts relief and defiance.

For the first time in the series, and the first time all season against Everett, the Rockets had solved the Silvertips.

“I think it gives us confidence,” McMillan said. “We haven’t had a win against them this year, so to get that first one, it matters. And some of our big guys are starting to find their game.”

Kelowna now heads back to Everett for Game 5 with life, belief, and something they didn’t have before Wednesday night – proof.

Proof they can break through.

Proof they can rattle a juggernaut.

Proof that even against a team as dominant as the Silvertips, the margin is thinner than it looks.

“We want to create as much adversity as we can for them,” McMillan said. “They haven’t been in a lot of tight games. We want to make it hard every shift.”

They did more than that.

They made it unforgettable.

And now, a series that looked over suddenly has a pulse.

by Regan Bartel

Rockets refuse to fold

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