Was last night’s win a season saver?

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As Rocak raised his arms in the air in celebration as his teammates mobbed him after the goal, you couldn’t help but think of the times this team has had this happen to them. How many times over the last three seasons has a game gone sideways? Where a lead has evaporated, and the opponent has fought back to win. Just when you think the Kelowna Rockets are about to turn a corner, they get thrown to the ground again.

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Not this time, against a worthy opponent that featured two first-round NHL draft picks in Matthew Savoie and Conner Geekie.

The win was more than just Rocak’s heroics though. This was a game where the home team was rewarded for so many things they did well. The most noticeable was the time of puck possession. Instead of chasing the play, the Rockets were often dictating it. Oh sure, they chased the puck at times, but they forced the Wild’s top players to do the same.

Head Coach Kris Mallette had to deal with the Wenatchee Wild forward line of Savoie, Geekie, and Kenta Isogai. Is that not the best trio in the Western Conference? If not, it’s darn close. With no checking line at his disposal, the challenge was playing fire with fire by sending out Andrew Cristall with Max Graham and Gabriel Szturc to play even or better hockey against them.

Mallette even threw Tij Iginla on that line in an effort to provide for better puck possession to keep it out of the hands of two players who combined to score 73 goals last season.

At the end of the night, Savoie, Geekie, and Isogai were a combined -7, with those three earning just three assists.

Andrew Cristall had the opening goal. Gabby Szturc scored the fourth goal, while Iginla assisted on the game winner. Ethan Neutens joined in on the fun too, with his first two-goal game of his career.

As for the unlikely hero, Marek Rocak was a +3 despite being on the ice for the game-tying goal with 5:20 left in the clock. Wild forward Luka Shcherbyna beat him to the net on a rebound to tie the score at four. Instead of sulking, Rocak chose mental fortitude by almost scoring early in overtime on a great feed from Iginla, before potting the winner 1:57 into extra time.

The 18-year-old d-man, with only 49 WHL games under his belt, came through in the clutch, in arguably the Rockets’ biggest win of the season.

Overtime can be cruel.

On this night, Marek Rocak made sure that late-game chaos turned into overtime control.