Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Rookie can score. Now he's showing it.

Rockets’ Gojsic is finding his scoring touch

Mar 7, 2024 | 8:00 AM

Tough love has paid off for Hiroki Gojsic.

With high expectations after being acquired from the Victoria Royals in an off-season trade, the Kelowna Rockets draft-eligible prospect was underwhelming in the opening half of the season.

Gifted with size and a scintillating wrist shot, the 17-year-old forward now looks like a completely different player in the second half.

Acquired for a second and fifth-round bantam pick, the soft-spoken Langley product extended his point streak to a season-high seven games Wednesday night with a two-goal effort in a 6-1 win over the Tri-City Americans.

“We have been hard on him,” assistant coach Josh MacNevin told RocketFAN about trying to get untapped potential out of the mild-mannered forward. “He is a guy we expected a lot out of at the start of the year and the jump [from the BCHL] was likely a bigger jump than he had thought.”

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Gojsic upped his goal total to 19 when he and line-mate Tij Iginla scored 26 seconds apart in the second period, giving the Rockets a 4-1 lead after two periods.

“As of late, he has come on,” MacNevin continued. “If he had started the year like this, he would have 40 goals right now. He is a real coachable kid and he is working for it.”

Gojsic had just six goals before Christmas, yet has found the back of the net 10 times in his last 15 games, creating improved chemistry with Iginla and centreman Michael Cicek.

“He has a great shot,” MacNevin admitted. “The release is something you can work on, but you either have it or you don’t. He has a really quick release, and a real accurate shot. It is a good combination and he works on it. You add his skating ability and his size, and you have a pretty good player there,” he said with a chuckle.

The Rockets have a pretty good team right now. With points in six straight games (5-0-1-0), wins are pivotal at this time of the season if they want to fend off the eighth place Spokane Chiefs, who are four points back, and accelerate up the standings to catch both Victoria and Vancouver. Oddly, while the Rockets and G-Men have more wins (29), they trail the Royals (28 victories) by three points.

“Top to bottom, that was a total team effort,” MacNevin said. “We had everyone contributing and everyone buying in and working hard. It was good to see.”

Max Graham scored shorthanded, Gabriel Szturc added his 28th goal and Luke Schelter found the back of the net in garbage time in the Rockets 18th victory on home ice.

“As far as our breakout, we have been working a lot on it and it is paying off,” MacNevin commented about the ease in transitioning the puck up ice. “We got out of our end pretty quick and it is creating offense. You can create a lot of offense from the defensive zone. You come out of your zone together, and with a lot of speed and you are going to get chances.”

Firing 43 shots on Americans goaltender Lukas Matecha, the score could have reached double digits had the Czech-born goalie not been at his stellar best, robbing Szturc several times and getting the help from his goal posts on three separate occasions.

“Everybody is coming…everyone is stepping up right now,” MacNevin added. “That is what you have to do in this league in the latter part of the year.”

Playing with as much confidence as we’ve seen from the team all season long, the coaching staff’s next objective is keeping everyone grounded. While success is nice, deviating from the plan can produce disastrous results.

“You are trying to give them confidence but not give them that overconfidence,” MacNevin suggested. “It isn’t an exact science, but as you get to know your group you stress that it [success] came from doing certain things. Success came from playing together. Success came from skating hard and finishing our checks, and getting pucks in and getting pucks out.

“Jari Kykkanen was again amazing and that gives guys confidence. It gives the d-man confidence that you can make some plays knowing this guy is a brick wall back there.”