Alert for women’s basketball, hockey, prep wrestling
I'm sitting in the bowels of the Tacoma Dome with my head spinning. I've been pressed into emergency service at the State wrestling tournament, which under the best of circumstances could be described as Romper Room on steroids - too much craziness going on.
I have no idea what's going on yet - I haven't even read the newspaper yet - and I'm sleep deprieved.
Anyway, I don't know what I'll be able to post or tweet as I get up to speed. Also, women's basketball and hockey are going to be delayed or, sadly, completely neglected. No time to link, but I've dropped in the story from the Chiefs big road win at Kelowna last night.
I'll do my best to keep up and keep you informed.
By Doyle Potenteau
The Okanagan Saturday
Not much separated the Kelowna Rockets and Spokane Chiefs on Friday night.
Not much except two glaring items: A day-and-night difference in power
plays and a poor start by Kelowna.
Levko Koper had a three-point night for Spokane, tallying two goals and
one assist, as the Chiefs beat the Rockets 3-2 at Prospera Place. Spokane
opened the scoring with a power-play goal late in the first period — a
frame which saw Kelowna get outshot 17-3 — then ended it with another
early in the third.
“Early in the game, there was one team playing. We stood around and
watched,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose team, over the final
two periods, was step for step with Spokane. “Once we started to get a
little bit physical and we got our legs under us, then we got better. But
you can’t beat good teams when you don’t play for 60 minutes, and you
can’t beat good teams when you don’t have all 20 guys going.”
Brenden Kichton, with a goal and an assist, also scored for Spokane
(36-16-4-2), which was 2-for-4 on a highly effective power play. The
Chiefs, who are 7-4 in their last 11 games, kept Kelowna off the shot
clock until the 12-minute mark of the first period, though the Rockets
rang a shot off the post 90 seconds after the opening faceoff. Notably,
Spokane had two shots ring off the post in the first minute.
Colton Sissons, with his 15th goal, and Evan Bloodoff, with his 17th,
replied for Kelowna (32-24-0-1), which was 0-for-2 on the power play.
The loss, combined with Vancouver’s 6-2 win over Seattle, dropped Kelowna
out of first place in B.C. Division standings. Tied heading into Friday’s
action, the Giants now lead the Rockets by two points, with the two teams
to meet tonight in Kelowna. Game time is 7 p.m.
Adam Brown made 36 saves for the Rockets, who finished their four-game
season series with Spokane at 2-2. Mac Engel, who was clutch in the final
minutes, turned aside 22 shots for the Chiefs, who visit the Tri-City
Americans on Saturday.
While Spokane emerged with a well-deserved win, it’s not as if Kelowna was
blown out. In fact, the Rockets played the Chiefs hard, and did so with a
depleted roster missing two key defencemen and forward Brett Bulmer, (leg
injury) who is second in team scoring.
“We win when we play hard as a team. There’s no secret to our group,” said
Huska. “It’s not one guy; we need lots of guys contributing, generating
and playing hard for each other. We need to do that for 60 minutes.
“We had some chances (at the end) that we missed . . . maybe we should
have shot instead of passing it a few times. But it just wasn’t enough
from enough guys.”
Said Sissons: “(Spokane) has a good special teams, and they were better
than us tonight. It could have been a different result had we had a full
lineup, but we need a 60-minute effort and it wasn’t there.”
ICE CHIPS: Kelowna’s scratches were D Mitchell Chapman (head), D Colton
Jobke (4th game of 7-game suspension), C Gal Koren, RW Jason Siebert
(wrist, 2 weeks) and RW Brett Bulmer (leg, day to day). Spokane’s
scratches were D Tyler Vanscourt, D Cole Hamblin, RW Mitch Holmberg and LW
Kenton Miller.