There’s something about the tournament format that brings out the best in the Kelowna Fripp Warehousing Rockets.
For the third time in three tries this season, the Rockets have captured the title at a tier 1 midget tournament in B.C.
After victories in Kamloops and at their own event in Kelowna earlier this month, the Fripp squad emerged as the gold medalists last weekend at the Prince George midget tournament.
The win came in dramatic fashion as Kelowna defeated Coquitlam in Sunday’s championship game.
The Rockets jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Ryan Lawson and Stephen Hawes, before Coquitlam bounced back with two of their now to tie the game 2-2, a score which held through the end of regulation. Sam Bobyn made three huge saves in the late going to keep the game tied.
After a scoreless overtime session, the teams went to a shootout where Kobe Oishi and Tanner Campbell scored goals for Kelowna, while Bobyn stopped both Coquitlam shooters to secure gold for the Rockets.
Kelowna posted a win and two ties in the round robin, then defeated Vernon in the semi-final in another exciting shootout conclusion.
After playing to a 1-1 draw through regulation, Oishi and Campbell scored in the shootout for the Rockets, while Chris Turner turned aside both Vernon attempts in the Kelowna net.
Kelowna scored 18 goals during the weekend, nine of them off the power play and killed off 35 of 37 penalties for a 95 per cent kill rate.
“Along with the four straight shootout goals and four clutch saves, the tournament win really did depend on specialty teams,” said Rockets coach Eric Blais.
Kobe Oishi led the attack for the Rockets during the weekend scoring four goals and adding three assists, as well as the two shootout markers.
Adam Beatty added two goals and four assists, Ryan Lawson added three goals and a helper, and Stephen Hawes chipped in two goals and an assist. D-men Kristian Blumenschein Mark Ridley and Trevor Pereverzoff each added a goals three assists, with other goals coming from Austin Lindsay, Gage Colpron, Braeden Cyra and Brandon Barnes, with a short-handed marker.
This weekend, the Rockets host the California Wave U16 all star team for a pair of exhibition games at Memorial Arena, Friday at 7:15 p.m. and Sunday at 12:15 p.m.
