The Kelowna Rockets get set to face the Seattle Thunderbirds in game six of the Western Conference Championship of the 2017 WHL Playoffs tonight at Prospera Place in Kelowna, in a special 5 p.m. start.
Kelowna is coming off a 5-3 loss in Seattle on Friday night. Head Coach Jason Smith says the biggest key for his team to rebound is going to come down to how well they play as a team.
“The focus is on winning one game at home in our building. We need to trust that the work we’ve put in all year has prepared us for this situation,” said Smith.
After a tough game five, the bench boss says it will just take some fine tuning.
“We have to be better on the forecheck. No pause, no hesitation,” Smith said. “We also need to be harder around their net and focus more on discipline.”
When it comes to discipline, both teams will be looking for improvement as Seattle had eight power play opportunities in game five in which they capitalized on three of them. The Rockets were on the power play 10 times on Friday night in which Kelowna was 3-for-10.
Kelowna was led offensively on Friday night by defenceman Cal Foote who recorded two assists in the effort.
Friday nights defeat gives the T-Birds a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series making Sunday night a must win situation in order to force a game seven from the Rockets standpoint.
Should the Rockets take game six, the series will then shift back to Seattle for game seven on Tuesday night.
