The Kelowna Rockets have only lost one game in regulation in the month of February, and that loss came against the Kamloops Blazers. The Rockets will face the Blazers again tonight in Kamloops, fresh off a four game home stand.
Head Coach Jason Smith stressed that his team needs to be smart about rest and recovery between games.
“I think it starts with the guys getting rest on the bus and making sure they’re eating and hydrating properly as well as cooling down after the games. It’s important but we’re basically just worried about playing the games and getting maximum effort when you’re on the ice in the games, and you have to learn to prepare yourself and do what it takes to make sure you’re ready to do that.”
The Rockets have been hot this month, going 8-1-1-0, and are coming off of a 10-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings last night. With a record of 35-20-5-0, good for 75 points, Kelowna sits five points back of Kamloops for 2nd in the B.C. division, and six points back of the division leading Prince George Cougars, although the Rockets do hold two games in hand over the Blazers and Cougars. Victoria is currently 6 points back of the Rockets for 3rd place in the division.
The Blazers are winners of three straight and have gone 6-2-0-2 in their last 10 games. In their three most recent wins the Blazers have outscored their opponents 17-1, and are trying to surpass Prince George for 1st place in the division. Kamloops also sits in 4th place in the Western Conference.
This is the 10th and final meeting between these two clubs with Kamloops leading the season series 6-3. Prior to Kamloops’ 6-0 win in the most recent match up on February 8th, Kelowna took a 3-2 shootout win on January 7th, while Kamloops returned the favour on January 27th with a 3-2 victory over Kelowna. The Rockets will have 10 games remaining after tomorrow night’s contest with six games against teams from the B.C. Division and five against U.S. Division opponents.
The Rockets will play Saturday night in Seattle and Sunday afternoon in Spokane before returning home Wednesday March 1st to play the Prince George Cougars for the final time in the regular season. Puck drop for that game will go at 7:05PM.
