The Kelowna Rockets get back on the ice to battle for some more wins this weekend. The Rockets host their divisional rival, the Victoria Royals, on Friday night, and will head down to the U.S. to play the Everett Silvertips Saturday night.
Kelowna aims to build onto their two-game win streak; on Wednesday night, the Rockets defeated the Regina Pats 3-2. Lane Zablocki says the team knows what they have to do to keep winning.
“We need to take it game by game,” said Zablocki. “We have to go into the game with the same mindset that we’ve had lately and stick to our structure. To trust in our systems, that will create lots of offence for us. The key thing is that we need to put our nose to the grindstone.”
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Zablocki was acquired in a trade from the Royals earlier this season, says he’s looking forward to facing his former team.
“It will be a fun game. I know when I was in Victoria coming to Kelowna was never a good time, it was always a battle. I’m going to make it as tough for them as possible, I’m going to play to my strengths and our structure. Hopefully, the outcome will be positive,” said Zablocki.
Friday night’s game is the fourth time the Rockets will play the Royals this season. They previously met on October 5th in Kelowna where Victoria skated away with a 4-3 victory. The Rockets travelled to the B.C.’s Capital for back to back games two weeks later where the Rockets exploded with offence winning the first game 8-2 and the second 5-1. The two clubs will play each other four more times this season: Dec. 7 and Jan. 25 in Kelowna and then back to back games in Victoria on Feb. 18 and 19.
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Right after Friday night’s game, Rockets will pack up and head south to face the Everett Silvertips for the first time this season. Everett will be well rested as they have Friday night off. The Silvertips took last season’s season series 3-0-0-1.
The Rockets hold a 10-13-1-0 record with 21 points, they’re tied for Prince George for third in the B.C. Division.
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