Rockets turn tables on Wheat Kings

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This article was published 25/10/2014 (4171 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Using a flurry of third-period goals to turn a close game into a one-sided final score has been a familiar M.O. for the Wheat Kings this season. Only this time, the shoe was on the other foot.

The Kelowna Rockets scored four times in the third period to earn a 6-1 win over the visiting Wheat Kings in a battle of Western Hockey League heavyweights on Saturday night. The Rockets (12-1-0-0) own the best record in the WHL, while the Wheat Kings (10-3-1-0) fell into a share of first place in the Eastern Conference with the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Specialty teams were the difference, with the Rockets scoring three times on the power play and, perhaps more devastatingly, twice short-handed. The first of the short-handed goals came from Nick Merkley only 59 seconds into the third period, giving Kelowna a 3-1 advantage.

"It was a very well-played game through two periods," said Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon, whose team trailed by a goal entering the third period despite a 21-13 edge in shots. "I felt after 40 we’d been the better team and (with) two power plays early in the third … I thought our power play really let us down. We gave up a short-handed goal, which was real critical in a low-scoring game, and then didn’t respond real well with the next opportunity that we had, so that was really the turning point in the game."

Merkley was in on the Rockets’ first four goals, setting up two by Madison Bowey and another by Rourke Chartier. Cole Martin and Austin Glover also scored for Kelowna, while Quintin Lisoway had the Brandon marker.

After totalling 33 goals to win their previous four games, the Wheat Kings did everything but score in the first period, limiting the Rockets to five shots and being denied by Jackson Whistle on some glorious chances. The Kelowna netminder stopped Jesse Gabrielle on a breakaway and an ensuing penalty shot when the officials ruled that Rockets defenceman Bowey was too aggressive with his stick in his pursuit. Whistle wasn’t done there, denying Nolan Patrick on a breakaway and robbing Rihards Bukarts with a diving stop on a Brandon power play.

The Wheat Kings finally got a puck past Whistle in the second period as Lisoway made good on Reid Duke’s centring pass from the end boards, but the Rockets responded with a Bowey power-play tally and a goal by Chartier to take a 2-1 lead after two periods. The game might have been much different if Bukarts, who had a nine-game point-scoring streak snapped, had better luck around the net. He lost the puck on a breakaway early in the second period and hit a crossbar late in the frame.

Merkley’s marker in the third started a snowball effect in the third as the Rockets rolled up four specialty-team goals, including Bowey’s second of the night, which came on a 5-on-3 power play, and Glover’s short-handed tally.

ONE-TIMERS: Going into Saturday’s game, the Wheat Kings had outscored opponents 32-16 in third periods this season … Whistle made 31 saves and was named the game’s first star, while Papirny stopped 16 shots … Brandon RW Peter Quenneville (seven games) and C Tim McGauley (five games) were among those who had point-scoring streaks snapped, while D Ivan Provorov saw his four-game goal-scoring streak come to an end … Wheat Kings LW Richard Nejezchleb completed his two-game suspension from last season’s playoffs, while Brandon’s other scratches were LW Ty Lewis (broken arm, week-to-week), LW Braylon Shmyr, D Mark Taraschuk and D Mark Matsuba … The Wheat Kings are 2-1-0-0 on their West Coast road trip, which continues on Tuesday when they visit the Victoria Royals … Spokane G Tyson Verhelst, rookie from Brandon, earned his first WHL victory on Saturday, stopping 21 shots in the Chiefs’ 4-3 win over the Kootenay Ice.

» rhenders@brandonsun.com