By / Adrian Nieoczym
This is exactly where the Kelowna Rockets planned to be at this point of the season, challenging the mighty Vancouver Giants for the right to move onto the championship round.
As Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton said during training camp, 2008/09 is, “kind of the third year of a three-year plan” to return to the success enjoyed from 2003 to 2005, when Kelowna made three successive Memorial Cup appearances.
But it took until the end of the season for the plan to come together. For the first two-thirds of the campaign, the Rockets looked like they would be hard pressed to make it beyond the first round of the playoffs.
But a few shrewd moves prior to the trade deadline, along with a little good fortune, gave the Rockets a boost that pushed them to wins in 18 of their last 21 regular season games. They then swept the Kamloops Blazers in round one before taking six games to dispatch the Tri-City Americans in round two.
In January, Hamilton went out and got tough guy Ryley Grantham from the Moose Jaw Warriors. He then addressed the Rockets goaltending woes by nabbing Mark Guggenberger from the Swift Current Broncos before hooking up with the Warriors once more to acquire centre Ian Duval.
The hockey gods smiled on the Rockets when Swedish phenom and top Calgary Flames prospect Mikael Backlund, decided after the World Juniors that he wanted to stay in North America and the Flames decided to send him to Kelowna rather than their AHL affiliate in Quad City.
Suddenly, the Rockets had the potential to be an offensive dynamo and by the time the playoffs rolled around, they had gelled into a formidable contender.
But as important as the new acquisitions have been to Kelowna’s success, the team wouldn’t have gone anywhere if the old guard hadn’t stepped up its game as well.
In the first round against Kamloops, forward Cody Almond, in his fourth year with the Rockets, showed an impeccable sense of timing by scoring the tying goal in game three with 2.9 seconds left in regulation. He then scored the winner 12:21 into overtime.
A consistent contributor, Almond had totalled 17 points through two rounds.
Then there is Jamie Benn. A prolific scorer during the regular season, he has turned into a monster during these playoffs. His 23 points after two rounds topped the WHL playoff scoring ladder and he was one of the three stars in three of the Rockets wins over Tri-City.
But perhaps the biggest reason for the Rockets success so far in these playoffs, has been their willingness to use their size and play a crash and bang kind of game. That approach was hugely successful against Tri-City, who lost three of their top players — Taylor Procyshen, Jason Reese and Mitch Fadden — to injury at one point or another during the series.
The key for the Rockets against the slightly smaller Giants, will be to keep throwing the body and wear down their opponents. But they also have to be careful not to go overboard and start a parade to the penalty box. |