By Adrian Nieoczym /
Last year, the Kelowna Rockets rode the offensive firepower of stars like Jamie Benn and Mikael Backlund to a league championship. But with those two snipers graduating to the pros this year, the Rockets need a few of last year’s supporting players to step into lead roles.
And on opening night, 19-year-old Stepan Novotny served notice he intends to be one of those guys. Playing on the top line with rookie Shane McColgan and second-year Rocket Mitchell Callahan, the 6-2 Czech forward netted four goals and an assist as the Rockets were downed 6-5 by the Vancouver Giants.
“I guess that’s my role on the team this year – to go out there and put some pucks in the back of the net like Jamie Benn was doing last year,” said Novotny afterwards.
Callahan meanwhile, registered a goal and two assists while McColgan chipped in with an assist.
Asked if he was expecting Novotny and Callahan to pick up some of the scoring slack with the departure of Benn and Backlund, Rockets head coach Ryan Huska said, “they’ll have to.
“And I think In Stepan’s case, he’s a very good skater, he’s got great skill and a very heavy shot and if he is willing to get his nose dirty and put himself in some difficult areas, he’s going to get rewarded a lot of times this year,” he added. “Hopefully this is a sign of some good things to come for him.”
But the truth is this year’s edition of the Rockets is a lot younger and a lot rawer than the one that came second at last year’s Memorial Cup. That will be especially true if centre Colin Long and defenceman Tyler Myers are not returned to Kelowna by the Phoenix Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres respectively.
And Novotny – who scored 41 points in 65 regular season games and another 6 points in 22 playoff games last year – has a long way to go to show he can consistently fill Benn’s shoes (82 points in 52 regular season games in 2008/09 and 33 points in 19 playoff contests.)
Those realities were driven home in the season’s second game, a 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Tri-City Americans when Novotny, Callahan and McColgan were kept off the score sheet.
The play of Callahan, 18, will be instrumental this season. He is being relied on to open up space so his more offensively skilled linemates can do their thing.
“He always has to work on making sure he is positionally sound and he has to be a physical presence for us all the time,” said Huska. “When you’re playing with two guys with speed like Shane [McColgan] and Stepan Novotny, he has to be the energy guy on that line with body contact and making sure he’s difficult to play against.”
Rocket notes
The Anaheim Ducks returned forward Brandon McMillan to the Rockets in time for their second game. He was moved to the blue line last season and performed admirably but at the Ducks’ request he will remain up front this year, despite Kelowna’s thinness on defence. |