A new rivalry is about to bloom for the Kelowna Rockets.
Later this week, the Rockets will trek five hours south to Wenatchee, Wash., where they’ll tangle with the Wild in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
The Highway 97 series should be a good one, as it pits fourth-ranked Wenatchee (34-30-4-0, 72 points) against fifth-ranked Kelowna (33-30-4-1, 71 points).
And in their four regular-season meetings, the two split, going 2-2.
The series will begin in Wenatchee with games 1 and 2 on Friday and Saturday before shifting to Kelowna for games 3 and 4 next Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It should be a good series,” Wenatchee general manager Bliss Littler told Global News.
“We have two teams that don’t know each other overly well; I think we’re both hoping to create some type of a good rivalry with each other.”
The series has the potential to go the distance, something which Littler doesn’t disagree with.
“It appears that Kelowna is on the rise again. They’ve been trending in the right direction. And we’ve kind of been hanging in there,” said Littler.
At the beginning of January, the Wild traded their two best players: Conor Geekie (Swift Current Broncos) and Matthew Savoie (Moose Jaw Warriors).
Both played for Team Canada at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship.
In return, Wenatchee received three players, four first-round draft picks, two second-round draft picks and five later-round picks.
Overall, a long-term move that will ensure depth in the years to come.
Last season in Winnipeg, the Ice finished with a ridiculous record of 57-10-1-0 and a league-leading 115 points. However, the core of that team is now gone, including Zach Benson of Chilliwack, an 18-year-old who’s now with the Buffalo Sabres.
Still, Wenatchee’s roster has a handful of holdovers who know what it takes to win, and that can go a long way in junior hockey.
“We’ve found a way to win enough games and be really competitive at home,” said Littler, whose club was 21-12-1-0 at Town Toyota Center but 13-18-3-0 in away rinks.
“We would have liked to have been more competitive on the road, where we’ve had our struggles. We’re definitely looking forward to this series.”
The Wild, fittingly enough, have a wild and stunning history.
The franchise came to life in 2008-09 as a member of the North American Hockey League. Seven seasons later, they joined the B.C. Hockey League in 2015-16.
Last spring, they became the sixth team in the U.S. Division when owners David and Lisa White bought the financially struggling Winnipeg Ice and relocated them to central Washington state.
To play in three different leagues is unheard of, and the Wild may be the only junior team to have made such increasing jumps.
However, Littler admitted it’s been a challenge jumping from the free-market, junior-A BCHL to regimented major-junior.
“In the NAHL, everything was a flight. Our closest team was North Dakota and we weren’t even in their division,” said Littler. “We went from Fairbanks, Alaska, all the way to Jamestown, New York to Dallas, Texas.
“So the thought was that the BCHL is a bus league and we’d have all these rivalries.”
Those rivalries didn’t pan out, he said.
“We had no issues with the league. The players had rivalries from team to team, but our fans never did. Our fans really didn’t travel to Penticton and Penticton didn’t really travel here much.”
Littler said Wenatchee will have natural rivalries with its fellow U.S. Division teams plus Kelowna and Vancouver, which are relatively short drives away.
“It’s worked out really well,” Littler said of the move to the WHL, adding home games this season are around 600 fans higher than last season in the BCHL.
“I see our jerseys in almost every rink that we go to, so that part’s been great.”
But back to the upcoming playoff series.
“We’re a different team. They’re a different team,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette.
“We have some strengths and they have some weaknesses and vice versa.”
Rockets goaltender Jarri Kykkanen said playing Wenatchee will be challenging, but added there’s a lot of belief in the locker-room “so I think it’s going to be a fun series.”
“The four games we’ve played so far, they’ve been relatively calm,” said Littler. “Not a whole bunch has happened; just some good hockey games.
“But no doubt having a playoff series that goes five, six, seven games, that definitely helps with the rivalry. And it’s something we would really welcome with the fans of Kelowna.”
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