The Kelowna Rockets defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-0 on Wednesday night in Kent, WA, staving off elimination and forcing a game five Saturday in Kelowna in the WHL Western Conference quarterfinal series that Seattle now leads 3-1.
Tickets for game 5 Saturday in Kelowna go on sale at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning at http://www.selectyourtickets.com, at the Prospera Place box office or at 250-762-5050.
Tyson Baillie led the attack, scoring twice and adding an assist as the Rockets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Myles Bell also scored and added an assist in the first. Zach Franko added a goal and two assists as the Rockets outshot Seattle 37-25.
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The Rockets power play struck three times, all in the first period while its penalty killers kept Seattle to an 0-for-8 night.
“I thought it was very important for our power play to step up,” said Rockets assistant coach Dan Lambert on the AM1150 post game show. “The power play did that and that put them on their heels. I thought that was the difference early in the game. And I really felt that we out-worked them.”
Jordon Cooke earned the win in net as he turned aside 25 Seattle shots to earn his first WHL shutout.
The win came after the Rockets dropped the first three games of the series to Seattle, all of them in overtime.
“I thought it was a big character test for us: You lose and you go home and that’s certainly not what this hockey team wants to do,” said Lambert. “In saying that we need to keep playing the way we started to tonight. We are going home and hopefully the fans will come out and cheer them on. That next game is do or die again.”
Game five is set for Saturday night in Kelowna.
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