Rocket Report: Kelowna hoping to get power play back on track

A power-play goal by Kelowna in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to the visiting Vancouver Giants was a small victory for the Rockets.

The Rockets went 1-for-4 with the extra man in that stinging setback, but that’s an improvement compared to recent games.

During their past six contests, the Rockets are just 3-for-23 on the power play, which translates into 13 per cent.

Currently, the Winnipeg Ice have the Western Hockey League’s top power play at 38.8 per cent, having tallied 40 goals on 103 chances.

Overall, Kelowna is sixth, with 14 goals on 59 power-play chances. That works out to 23.7 per cent — or 10 percentage points higher than their current six-game slide.

“A lot of the time, it starts on the blue-line, getting pucks to the net and that hasn’t been happening,” Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton told Global News.

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Notably, prior to Kelowna’s current power-play drought, the team was 7-for-22 in seven games prior, good for 31.8 per cent.

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“The power play is a tricky thing. It’s streaky and it happens at the highest levels, there is no real answer,” said Rockets assistant coach Josh MacNevin.

“If anyone knew that answer, it would be very very easy to correct and everyone would have a 30 per cent power play.”

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Scoring that power-play goal for Kelowna on Wednesday night was 6-foot-4 forward Colton Dach. Since joining the Rockets earlier this season, Dach has nine goals in 17 games, with two via the power play.

Also scoring, albeit during five-on-five play, were Mark Liwiski and Pavel Novak, with his team-leading 10th goal of the season.

The Giants, who led 2-0 and 3-2 at the period breaks, were 2-for-2 on the power play.

“We’re just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to score,” said Dach a fixture on the first-unit power play.

“I think if we just go out there, start moving the puck, be free out there do our own things, I think we will be successful.”

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However, Hamilton said the remedy could be as simple as is ‘A little more We and a little less I.’

“Novak and Dach have gotta get back on the plan, where they’re working each other so that if everybody’s covering Novak, Dach is usually open get it over to him,” said Hamilton.

“Not worrying so much about scoring yourself, rather than getting the goal for the team.”

The Rockets are back in action on Saturday, as they visit the Kamloops Blazers.

Kelowna (10-6-0-2) is third in B.C. Division standings with 22 points, while Kamloops (17-2-0-0) is first with 34 points.