Welcome back, Andrew Cristall.
After missing the past 14 games with an undisclosed lower-body injury, The Kelowna Rockets‘ leading scorer made a splash in returning to action on Wednesday night.
The 5-foot-10 centre potted four goals in the Rockets’ 5-2 home-ice victory over the Everett Silvertips, a win that snapped a four-game losing streak.
“I felt good, getting back onto the ice,” Cristall, the game’s first star, said in a post-game interview. “It’s hard for me to sit and watch; I want to be out on the ice.”
At one point earlier this season, Cristall was second in league scoring. After missing 14 games, he’s currently 10th with 30 goals and 36 assists for 66 points. The leader is Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats with 48 goals and 48 assists for 96 points.
In Wednesday’s outing, he tallied a natural hat trick in the second period, giving Kelowna leads of 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0, then rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal in the dying seconds of the third period.
Notably, Bedard has played 39 games (he missed several games while playing for Canada at the world juniors) while Cristall has played in 37 games.
Gabriel Szturc, the game’s second star, also had a four-point outing with one goal and three assists for Kelowna (18-30-3-0), which led 4-0 after the second period following a scoreless first. Goalie Jari Kykkanen, the third star, stopped 41 shots for the Rockets.
Jackson Berezowski, with two goals in the third period, replied for Everett (27-23-2-0), which outshot Kelowna 43-24. In net, Tyler Palmer played two periods, stopping 16 of 20 shots, with Tim Metzger playing the final 20 and going 3-for-3 in relief.
Everett was 1-for-9 on the power play, while Kelowna was 1-for-5.
“There was a confidence (level) definitely throughout our group,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette.
“I thought the first period was a little slow, but I thought the second period – which typically is one of our struggles – we did a lot of real good things. Obviously, to go up a couple of goals was nice but, as the game wore on, the puck support, the sacrifice we talked about was evident because we had a lot of penalties we had to kill.”
Mallette noted that the team kept Cristall from returning too early to prevent potential re-injury, and the plan was to limit his minutes on Wednesday evening.
“That went out the window in a hurry,” said Mallette. “You’re spending a lot of minutes on the penalty kill, where you’re expending a lot of energy, so I had to get him in early.
“Obviously, the results that come with it, you have to keep putting him out on the ice. And he told me already: ‘I didn’t play enough.’ Jokingly, of course, but this kid just wants to go, and the guys rallied behind it.”
The Rockets, who have 17 games remaining on their schedule, are currently fourth in B.C. Division standings with 39 points. They are three points up on fifth- and last-place Victoria (36 points), with the Royals also having played two more games than Kelowna.
Kamloops (72 points) leads the division, with Prince George (52) in second and Vancouver (46) in third.
Wednesday’s game was the last meeting of the season with Everett, with the Rockets having won the season series 3-1.
Up next are home games on Saturday night against Portland (36-12-2-2) and Monday afternoon against Tri-City (25-20-4-2).
The Rockets will then close out February with a three-game road trip against Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary.
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