Rockets home, series tied

Photo: Brian Liesse

The Kelowna Rockets and Seattle Thunderbirds resume their Western Conference championship series this week at Prospera Place.

The third and fourth games of the best-of-seven are set for Kelowna Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The two teams head north after splitting the opening two games in Seattle.

Friday, the T-Birds won the opener 5-4, scoring the winner with less than 12 seconds left in regulation time.

The Rockets responded the following night with a 4-3 overtime victory.

Given how evenly matched the two teams are, Rockets head coach Jason Smith says the split wasn;t a surprise.

I think they were both good hockey games. There were some momentum swings both ways where both teams had generated opportunities to score and I think both teams competed extremely hard," said Smith.

After suffering a loss from a late goal in game one, Smith says the response from his team was excellent.

"The way the first game ended was obviously the way you don't want a game to end.

"You never want to give up a goal late in a period or late in the game. I thought our group did a great job bouncing back. We started game two really well... we played with focus, we played with poise, and we played with a high compete level."

Speaking of a high compete level, Rockets forward Reid Gardiner is still red hot, scoring a goal and adding two assists in game one, and scoring another two goals in game two, including the overtime winner.

The two goals on Saturday established a new Rockets franchise record for goals in a single playoff season with 15. That surpasses the mark of 13 established by Jamie Benn is 2009.

Gardiner leads all playoff scorers with 15 goals and 12 assists in just 13 games..

Calvin Thurkauf has also turned up the heat. After recording just two assists in the first round against Kamloops, Thurkauf has since recorded six goals and 10 assists over the following seven games.

Thurkauf had four primary assists in the game two victory.

Regardless of the outcome of the next two games, a fifth game in the series will be played back in Seattle Friday.

Should a sixth game be necessary, it would be played back in Kelowna Sunday afternoon.