Rockets make it look easy

Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet

Nick Merkley tapped home a back-breaking short-handed goal past Eric Comrie Friday at Prospera Place.

The Kelowna Rockets opened the Western Hockey League playoffs with one of their most complete and dominating games of the season.

The Rockets were the better team in all phases of the game, from start to finish, Friday, in a convincing 6-0 win over the Tri-City Americans in game one of the Western Conference quarter-final series.

The game looked like it was a battle between two teams that finished 47 points apart in the standings.

Rourke Chartier had two goals and an assist while Nick Merkley added a goal and two assists. Madison Bowey with one and one, Dillon Dube and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Rockets.

Jackson Whistle turned aside just 18 shots for his first career playoff shutout in his first playoff start.

"I thought the guys were excited to play hockey for the first time in a long time," said an elated head coach Dan Lambert.

"I thought the unsung heroes really set the tone for us tonight. Guys like Chance Braid, Tyrell Gourlbourne, Cole Linaker, guys that have to play that type of game, and they did that for us. It was a great 60 minute game for our hockey club."

Chartier opened the scoring two minutes in when Chartier, who led the team with 48 goals in the regular season, took a perfect feed from Goulbourne. Eric Comrie made the initial stop, however the rebound glanced off Chartier's skate and in.

Comrie, a gold medal winner on Canada's World Junior Hockey team was the difference in the rest of the first period and into the second, turning aside the Rockets at every turn.

He saved his best for Draisaitl, stopping the big German twice from in close on a Rockets power-play.

The Ams had a chance to get back into the game in the middle frame, but Jackson Whistle came up big, stopping Lucas Nickles on a two-on-one, then Justin Gutierrez on the rebound.

"There was a pass across the crease, and I made a save then a rebound and a save," recalled Whistle.

"I know the D-man was right there to take that guy and did a great job in getting it out."

"Early in the second, Jackson made a couple of huge saves and, you know, if they score there it's a different hockey game," said Lambert. "It seemed like the whole bench just raised and fed off that."

If that re-energized the Rockets, Kelowna's second goal, a short-handed marker, deflated the Americans.

Merkley took a perfect cross-crease pass from Chartier, and his one-timer beat Comrie to make it 2-0.

The Rockets offence wouldn't be denied from there.

Dube made it 3-0 two minutes later when he intercepted an errant pass and beat Comrie, five-hole.

Draisaitl made it 4-0 in the final minute of the second following an intense forechecking display in which the puck seemed to be in the Ams end for two or three minutes.

Chartier scored the Rockets' second short-handed tally seven minutes into the third just after the Rockets had killed off the first half of a five-on-three.

Bowey rounded out the scoring with a wicked shot from about 30 feet out in the slot.

"It was a good first win. I thought we came out hard," said Chartier the game's first star.

"It was something we can build on, for sure. We played a great 60 minutes, and we played well in a lot of the key areas we worked on this week."

While the offence was rolling, the defence gave up very little, save for the chances early in the second.

"I think we just made it simple," said Whistle.

"If we started to run around, we would just chip it out, make passes right away when they were there and get it out of our zone."

The Rockets were also in the face of the Tri-City defence all night, creating undisciplined turnovers and winning most battles along the boards.

The only area of the game that didn't stand out was the power-play, which went 0-4. However, much of the credit for that goes to Comrie, who made several big saves with the Rockets a man to the good.

Tri-City was also 0-4 and surrendered the two short-handed goals.

Game two in the series goes Saturday night at Prospera Place. The series then shifts to Tri-City for games three and four next Tuesday and Wednesday.