Rockets Home Opener

The Kelowna Rockets kick off their 2006-07 regular season home schedule Saturday when they host the Tri-Cities Americans.

The Rockets will be hoping to rebound from Thursday’s season opening loss to the expansion Bruins in Chilliwack. In that game, 2 goals in a 53 second, first period span spelled defeat for the Rockets. Furthermore, an 0-13 power play performance left them frustrated.

“The Bruins did a very good job of blocking shots tonight,” said Rockets’ Assistant Coach, Ryan Huska when speaking to Regan Bartel on the Oldies 1150 post game show. “I think you’re going to see a lot of emphasis on blocking shots by most teams. We had good puck movement on our power play but not enough penetration.”

Of course, the Rockets are going to be a younger team this season and may use as many as 11 players born in 1989 or 1990. That in mind, the team’s standard of performance hasn’t changed one bit.

“We have a lot of young guys with lots of energy and we need to make sure we outwork our opponents each night,” said Huska. “Outworking the other team is something we know we can do. We’ve got young legs and lots of enthusiasm.”

The Americans, meanwhile, made a major trade recently that saw them acquire forwards Colton Yellow Horn and Michael Kaye from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Yellow Horn is a 5’7, 175 pound 19-year-old who’s coming off seasons of 86 and 75 points consecutively. He’ll be counted on for major offensive production this season.

Meanwhile, all-star goalie Carey Price will not likely be in net for the Americans tonight. He’s still in camp with the Montreal Canadiens who drafted him early in the first round in 2005. In his absence, the team turned in a disappointing performance in Kootenay Friday night. They lost 7-3 and starting goalie, Chet Pickard was pulled after allowing 7 goals on 32 shots over 40 minutes.

Rockets’ new Captain Chris Ray will be showing off his letter for the first time before his home crowd tonight. Ray, a Westside resident, will be counted on to ignite his team with energy on a nightly basis while contributing offensively.

“He’s (Chris) such an energetic player and he’ll certainly be setting the tone for our team with his great work ethic,” says Head Coach, Jeff Truitt.

“Plus, he’s won a Championship (2004 Memorial Cup) and has been around a lot of good leaders during his career. We think that combined with his own leadership skills makes him a good choice.”

Clayton Barthel has returned from camp with Tampa Bay to seize one of the open 20-year-old spots along with Ray. The identity of the third overage player should be known in the next couple of weeks.