Kelowna Rockets continue to struggle in overtime, losing 4-3 to Portland

Rockets fall in OT

Photo: Steve Dunsmoor

Rockets fall 4-3 in overtime to Portland Tuesday

The Kelowna Rockets' struggles beyond 60 minutes continued Tuesday night at Prospera Place.

The Rockets fell to 0-5 in three-on-three overtime and 3-7 overall, losing 4-3 to the Portland Winterhawks before 3,730 mostly disappointed fans.

The Rockets were able to generate one good chance in overtime but Mazden Leslie was stopped on a two-on-one from the right circle.

But, after turning over the puck in the offensive zone, Nathan Brown hit a streaking Sam Spehar at the Rockets blueline.

He got behind the defence and beat Harrison Boettiger to the glove side.

The Rockets trailed 1-0 after one and 2-1 after two but dominated the Winterhawks in the third, peppering Ondrej Stebetak with 23 shots.

Ty Halaburda eventually got the equalizer, bunting home the puck out of mid air midway through the third with the Rockets a man down.

The goal was his 100th in the Western Hockey League.

Just 83 seconds later Halaburda forced a turnover behind the Portland net and found Tij Iginla in the low slot. His second of the night and 25th of the year gave the Rockets their first lead of the night.

But, instead of pushing for more, the Rockets found themselves back on their heels. Just 57 seconds after grabbing the lead, Alex Weiermair beat Boettiger from just inside the blueline, forcing overtime.

“That just goes to checking. Whether that’s guys not confident in their spot or somebody runs around and throws us out of whack, we’ve got to be better,” said head coach Derrick Martin.

The Winterhawks scored the only goal of the opening period with Ryuan Miller chipping a puck over Boettiger from in tight on a sequence in which the Rockets had a few opportunities to get the puck out of their own end.

A seeing eye shot from the point past a screened Boettiger just 15 seconds into the second made it 2-0, but the Rockets took the game over from there.

Iginla finally gave the crowd something to get excited about four minutes into the second. He took a stretch pass from Parker Alcos and beat Stebetak with a beautiful backhand deke.

But, again, for Martin it was another slow start against a team below them in the standings.

“I just didn’t like our first 20 minutes. We didn’t check, we turned over some pucks at the blue lines that cost us and that’s the story tonight.

“We turn a puck over at the blue line and it leads to their first power play and we turn a puck over at our blue line and it winds up in the back of our net.

“Things we continue to talk about and that’s frustrating.

“I liked our second period, I really liked our third period and in overtime, we check better than that.”

It’s a lost point that may come back to haunt them when all is said and done.

The overtime loss drops the Rockets down to fifth in the Western Conference. They are a point behind Kamloops who thumped Victoria 11-1 and three in back of Prince George who lost 3-2 to Red Deer.

The Rockets have a crucial test coming up this weekend, back-to-back games in Prince George within a chance to catch the Cougars, a team they have been trying to chase down for a few weeks now.

Kelowna returns home next Wednesday for a date with the Wenatchee Wild.