Rockets Up Two

Don’t take this personally, but the Kelowna Rockets hope they don’t have to play before the home crowd at Prospera Place for the remainder of the 2005 playoffs.

The Rockets played a near perfect game defensively in front of rookie goaltender Kris Westblom, allowing just 15 shots in a 4-1 victory and a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven WHL final.

Westblom was in for injured starter Derek Yeomans, who suffered a knee injury after Brandon defenseman Steven Later fell on Yeomans late in Friday night’s game. Yeomans is listed as day-to-day. For his part, the sellout crowd booed Later loudly every time he touched the puck Saturday.

Justin Keller opened the scoring just 72 seconds into the game, taking a nice feed from Troy Bodie for his 10th goal of the post season. Tyler Mosienko made it 2-0 at 14:14 of the second period converting a juicy rebound.

A minute later, the Wheat Kings scored their first of the series when Lance Monych floated a backhand from the high slot which fooled Westblom. A minute after that, Bodie restored the Rockets two goals lead tapping in Keller’s centering pass. Darren Deschamps closed out the scoring just 55 seconds into the final period.

If the Rockets can be disappointed at any aspect of their game, it would be the power play, which failed to score on 10 chances. Brandon was 0-2 with the man advantage. For the second straight game, the Wheat Kings lost their cool late in the final period when the game was out of reach. Eric Fehr, the leagues MVP, who has not scored in the series, took out some of his frustrations on Rockets rookie Troy Ofukany, as the two went toe to toe after Ofukany bumped Wheat Kings goaltender Tyler Plante.

The Rockets outshot Brandon 42-15.

The series now shift to Brandon for the next three games, Tuesday, Wednesday and if necessary Friday.

The three stars were a mathematician’s delight…Tyler cubed. Tyler Mosienko, Tyler Spurgeon and Tyler Plante were named the three stars respectively.

The other two leagues had the night off Saturday. London, who will host the Memorial Cup, lead Ottawa 1-0 in the OHL final. Game two is Sunday. Rimouski has a 2-0 lead over Halifax in the QMJHL final, with game three Monday night.