From The Daily News of Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007 . . .
KELOWNA -- The summary shows that left-winger Alex Rodgers scored the winning goal at 19:43 of the third period as the Kamloops Blazers beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-3 in a WHL game played before 6,321 fans at Prospera Place on Friday night.
What the summary doesn’t show is the key play the kid known as A-Rod made moments earlier to put his club on the power play.
With the puck deep in Kelowna territory, Rodgers, who goes 5-11 and 175 pounds, moved in on Rockets defenceman Tyler Myers, all 6-foot-7, 200 pounds of him. The next thing Myers knew he was headed to the penalty box to serve a holding penalty.
”I just lifted his stick and I guess he got a bit of stick on me,” Rodgers recalled. “I felt a bit of a tug and luckily the referee (Nathan Wieler) saw it and made the call.”
That put the Blazers on their fifth power play of the game. And, one minute after Myers took a seat, Rodgers netted the winner, pounding a backdoor pass from centre Brock Nixon into an empty net.
”Nixie took a big hit to make the play,” said Rodgers of the play that led to his eighth goal. “I had a wide open net and it felt pretty nice.”
You can bet the victory felt pretty nice, too, what with the Blazers having ridden into the Little Apple having lost five of their last six games. The victory allowed the Blazers, who are at home to the Vancouver Giants on Sunday, 6 p.m., to stay nine points ahead of the ninth-place Prince George Cougars in the Western Conference.
At the same time, Kamloops (17-18-1-1) is just two points out of fifth spot, a position presently shared by the Seattle Thunderbirds, Chilliwack Bruins and Everett Silvertips.
”That line played great for most of the game and really excelled in the third period,” Kamloops head coach Greg Hawgood said of Rodgers, Nixon and Tyler Shattock. “A-Rod did a good job of challenging (Myers) and keeping his feet moving to force the referee to make that call.
”And sometimes it’s nice when they guy who puts a team on the power play at the end of a game gets the reward. Hopefully, that’s a confidence booster for A-Rod.”
One player who certainly is skating with confidence is veteran right-winger Kenton Dulle. He scored the Blazers’ first two goals last night, at which point he had scored his team’s last four goals. He scored twice in a 3-2 loss in Vancouver on Thursday.
”The last time they went in like that was probably in bantam,” said Dulle, who has eight goals this season. “It feels good to finally have them coming off your stick and going in the net.”
Dulle, who played his 92nd career regular-season game last night, had never scored twice in one game prior to Thursday.
His goals gave the Blazers a 2-1 lead early in the second period, left-winger Jamie Benn having opened the scoring for Kelowna in the opening frame.
Benn pulled the Rockets even with his 19th of the season on an early second-period power play. Centre Colin Long, who is smooth as the ice on a Prairie pond, gave Kelowna a 3-2 lead when he notched his 20th on a power play with 39 seconds to play in the second period.
The Blazers, however, came out in the third and played a strong period.
”Our main focus,” Dulle said, “was to get people and pucks to the net. We did that late in the (third) period and that’s how we got that last one.”
The visitors got two third-period power-plays goals, both courtesy of Myers.
The first, off the stick of right-winger Brady Calla, came after Myers was penalized at 0:43 for hooking left-winger Shayne Wiebe, who had a strong game.
The second, of course, came off the bat, er, stick of A-Rod.
”We came out in the third and had lots of opportunities,” said Rodgers.
He and his mates were outshot 37-21 on the night, but just 10-7 in the third period.
”I thought for two periods we played pretty hard and we had some good chances,” offered Kelowna head coach Ryan Huska, who club struggled on the back end in the third period without Luke Schenn (World Junior Championship) and Tyson Barrie (World Hockey Challenge). “I didn’t like our third period.”
Huska said he didn’t like his club’s discipline or what he called “poor decisions” made by the penalty-killing unit.
”They played hard,” Huska said of the Blazers. “They deserve some of the credit. But . . . when we took those penalties (in the third period) and they scored that first one we got back on our heels and that hurt us.”
Long, who figured in all of Kelowna’s goals and now has 56 points, just three shy of WHL leader Mark Santorelli of the Bruins, wasn’t about to disagree with his coach.
”They were pretty opportunistic,” the native of Santa Ana, Calif., said. “We made too many mental mistakes. We made some bad turnovers and mental mistakes and they came out hard and they capitalized.”
The Rockets (20-12-2-4) are fourth in the Western Conference, seven points out of third. They are at home to Vancouver tonight.
JUST NOTES: Wieler gave the Blazers seven of 12 minors. . . . Kamloops was 2-for-5 on the power play; the Rockets were 2-for-8. . . . Kamloops G Justin Leclerc was sharp in making 34 saves. Kelowna’s Kris Westblom turned aside 17 shots. . . . C Richard Vanderhoek made his WHL debut with the Blazers, taking the odd shift alongside Matt Wray and Mark Hall. The 122nd pick in the 2005 bantam draft, Vanderhoek, who turns 17 on Jan. 20, has four points in 17 games with the BCHL¹s Surrey Eagles. . . . LW Matt Riley, the 67th pick in 2006, played his first WHL game for the Blazers on Thursdsay in Vancouver. Riley, who turns 17 on Feb. 26, has one assist in 14 games with the PIJHL’s Port Moody Black Panthers. . . . Kelowna RW Kyle St. Denis returned to the lineup after missing eight games with a concussion.
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