On a night where the Kelowna Rockets honoured the WHL commissioner ahead of his retirement, the team came to play, beating the Vancouver Giants 5-2.
Less than five minutes into the game, the Giants got out to the 1-0 lead when Cameron Schmidt scored his 11th goal of the season.
Just under 10 minutes later, Rockets leading scorer and Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall deflected home his 27th goal of the campaign on a pass from Tij Iginla to tie the game. Team captain Gabriel Szturc also collected an assist on the goal.
Andrew Cristall gets a stick on Tij Iginla's feed to extend his point streak to 23 games.#ALLCAPS #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/ZDohZUJa7H
— Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets) January 20, 2024
Cristall’s goal extended his point streak to 23 games. He has 46 points in that stretch.
The game remained tied until the 13:14 mark of the season period when Ethan Neutens scored a shorthanded goal to give the Rockets a 2-1 lead.
Ice in his veins, Ethan Neutens rings the shorty in off the iron. pic.twitter.com/tH6ACYFG8X
— Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets) January 20, 2024
As the game went to the third period, Giants forward Samuel Honzek tied the game at the 7:33 mark of the period.
But the final 10 minutes turned into the Tij Iginla show.
At the 11:52 mark of the frame, Iginla went coast-to-coast, cutting through two defenders and poking the puck five-hole on the Giants goaltender, making it 3-2.
We've watched Tij Iginla score 29 goals this season, this might be his best one yet in a Rocket uniform.#NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/T00qKD8BIo
— Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets) January 20, 2024
Less than three minutes later, Iginla put a backhander into the top corner of the net, while shorthanded to double the Rockets lead.
Late in the fame, Szturc made a pass to Iginla, who completed the natural hat trick into the empty net to seal the 5-2 win.
Iginla’s three goals were his 29th, 30th, and 31st goals of the season as he completed a four-point night. With his big night, Iginla is up to fourth in the league in goals.
Trick or Tij. @Kelowna_Rockets | #NHLDraft | #WHLHatTricks pic.twitter.com/CBTkZ3lSKx
— The WHL (@TheWHL) January 20, 2024
Szturc and Cristall both also had multi-point nights. Cristall is fourth in the WHL with 73 points so far this season.
Jake Pilon was great in net, making 24 saves in the win for Kelowna.
With the win, the Rockets improve to 21-19-2-0, sitting sixth in the Western Conference. The Giants fell to 17-24-2-0, eight points behind the Rockets in the standings.
These two teams are going to do it all again Sunday afternoon (Jan. 21) at the Langley Events Centre. Puck drop is at 2 p.m.
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