The Kelowna Rockets returned to their winning ways in an 8-3 blasting of the Tri-City Americans on Wednesday night.
Led by Matthew Wedman’s three-goal night, the Rockets went down 1-0 early into the night before storming back with five unanswered goals en route to their first win in five games.
After initially being caught flat-footed when Tri-City opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game, Kelowna flipped a switch and began playing with urgency and pace to take a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period over the Americans who’ve also been severely hit by the injury bug.
The Rockets are still missing captain Nolan Foote, Liam Kindree and Sean Comrie due to injuries, but with Wedman’s return to the line-up, Kelowna soared to a needed win with help from Pavel Novak’s five point night (one goal, four assists) and Kyle Topping’s four point night (one goal, three assists).
“The guys played well,” said coach Adam Foote.
“Did a lot of good things that we worked on in practice. I thought Wedman, Topping, Novak came out and led by example. It was good.”
READ MORE: Kelowna Skating Club captures 23 medals at Okanagan championships
READ MORE: Warriors clinch playoff spot as final stretch of season concludes
Rockets’ defenceman Tyson Feist netted his first goal of his WHL career in the third period to give Kelowna a 7-2 lead as Dillon Hamaliuk and Mark Liwiski rounded out the rest of the scoring for the Rockets.
Kelowna out-shot Tri-City 45-27 with goalie Roman Basran making 24 saves.
The Rockets return to home ice Saturday when they host the Red Deer Rebels.
To report a typo, email:
newstips@kelownacapnews.com.
@KelownaCapNews
newstips@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.