Game played on 11/20/2024.
General Game Notes: Special teams were the difference on this night as the visiting Wenatchee Wild scored two powerplay goals and one shorthanded. The reality is the score could have been weighted even more in favour of the visitors as the Rockets made many poor decisions in the neutral zone. The result was many outnumbered attacks but, Jake Pilon came to the rescue making several great stops off these keeping the game close. The final was 5-4 as the Rockets scored a late goal.
Jake Pilon (G, L, 6’4″, 210, Kelowna Rockets, 10/12/2006)
Grade: B+
Comments: Pilon was very good on this night for the Rockets. He made several excellent stops off of outnumbered attacks where players had clear breakaways or, there was a goalmouth scramble where he quickly moved side to side shutting down the opposing shooter. Specifically, there were three shorthanded breakaways, he stopped two of them with excellent gloves saves. His rebound control is usually pretty good and he will battle hard if there are any loose pucks around his crease. There is not a lot of unnecessary movement by him and pucks usually do not go through him. On this night, he did kick out one big rebound on a point shot that was deposited into the back of the net from the opposite dot from which the shot came.
Brett Calhoon (LW, L, 6’1″, 182, Kelowna Rockets, 01/10/2005)
Grade: B
Comments: Calhoon is a consistent and effective hard-working player for the Rockets. He is a player that you know what you were going to get every night. His tenacity often results in him driving opposing players crazy and getting them to respond to him. He finishes hard on the body on the forecheck, goes hard to the net and constantly pushes back. He is usually first in on the forecheck creating loose pucks for his linemates to jump on and make plays. He is very capable with the puck as he handles and moves it well but, at the same time seems to understand that his strengths are more with the aforementioned retrieval and hounding skills.
Kanjyu Gojsic (RW, R, 6’0″, 190, Kelowna Rockets, 01/11/2008)
Grade: B+
Comments: Gojsic was rewarded on this night for his efforts as he scored two goals for the Rockets. On most nights this hard working player utilizes his stocky six foot frame to play the body and separate players from the puck but tonight he used it effectively around the net to score. His first goal was the result of him diving into open ice from his F3 position, receiving a great pass from behind the goal line and finishing nicely with a quick wrister into the top shelf from in tight. The second goal was the result of him battling another player for position while attacking the net. Good fortune happened, and it went in off his skate.
Jacob Henderson (D, R, 6’0″, 180, Kelowna Rockets, 03/13/2008)
Grade: B
Comments: Henderson is a young 2008 player that shows many good things in his limited minutes for the Rockets. He is very solid on his skates resulting in him being very tough in pock battles and difficult to knock off his feet. He is a very good skater, showing excellent mobility backwards as he can maintain body position on incoming forwards. He is a good puck handler that makes consistent simple plays by getting it and moving it. He plays the game in a very confident manner as he does not hesitate to engage physically.
Ben Davis (RW, R, 5’10”, 180, Wenatchee Wild, 03/10/2007)
Grade: B
Comments: Davis is a very reliable, consistent player. He uses his very good skating ability effectively as a persistent player over 200 feet. He gets in hard on the forecheck, where he doesn’t hesitate to finish on the body and will hound pucks with second and third efforts consistently. He handles the puck quite well , and at this point in his career is someone that uses his ability to go get pucks as opposed to creating with it. He is not overly big at 5 ’11’ but is sturdy and does not shy away from traffic as he will go to the net hard and will pushback when needed.
Maddix McCagherty (LW, L, 6’0″, 178, Wenatchee Wild, 06/07/2006)
Grade: B
Comments: McCagherty is an effective two way player that does many things well, but not elite. He is a good, fluid skater with speed which allows him to be first on the first on the forecheck where he is more than willing to play the body. He also has good puckskills and handles well in tight. He displayed a willingness to go to the net and got rewarded on this night scoring one of the Wild goals. He is also willing to pushback in netfront altercations.
Miles Cooper (LW, L, 5’10”, 165, Wenatchee Wild, 08/04/2006)
Grade: B+
Comments: Cooper is not a very big player, coming in at about 5’10’, but this does not deter him at all with competing hard for puck, being relentless in all scenarios over 200 feet and going to the difficult areas to battle for pucks. He’s a great skater that skates low to the ice, is fast and will use it to attack the defense with speed through the neutral zone, often times backing them off. His excellent puck handling abilities were on display on several occasions. Two specific plays had him attacking two versus one on the penalty kill where he drew the defensmen to him, then laid perfect backhand passes to a streaking open teammate, that unfortunately were unable to finish on both occasions as the goaltender made two great stops.
Lukas McCloskey (D, R, 6’3″, 205, Wenatchee Wild, 03/25/2005, Army)
Grade: A-
Comments: In only his third game with the Wild, McCloskey was excellent on the backend this night. He showed very good mobility, especially skating backwards as he was consistently able to maintain body position with oncoming Kelowna attackers. He also showed quickness with his first two steps allowing him to close gaps quickly on his checks, or win races in the defensive zone. Even more impressive is that he spent a lot of the night up against Kelowna’s top players and came out of this winning 60% of his puck battles. His IQ and vision is very good. He gets back quickly for pucks, pre-scans and accelerates away from would be forecheckers. Combine this with his very good puck handling and passing skills, resulting in consistent hard flat passes and clean exits for his team. He showed great poise at the offence of blue line with the puck. In one instance he jumped down the wall with the puck, on a high rotation with the forward, making a great drop pass to his teammate who was then able to take mid ice for a clear shot. He is on the top penalty killing unit, where he cashed in on shorthanded breakaway effort for a beautiful goal. On this play he pulled the pass that was behind him to the front of his body, then quickly displayed some of his offensive skills going forehand to backhand, top shelf for a goal. At the offensive blueline he needs to move his feet more to create shooting lanes for himself as many shots were blocked by defenders. Given his excellent play it’s not surprising he was second in time on ice in this game at 24:49.
Caelan Joudrey (C, R, 6’4″, 175, Wenatchee Wild, 01/17/2008)
Grade: B+
Comments: Joudrey continues to impress on this showing with a great combination of size, skating ability, and high hockey IQ. On this night he was succcessful in 67% of his puck battles, emphasizing that he is not only willling to use his big frame but knows how to do it. He shows great awareness for a young player as he simply just knows where to be. He has excellent puck handling skills. Couple this with his awareness and the result in one situation was a very confident, nifty pass in the neutral zone…he was moving towards his net and hooked it around an opponent rink wide to an open streaking teammate. He also scored on this night winning a downlow battle, moving the puck back to his defense then being in the right place where he one timed a rebound into the back of the net. He is relied upon on the penalty kill where he showed great hustle forcing the Kelowna defence who were trying to breakout, into a turnover behind their net, made a slick move with the puck resulting in a scoring chance.
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images