{"id":43273,"date":"2019-11-23T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/thunderbirds-battle-but-fall-to-rockets\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T17:30:00","slug":"thunderbirds-battle-but-fall-to-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/thunderbirds-battle-but-fall-to-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderbirds battle but fall to Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Kelowna Rockets defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-2 in a hard-fought Western Hockey League game Friday night at accesso ShoWare Center.<\/p>\n
Down a goal late in the third period Seattle pulled goalie Roddy Ross for an extra attacker. The T-Birds got several good chances but Kelowna goalie Cole Schwebius made the saves.<\/p>\n
Kelowna took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Dalton Wilton at 12:01 of the first period.<\/p>\n
The Rockets extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal by Dillon Hamaliuk at 16:27 of the first.<\/p>\n
Seattle tied the game 2-2 with two goals in 32 seconds in the second period.<\/p>\n
Alex Morozoff moved the puck up the right wing to Andrej Kukuca. Kukuca made a cross ice pass to Conner Bruggen-Cate skating with speed up the left wing. Bruggen-Cate took the pass in stride, skated into the left circle and beat Kelowna goalie Cole Schwebius with a hard wrist shot over the glove at 7:30 of the second.<\/p>\n
Kelowna was called for a penalty 22 seconds after Bruggen-Cate’s goal and the T-Birds capitalized. Kukuca had the puck along the left boards and passed it to Simon Kubicek at the left point. Kubicek skated to the midpoint and took a wrist shot with Payton Mount in the slot. Mount tipped Kubicek’s shot past Schwebius at 8:02 for his third goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Hamaliuk scored at 9:24 of the third period to give the Rockets a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n