Rockets stress defense

  • Nick Patterson / Herald Writer
  • Thursday, April 15, 2004 9:00pm
  • Sports

EVERETT – When the Everett Silvertips take the ice for Game 1 of the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference finals tonight in Kelowna, they’ll be staring straight into a mirror.

The Kelowna Rockets, defending WHL champions and the best team in the WHL during the regular season, do all the things that Everett does well. They play hard, they play a sound defensive system, they have outstanding goaltending.

And in many ways they do those things better.

As a result, the Silvertips have a daunting task ahead. While Everett proved against Vancouver in the previous round it could beat its polar opposite, against Kelowna the Silvertips must prove they can beat their doppleganger – a doppleganger pumped up like Arnold Schwarznegger.

“They’re awfully good and have been for two years,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “We know only our best is going to have a prayer of coming close to them.”

Kelowna is coming off a 4-2 series victory over Tri-City in the second round, in which the Rockets rebounded after losing the first two games at home.

“We feel good about the way we’re playing,” Kelowna coach Marc Habscheid said. “We lost a couple of games early in the series against Tri-City, but we responded well, came back and won some games. We dug down and did everything a little better, worked a little harder.”

Hard work will be a staple in a series that features the two best defensive teams in the WHL. Kelowna gave up the fewest goals in the WHL during the regular season (125) and Everett gave up the second fewest (153). Neither team lit up the scoreboard during the regular season, with Kelowna finishing 15th in the league in goals (185) and Everett 18th (157), though both teams have picked up the scoring in the postseason.

And there’s more similarities. Kelowna goalie Kelly Guard and Everett goalie Jeff Harvey finished 1-2 during the regular season in goals against average, and Kelowna and Everett also finished 1-2 in the league in penalty killing.

“It’s going to be tough to score goals in the series, I can guarantee that,” Vancouver coach Dean Evason said. “Both teams play a very sound game and you see the goaltenders and how good their stats are, it’s a reflection of their team and how they play. It’s going to be a good series, but it might now be as high scoring as other series.”

Everett actually had some success against Kelowna in the regular season. The Silvertips finished 2-2 (losing one game in overtime) in their four regular season matchups, including a 3-1 victory at Kelowna on Feb. 25 that propelled Everett on a winning streak that produced the league record for wins by an expansion franchise.

However, the head-to-head record is a little deceiving. Guard, who is one of the two finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, played in just one of those four games. Guard was spectacular during the regular season, going 44-14-4 with a 1.56 goals against average, .925 save percentage and a league-record 13 shutouts. He’s been just as good during the playoffs, going 8-2 with a 1.68 goals against average and .926 save percentage.

“Everybody’s looking at the season series and thinking that means something, but they played their backup goalie three times and no disrespect to him, but (Guard) has played almost every game all year and is up for goalie of the year and player of the year,” Constantine said. “So it’s kind of deceptive to look at our season series and think we’re dead even with that team.”

In addition to Guard, the Rockets also have a pair of the best defensemen in the league in 19-year-old captain Josh Gorges and 18-year-old Shea Weber. Weber, considered one of the best stay-at-home defensemen in the league, has broken out offensively in the playoffs. He leads the Rockets in playoff scoring with 13 points (two goals, 11 assists). Gorges, a member of Canada’s team for the 2004 World Junior Championships, is tied for second on the team in playoff scoring with 12 points (two goals, 10 assists). Expect Gorges and Weber to log a lot of ice time in the series.

Offensively, Kelowna does not have the type of individual talent Vancouver had. However, the Rockets are deep and don’t have a player or line Everett can focus on shutting down. Nineteen-year-old Randall Gelech leads the team in playoff goals with eight. Twenty-year-old Simon Ferguson, 18-year-old Troy Bodie and 17-year-old Justin Keller each have four.

“Kelowna plays such a good team game,” Everett right wing Torrie Wheat said. “They’re not as flashy, but they work so hard. They’re like us in a lot of ways and they’re just real solid. You’re not going to get as many chances like odd-man attack like we did against Vancouver.”

The x-factor may be motivation. Kelowna is hosting this year’s Memorial Cup, meaning the Rockets are already guaranteed a spot in the tournament. Is Habscheid concerned about complacency?

“No,” Habscheid responded. “We’ve got a lot of pride in our organization. We’re the defending league champions and we’re playing to defend that title. We play to win every game.”

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