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Boasting a 10-0 record, a gaudy plus-38 goal differential, the top two point-getters and the best goaltending duo in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League while attracting national recognition, the Okanagan Rockets will get a better idea of how good they really are this weekend on home ice.
The Kelowna-based group of 15-17-year-olds play host to the second-place
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Vancouver North West Hawks at the CNC today beginning at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Of their five opponents this far, only the fifth-place Fraser Valley Thunderbirds (4-3-0-1) have a winning record going into Week 6 of the BCHMML. So, it’s no surprise Rockets’ head coach Simon Ferguson is anxious to see how his first-place squad stacks up against North West (8-2).
“We’ve played well and it’s been a good schedule for us in that the younger players have been able to ease into the season and get a good feel for the pace of this league,” said Ferguson. “But North West comes in with a different style of play than most of the teams we’ve seen so far. It will be interesting to see how our boys meet the challenge.
“We probably have more skill than the Hawks, but they’re well-coached, tough and hard-working. If we try to be fancy it’s not going to go out way,” added Ferguson whose team defeated North West 7-3 in pre-season play.
He assures the Rockets’ fast-paced puck-pursuit/possession game that has produced 55 goals in 10 games won’t change, but he’s confident the opponents this weekend will force the Okanagan representatives to be smarter, especially coming out of the defensive end of the ice.
“I’m sure they (North West) will be collapsing on us and making it tough on us physically, so we need to be making the right decisions and choosing the right options quickly. The things we got away with against some of the teams we’ve played so far won’t work this weekend.”
On the flip side, the weekend visitors will have to contend with high-end talent in the league’s top one-two punch in linemates Dylan Wightman and Teague Patton who lead with 16 points apiece in 10 and eight games respectively.
Wightman, already with more points than he had in 40 games as a 15-year-old with the Rockets last season (14), is showing he’s more than a shutdown third-line centre he was in 2018-19.
Listed by the Western Hockey League Kelowna Rockets, the Kelowna minor hockey product is not only a solid offensive centreman who has earned time on the power play, but is also responsible defensively.
“He’s certainly shown he deserves to move up in the lineup,” said Ferguson.
Patton (upper-body injury), another Kelowna minor hockey graduate who won’t turn 16 until Dec. 15, will be returning to the Rockets after missing the pair of wins (6-1 and 4-3 OT) over the cellar-dwelling Valley West Giants the past weekend.
He’s displayed the skill and speed that makes his signing with the WHL Medicine Hat Tigers look like a wise decision.
“There’s no doubt Teague is a high-level playmaker, but he has that natural scoring ability as well,” notes Ferguson. “Our hope this weekend though is that he and some of the other younger guys don’t try to do too much with the puck.”
Adding to the offence while providing solid play at the back end, defenceman Cameron Moger will be a handful for North West this weekend. The 17-year-old Vernon product, an affiliate player (AP) with the Merritt Centennials of the B.C. Hockey League, is second among D-men in the major midget league in points with 12 (3g,9a).
“Cam has been really good at finding ways to create offence,” says Ferguson. “But while he’s been smart about jumping into the play, his defence has been responsible as well.”
And when the Rockets’ defence has lapsed, goaltenders Bailey Monteith of Kamloops and Cayden Hamming of Vernon have bailed it out, each winning five games and posting league-best goals-against-averages of 1.65 and 1.88 respectively.
Their best performance came against the Rockets’ stiffest competition in the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds who fell 3-1 twice due in large part to the Okanagan goaltenders who teamed up to stop a two-game total of 67 T-Bird shots two weeks ago.
Winning with just seven forwards on the roster against winless Valley West on the past weekend, the Rockets will be short on regulars again when they take on North West as three of them are in Calgary as part of Team BC at the WHL Cup.
The event features the highest-rated players in the under-16 category, including the Rockets’ Tyson Jugnauth (21st overall by Swift Current), Jace Weir (38th - Red Deer) and Rilen Kovacevic (204th - Kelowna Rockets), all of whom will have missed four games during their stint with the BC team.
Coach Ferguson looks forward to having the trio back next weekend when the Rockets meet the fourth-place Cariboo Cougars (6-1-0-1), another of the top contenders for a B.C. Major Midget championship and a shot at the national championship Telus Cup in 2020.
“It’s a cool experience playing with and against the high-ranking draft picks,” said Ferguson, who played with Team Pacific before winning a Memorial Cup with the Kelowna Rockets in 2004 and going on to play minor pro in North America and Europe. “You get to gauge where you are — under pressure — in your development compared with the other top players .”
He said each player will return their team with a different mindset.
“They should come back with more confidence in their game, but it could also be a humbling experience in a way, knowing better how much harder you have to work to get to the highest level.”
ICE CHIPS: The Rockets are ranked No. 1 among 162 midget AAA teams in Canada according to MyHockeyRankings.com . . . Steel Quiring, a fifth-round 2019 WHA bantam draft of the Kelowna Rockets, in his first game back from injury, led the OK Rockets with a pair of goals and an assist in their 6-1 win over the Valley West Giants in the first game of the past weekend . . . Cameron Hicklin set the pace in a 4-3 overtime win in the second game with two goals. Quinn Paterson scored the winner in OT . . . Forwards Austin Roest, Mason Finley and Isaak Moore and defencemen Nolan Matthews and Holdin Getzlaf of the Okanagan Rockets’ minor midget team have been called up to play for the major midgets this weekend against the Vancouver North West Hawks.
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