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Kelowna is just hours away from the Connor Bedard spectacle on the ice at Prospera Place.
Fans are getting excited as Tuesday's game will be the first and likely only time for Okanagan fans to watch Bedard play.
The projected #1 pick in the upcoming NHL Draft was in Kelowna on Monday, in preparation for the Rockets-Pats game on Tuesday.
— KelownaNow (@KelownaNow) November 28, 2022
Connor Bedard chatted with the media about his excitement for the sold-out crowd, and the close relationship between him and Andrew Cristall. pic.twitter.com/j59GfVyLFZ
"We haven't had a player like this in the west of this magnitude ever," said Rockets GM and President Bruce Hamilton. "They have had a few in the OHL and the Quebec league, but this guy's got action written all over him and he's a classy young man."
Tickets have been sold since last week and Hamilton has exhausted seemingly every option to cram as many people as possible into the 6,000-seat arena.
"If we had more seats, there would be more people here for the game, for sure."
Over 400 standing room tickets have been sold, pushing the attendance to tonight's game around 6,400.
An estimated 6,206 spectators came to a Dec. 27, 2019 matchup against the Kamloops Blazers. That was the last time Prospera Place sold out. Tonight's match will surely eclipse that number.
"We haven't played in front of a sold out crowd that we used to have back in the day," said Rockets forward Andrew Cristall. "It is going to be great and we are going to be really juiced for the game."
Cristall and Bedard have had a long friendship, stretching back to when the two were playing spring hockey, at the tender age of six.
"We were around six when we got into spring hockey together on the same team and we had been doing that ever since we have been growing up," Cristall said.
"Obviously, we have been friends since then. We played in the springs (league) together from six until 14, but in the winters we played against each other. He was a North Shore kid and I was Burnaby, so we had a pretty good rivalry going."
Bedard, from North Vancouver, then plied his trade at West Van Academy during his teen years. Cristall, in turn, grew up in Burnaby and played for St. George's School in Vancouver when he hit his mid-teens.
The two have shot to the top of the NHL rankings, with Bedard the consensus and unanimous number one prospect for the 2023 NHL Draft. When he was 15, Bedard became the first ever WHL and seventh CHL player to be granted Exceptional Status.
Since then, he has only enhanced his reputation as a potential franchise changing future NHLer. So far this season in the WHL, the Regina Pats captain leads the league in points, with 53.
Bedard is coming off of a three goal, one assist night in a 9-5 victory over the Victoria Royals on Saturday. The 17-year-old has a 23-game point streak, only being left off the scoresheet once, in the Pats season opener. The only player who rivals Bedard's 53 points (in 24 games) in the CHL is Halifax Mooseheads forward Jordan Dumais, who has 54 points in 24 games.
Who sits second in WHL points? Andrew Cristall with 39.
The 17-year-old was also recently upgraded to an 'A' ranking by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau for the upcoming draft. His 11 game point streak is nothing to scoff at, picking up 26 points in that span.
While both are projected first round NHL talents, their team performances leave much to be desired.
Regina currently sits seventh in the Eastern Conference, with an 11-11-1-1 record for 24 points. Swift Current and Prince Albert are just two points back, at 22 points. The Rockets, meanwhile, are eighth in the Western Conference with a slightly worse 9-10-1-0 record for 19 points.
That means that every game is crucial, as the squads look to bolster positioning in what will assuredly be a crowded playoff picture.
Let the competitive juices flow.
"We both had this game circled on the calendar for a while, we aren't going to be friends out there, I don't think," said Bedard. "We both want the win and want to outdo each other."
So who will have the upper hand tonight? Bedard has already begun the chirping.
"You know, we are super competitive together, whatever it is we are doing," he said. "He doesn't beat me much."
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