Kelowna at Calgary

The Calgary Hitmen (36-23-2-1) host the Kelowna Rockets (26-28-3-6) in a late afternoon Sunday matinee at Scotiabank Saddledome.  Game time is 4:00 p.m.  Calgary had their four game winning streak snapped Friday night with a 4-1 loss to the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings.  Kelowna meanwhile is set to play their third game in as many days falling 6-2 in Lethbridge on Friday before dropping a 4-3 shootout loss last night in Medicine Hat.

Calgary enters the day fifth in the WHL's Eastern Conference with 75 points, just one back of fourth place Kootenay and one ahead of sixth place Saskatoon.  The Hitmen have a game in hand on both teams and will use that up today.  Kelowna meanwhile is comfortably stuck in sixth in the Western Conference, 10 points back of fifth place Spokane and 15 points ahead of seventh place Victoria.

                                          Photo Credit:  shootthebreeze.ca

Today is the third and final regular season meeting.  Calgary leads the season series 2-0.  Alex Gogolev tops all Hitmen with four points (2g 2a) against the Rockets while Danny Gayle, Greg Chase, Kenton Helgelsen, Victor Rask and Alex Roach all have two points each.  Chris Driedger is 2-0 with a .50 goals against average and .980 save percentage stopping 49 of 50 Kelowna shots.
-Jan. 1 at KEL: Hitmen 2 Rockets 0.  Chris Driedger made 27 saves for his first career WHL shutout.  Brooks Macek and Alex Gogolev scored the goals while Jimmy Bubnick and Brock Sutherland both had a pair of assists.
-Feb. 17 at KEL: Hitmen 7 Rockets 1.  Alex Gogolev led the scoring attack with a goal and two assists while Danny Gayle scored twice.
                                                        INSIDE THE SERIES
SHOTS ON GOAL: Cal 73 Kel 50  POWERPLAYS: Cal: 3-10 (30%)  Kel 0-7 (0%)

FORMER TEAM:  Hitmen defenceman Collin Bowman was a member of the Kelowna Rockets who beat the Hitmen in six games in the 2009 WHL Championship Series.  After playing four games with Kelowna as a 15 year-old, Bowman went on to three full seasons in the Okanagan appearing in 206 regular season games with the Rockets, plus an extra 41 playoff contests.

DID YOU KNOW?  Including the playoffs, Kelowna is 5-3 in their last eight visits to Calgary.

STREAKIN':  Victor Rask (3g 5a) and Brady Brassart (3g 4a) are both riding five game point streaks while Alex Gogolev (1g 1a) has points in back-to-back games.  Meanwhile Damon Severson (1g 4a) has points in four straight for Kelowna.

WHAT'S LEFT:  Including today Calgary has 10 regular season games remaining against the following opponents: Leth (2), Kel (1), Koot (3), RD (2) Sask (1), SC (1).  Six of the final 10 are at home.
Top Scorers: 

Calgary
Jimmy Bubnick 28g 34a 62pts
Cody Sylvester 20g 42a 62pts
Brady Brassart 21g 30a 51pts

Kelowna
Shane McColgan 15g 43a 58pts
Brett Bulmer 28g 22a 50pts
Colton Sissons 26g 15a 41pts