Golder’s goals propel Kelowna Rockets to win and split of twin bills with Vancouver Giants
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The Vancouver Giants and the Kelowna Rockets share their back-to-back neck-and-neck weekends.
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The Rockets beat the Giants 5-1 in Kelowna on Saturday to end the teams’ planning oddity with back-to-back doubleheaders and end up level in those four games. Vancouver won 3-1 at the Langley Events Center on Friday.
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Last weekend it was the Giants who recorded a 4-3 win in Kelowna after the Rockets beat them 4-1 in the LEC the night before.
It was four games in a row for Vancouver. The Rockets lost 5-1 to the Victoria Royals between meetings in Vancouver.
The Rockets were led by Carson Golder on Saturday with a natural hat-trick that took him to 19 goals this season. They also received a 29 save outing from Jari Kykkanen.
Golder’s final tally came into an empty net with 2:27 remaining. Kelowna went into the third period with a 2-1 lead.
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Jesper Vikman made 27 saves for Vancouver. Dylan Anderson made it 1-1 as his power play point shot resulted in his third win of the season for Vancouver.
Vancouver (18-21-4-2) is back on Wednesday, hosting the Prince Albert Raiders. They travel to Kelowna on Friday (15-26-3-0). The Giants and Rockets are five games into their nine-season streak. It concludes with the traditional home-and-home to wrap up the regular season on March 24th and 25th.
The Giants, who are seventh in the WHL’s Western Conference, will spend Sunday watching the scoreboards, paying particular attention to the fourth-ranked Tri-City Americans (22-16-4-1) battling the fifth-ranked Everett Silvertips (23-21-1-0) in Everett.
Tri-City is seven points ahead of the Giants and sixth-ranked Prince George Cougars (19-21-4-0), while Everett has a five-point lead over those teams. Prince George and Vancouver are tied on points, but the Cougars still have a win and a game to go.
Kelowna holds the eighth and final playoff spot, nine points behind Vancouver. The Rockets are level on points with the Royals (14-28-4-1) but still have a win and three games left.
Prince Albert (17-25-3-0), who is 11th in the 12-team Eastern Conference, started his five-game away drive in BC with a 4-1 win over Prince George on Saturday. They will be in Victoria on Tuesday.
Jesper Vikman helps ground the Kelowna Rockets offense and leads the Vancouver Giants to victory
