It wasn’t their best start, but the Kelowna Rockets finished the game very well on Tuesday night.
At Prospera Place, Tij Iginla scored twice as Kelowna bounced back after conceding an early goal and scored five unanswered points a 5-1 win against the Wenatchee Wild.
The Rockets were ahead 2-1 and 3-1 during the breaks between periods and now lead the best-of-seven, first-round playoff series 2-1. Game 4 will be held Wednesday evening at Prospera Place.
“I think there was some nervous energy, but I liked our response after the fact,” Rockets head coach Kris Mallette said.
“I think, obviously, Wenatchee coming into a building where they obviously want to win a hockey game, they came out determined.
“The loose puck battles, they were winning those, got some shots early and put us on our heels.
“I liked our response as the game went on. We maybe had to get a little bit of a rhythm under us, and once we did, we did well.”
Wenatchee won the opening game last Friday, 8-6, but Kelowna levelled the series by winning Game 2 on Saturday, 3-1.
Game 5 will be at Wenatchee on Friday, with Game 6, if necessary, scheduled for Kelowna on Sunday afternoon.
Also scoring for the Rockets on Tuesday night, in front of a crowd of 4,044, were Marek Rocak, Caden Price and Luke Schelter.
Briley Wood, who opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the playoffs at 5:55 of the first, replied for Wenatchee.
Jari Kykkanen had an almost flawless game as the goalkeeper for Kelowna, saving 31 of 32 shots. Daniel Hauser made 19 saves on 23 shots.
The Rockets did not score any of the two power plays, while the Wild scored 1 out of 6.
“I think we played amazing tonight,” Kykkanen said. “Guys were sacrificing all around, blocking shots and our penalty kill was focused.
“We gave up the (power-play) goal, but everything else we were killing off. It was a lot of fun to play behind those guys tonight.”
