John Persson (NYI 2011 5th) of the Red Deer Rebels kept up his own hot streak with a goal that extended his goal scoring streak to 3 games and an overall 5 game scoring streak with his 8th goal of the year.
Persson and his Rebels were in Kelowna to face Shane McColgan (NYR 2011 5th) and his Kelowna Rockets. This was the match up of 2 teams going in opposite directions as the Rebels despite being 5th in the WHL's Eastern Conference own the best winning percentage in the entire WHL at .735 (hold games in hand on those above them in the standings).
The Rockets are watching their season falling apart as they are winless in 4 straight so this game was not expected to be pretty. The Rockets struck first on a power play at 1:51 of the 1st period to take a 1-0 lead (A checking from behind call that Shane McColgan came to the aid of his teammate earned him a roughing minor).
The Rockets held the lead until Persson scored his 8th goal of the season at 15:10 to tie the game. The goal was Persson's 5th in his last 5 games as the current Islander prospect scoring leader is now 8-12-20 on the season.
The first period ended in 1-1 tie and that was the last time this game was really close as the Rebels scored 3 goals in the second to grab a 4-1 lead that they would not give up. In the 3rd period, the Rockers would score a couple of goals to get back into the game but Red Deer would respond with goals of their own.
Shane McColgan scored his 7th goal of the season at 13:11 to pull Kelowna to within 1 goal at 5-4 but Red Deer answered back at 14:59 to make it a 2 goal lead and that was the game.
McColgan's goal improved him to 7-13-20 which gave him sole possession of 2nd place among Ranger prospects in scoring. The loss dropped Kelowna to 5-11-1-1 8th in the WHL's Western Conference 1 point from last place.
The Rebels though have a 5 game unbeaten in regulation streak going as they may be 5th in the WHL Eastern Conference but with 3 games in hand could be a serious contender for the conference title.
In Vancouver, Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) and his Edmonton Oil Kings were fresh off a 8-2 whipping of Victoria last night, showed up flat and lost to the Vancouver Giants 4-1. The only reason this score is this close was because Vancouver could not score on any of the 8 power plays they had in this game and Edmonton's goalie Laurent Brossoit played a great game.
Vancouver scored twice in the first period and Edmonton answered with a goal set up by St. Croix in the 2nd period but 2-1 was as close as the Oil Kings would get. The assist by St. Croix extended his personal scoring streak to 12 games (6-14-20) but St. Croix was also a -2 for the evening.
St. Croix is overall 7-15-22 to lead Ranger prospects and the 12 game streak is tied with Jordan Weal for the longest current active streak in the WHL (they are a long way from the league best this season). Still St. Croix has opened a door for him to hopefully make a good impression when he plays next week in Moose Jaw as part of Team WHL in the final game of the series.
We mention it because in the QMJHL, game 2 of the Subway Super Series was played and Team Russia earned a win in the shootout 5-4. This gives Russia a 2-0 lead in the series and last year Canadain writers were yapping about how one sided this series was in favor of Canada.
Russia won the series last year for the first time and already have this nice lead. The series now shifts to the OHL where Game 3 will take place in Ottawa. Ryan Strome will play for Team OHL and Andrey Pedan will play for Russia in now what is must win for Team OHL (Canada).
Going to be fun to watch.
(Persson- Red Deer Rebels)
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