On a night when two of their teammates were celebrating a gold medal win at the world junior hockey championship in Buffalo, the Kelowna Rockets saw a 13-game home-ice winning streak come to an end.
The Seattle Thunderbirds broke a 4-4 tie with a pair of unanswered goals in the third period to down the Rockets Friday in WHL action at Prospera Place.
Nolan Volcan connected for the game winner at 8:59 of the final frame and Austin Strand added an insurance marker for the T-Birds four minutes later to end Kelowna害羞草研究所檚 six-game winning streak.
Carsen Twarynski, with his team-leading 27th goal of the season, Kyle Topping, Leif Mattson and Gordie Ballhorn scored for the Rockets (24-12-2-1) who lost at home for the first time since a 3-1 setback to the Portland Winterhawks on Oct. 20.
James Porter stopped 21 shots in the Kelowna net, while Kelowna native Liam Hughes made 26 saves to pick up the win for Seattle.
While the Rockets were watching their Prospera Place streak end, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote were winning gold with Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship.
Dube, the Canadian captain, scored his third of the tournament as Canada defeated Sweden 3-1 in the final on Friday night in Buffalo.
The Rockets are back in action Sunday when they visit the Calgary Hitmen. Face off is 3 p.m. Pacific time.
