Mitch gets a Gordie, the Rockets blanked Tri-city 3- zip last night with Mitch getting 1+1 and a 5min major for fighting.
Yeah and he also looked to hurt his hand pretty bad in the fight, hopefully its nothing too serious. Turns out he got 7 stitches in his hand and returned to score the game winner
Callahan is the man, hes had a few gordies this year. I wonder the last time the wings had a guy in the prospect pool that was as tough as Callahan but produced almost a ppg?
EDIT: Went to check the Kelowna website and found this awesome article
The Callahan Legend Grows
It‘s hard to keep a tough guy down.
In Mitchell Callahan‘s case, it‘s nearly impossible.
At Prospera Place on Wednesday night, Callahan came back from taking seven stitches in his hand to score the winning goal as the Kelowna Rockets defeated the Tri-City Americans 3-1, moving eight points ahead of Vancouver in the race for first place in the WHL‘s B.C. division in the process.
Callahan suffered multiple cuts to his hand in a first-period fight, got stitched up in the dressing room and returned to the ice in time to snap a 1-1 tie in the third period.
"It was sore and stiff, but they did a good job of stitching it up and taping it up," said Callahan. "At the start of the third period it started to cramp up, but I don‘t like to miss any games so it was something I battled through."
Callahan‘s goal came as the pace of play picked up with both teams creating chances with the game knotted at 1-1. Shane McColgan jumped on a loose puck at the Rockets‘ blue-line, sped through neutral ice and into Ams territory, then fired a quick pass to Callahan who one-timed the shot past Tri-City goalie Drew Owsley. It was just his third goal in the past 11 games.
"It was kind of frustrating, but at the same time the team is winning so I didn‘t want to change up anything," he said. "It was nice to get this and hopefully more will come. It was a relief to get the monkey off my back."
That first-period fight, although it resulted in stitches when the linesman stepped on his hand, had Callahan involved physically in the game - something his coach thought was key.
"I thought Mitchell was great tonight," said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska. "I think he finished with the Gordie Howe hat trick. I think when he gets involved physically, he usually plays a good game and he scored a key goal for us."
Geordie Wudrick also scored for the Rockets - his team-leading 39th of the season - while Evan Bloodoff added an empty-netter to seal the victory.
Carter Ashton was the only Americans shooter to beat Kelowna goalie Adam Brown, who won his 33rd game of the season and was named the contest‘s first star.
Brown was especially good in the third when he made back-to-back stops on two Tri-City chances midway through the final frame. The Yorba Linda, Calif., native flashed out his glove to get a piece of an in-close wrister from Matt MacKenzie. Seconds later, he fired out the left pad to kick a Justin Feser shot to the corner, keeping the score 1-1 and setting the stage for Callahan‘s winner.
The Rockets improved to 39-26-0-1 with the win, and thanks to Chilliwack‘s 2-0 win in Vancouver, moved eight points ahead of the Giants in the B.C. Division pennant race.
It also brought the Rockets within five points of Tri-City in Western Conference standings.
"You always want to finish as high as you can, but we have to keep ourselves focused on winning our games," said Huska. "You can‘t control what other teams are going to do."
ICE CHIPS: Scratches for Kelowna were Mitchell Chapman, Jason Siebert, Brett Bulmer and Max Adolph. Scratches for Tri-City were Dylan Fluter, Adam Hughesman, Mason Wilgosh and Neal Prokop. . . . The Rockets are back in action this weekend playing a home-and-home series with the Kamloops Blazers. The two teams meet Friday in Kamloops and Saturday back in Kelowna, 7 p.m. at Prospera Place. . . . At Vancouver on Wednesday, Lucas Gore stopped 36 shots as the Bruins blanked the injury-riddled Giants 2-0 in a contest that featured more fighting than scoring with a combined 132 penalty minutes
Edited by newfy, 10 March 2011 - 12:53 PM.
