Kelowna Rockets Rock ... too bad they lost

Day 9, Feb 11th

Another fun day on the slopes culminated in our night out in Kelowna at the fights ice hockey. More about that later.

We had a sleep-in which was nice, before Clive, Karmen, Casey and I took Tayla, Riley and Jack out for the day. We hit first lifts just before 11am, heading to the Ridge Rocket Express to get up the mountain. We then headed over to the Black Forest as it was overcast, clouds were rolling thru making visibility poor at times and the tree lined runs of the Black Forest are the place to be in those sort of conditions.

We had lunch down at Happy Valley. Hot dog and poutine for me. Poutine is a Canadian favourite of fries, topped with grated cheese and gravy...

Whilst we were eating lunch, we were joined off the slopes by the littlest member of 'The Gang' who had been ripping up the magic carpet...

We went back out for a couple of hours before heading back to Raven at 3:15pm to get ready for the big night out.

All 12 of us made our way down to the gondola for the short ride up to the village to pickup the bus to Kelowna. The bus left at 5:30pm with 27 passengers bound for the ice hockey. We arrived at 6:45, about 20 minutes before the start of the game, grabbed some food and headed for our seats.

The game was great. Kelowna, known as the Rockets, were warm favourites with the bookies, but the Chilliwack Bruins served it right up to them. Apparently the two teams are traditional rivals and don't particularly like each other and it was very evident from the start. The Rockets scored an early goal and were having most of the play with twice the amount of shots on goal than the Bruins.

Play was going along nicely until I saw one of the strangest things I've seen on a sporting arena. Now I'm no ice hockey aficionado but from when I've watched the major leagues on TV, I've never seen this.

Two players had a disagreement, so they both threw their sticks, helmets and gloves to the ice and squared off. All the other players clear the ice and the referees surround the players. So we have a scenario where the only things on the ice are the 2 guys who want to fight, the referees and a couple of sticks, gloves and helmets...wtf? They then fully punch on until the referees step in when either one player goes to ground or if one player is copping a beating. After the fight is finished, both players get 5 mins in the sin bin and all is forgotten.

In the course of the game there were three such 'contests'. Here is the third...



The Rockets always appeared in control, but conceded some soft goals to help keep the Bruins in the game. The Rockets led 2-0 before allowing 2 goals to the Bruins to level it up. They then went ahead but again, the Bruins equalised. They then went ahead 4-3, but with less than 2 minutes on the clock, Chilliwack again tied it up 4-4 to send the game into overtime. Scores were still level after overtime so they went into 'Shootout' play. This is similar to a penalty shooutout in soccer. One player starts with the puck in the middle and goes one on one with the goalie. Three players from each side take turns and if it is still level, which it was, three different players start a second set of three. Finally Chilliwack came out on top and won the game.

A great night was had by all, Riley finished with a Rockets shirt and we arrived back at Big White not long before midnight. Some action shots from the hockey...

Another sleep-in in the morning and a non skiing day. We all purchased 5 of 6 day lift tix, so tomorrow is going to be our rest day. It's Saturday and the crowds will come flocking from Kelowna because of the great snow conditions, so we chose it as our day to rest weary bones and muscles.

Later...