The Kelowna Rockets welcome the Bedard show to town with their first sellout since 2019.

The day has come. The main event is here. On Tuesday night it’s time for Andrew Crystal vs. Connor Bedard as the Kelowna Rockets welcome Regina her putts.

In the first and only meeting of the season, both clubs started the season on average, but each had one of the WHL’s top two top scorers.

Going into Tuesday’s contest, the Rockets sit eighth in the Western Conference standings with a 9-10-1-0 record. Pat, on the other hand, ranks seventh in the Eastern Conference with a record of 11-11-1-1.

Pat is on a seven-game road trip, much of it through British Columbia for the first time since pre-pandemic. They started the road trip he 2-0. Kelowna has started a mini two-game homestand and in his last 10 games he is 6-4. The Rockets and Pats game took almost three years to make, as they last played each other on December 13, 2019.

Tuesday’s match will mark the first time in their WHL career that best friends Crystal and Bedard will face each other. Bedard has scored 53 goals (22 goals, 31) in his 24 appearances, while Crystal has scored 39 goals (16 goals, 23 assists) in his 20 appearances, making this his 2nd. He holds a 1-2 position in league scoring. Bedard he has scored points in 23 games in a row and Crystal is riding his 11th game in points. Both have been given an ‘A’ rank on his latest NHL Central Scouting Players to Watch list.

When Bedard Shaw arrived in Kelowna, fans across town took notice as Tuesday’s game sold out for the Rockets for the first time since 2019. With about 6,400 fans, all seats and standing his room were completely sold out.

Tuesday night pack drop at Prospera Place is set for 7:05pm

Wheeling and Dealing Monday

Monday was busy not only because Bedard was in town, but because the Rockets’ front office had two deals going on throughout the day.

Around noon, the team announced it had traded forward Rylen Kovacevic to the Edmonton Oil Kings for forward Carson Golder and a third-round pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft.

“For Kovacevic, it’s an opportunity to be on the team he thinks it should be, and it’s in the top six,” Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton said. I think it’s a situation that I think is good for him, he’s a talented player to give but he’s still in the learning process to play in this league.”

Golder has 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) in 24 games this season and brings the experience of winning the 2022 WHL Championship in Edmonton to the Rockets.

Hamilton said, “We had the opportunity to acquire Golder’s excellent two-way player who can play forward and defensively.” It brings a little more depth to the lineup and adds some speed, so we felt we needed to address that.

Golder is expected to be in the Rockets’ lineup against Regina on Tuesday night.

In the only move of the day, the team announced Monday night that it had traded the playing rights for goaltender Nicolas Cristiano to the Victoria Royals in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft. There was not.

In three games (one start) for the Rockets this season, Cristiano averaged 2.61 goals (GAA) and lost a .879 save percentage. After starting the season with the Rockets, the team sent him to the West’s Kelowna Warriors. There he was 1-2 with a GAA of 4.42 for him and a .867 save percentage.

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