A month ago, the Chilliwack Bruins were mired in the basement of the Western Hockey League.

How their fortunes have changed. Since dropping back-to-back games to the Kelowna Rockets—6-4 on Oct. 2 and 7-2 on Oct. 3—the Bruins have since racked up 16 points in the last 13 games, including wins over Tri-City and Calgary.

And despite recent defeats for Marc Habscheid’s club to Vancouver (8-2) and Spokane (5-1), the Rockets fully expect to see a more polished opponent when the teams hook up tonight at 7 at Prospera Place.

“Chilliwack is going to be a much improved team from the last time we saw them,” said Rockets coach Ryan Huska. “They’re playing as a group and playing very well within their structure. They’ve done a good job of that the last little while and that’s the reason they’ve beaten some of those top teams. They’re a team that works very hard and they’re finding ways to win.”While the Bruins are looking to snap out of their two-game mini-slump, the Rockets are hoping to build off Wednesday’s result at Prospera Place, a less-than-pretty 5-4 shoot out victory over the last-place Prince George Cougars.

Kelowna (9-7-1-0) jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead just eight minutes into the opening period, but the Cougars (3-12-0-1) fought back to tie the game on a pair of goals by Vernon product and former Okanagan midget Rocket James Dobrowolski.

The teams split four goals over the final two periods to force extra time, before Tyson Barrie settled the issue with the shoot out winner.

“We had a few good spurts, but where we got into trouble is when we just didn’t skate enough,” said Huska. “We can’t allow that to happen against any team in the league, or we’re going to have trouble.”

Brandon McMillan and Mitchell Callahan paced the Rockets attack Wednesday with a goal and an assist each.

Rookie Shane McColgan had an assist and now leads the Rockets with 22 points on six goals and 16 assists.

Rocket Shots…The Rockets will visit the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday night…Kelowna will play 14 of its next 20 games on the road…Rockets athletic therapist Jeff Thorburn will serve in the same capacity for Team WHL during the Subway Super Series Nov. 25 and 26 in Victoria and Kelowna… F Kyle St. Denis is the Rockets’ player of the month for October. The 5-foot-6 Trail native scored eight goals and eight assists in the club’s first 16 games.

whenderson@kelownacapnews.com