Defenceman Riley Stadel scored three times and rookie Nick Merkley chipped in with four assists, as the Kelowna Rockets continued their strong start to the 2013-14 WHL campaign, trouncing the Lethbridge Hurricanes by a score of 6-0 on Wednesday night. The Rockets outshot the Hurricanes 62-26 on the night and improve to 6-1-0-2 with the win.

PHOTO CREDIT - KelownaRockets.com

Kelowna - October 17, 2013 - The Kelowna Rockets defeated Lethbridge in convincing fashion on Wednesday night shutting out the Hurricanes 6-0 at Prospera Place in Kelowna in a dominating performance.

Riley Stadel scored three times for the Rockets while Nick Merkley had four assists in the game as the Rockets outshot the Hurricanes 62-26 to improve to 6-1-0-2 on the season.

Ryan Olsen, Tyson Baillie and Tyrell Goulbourne also scored for the Rockets while Jordon Cooke earned the win in net, posting his first shut-out of the season.

For Stadel, the second year player now has seven goals on the season while the rookie Merkley is now tied for the Rockets scoring lead with Baillie.

"I liked our game tonight, I thought 5-on-5 we played a good game," said Rockets coach Ryan Huska on the AM 1150 post game show. "In the first period we got some saves out of Jordon and then we got our feet moving and it went from there."

The game also saw the return of Mitchell Wheaton, the big defenceman who played his first game of the season after returning from off-season surgery.

Kelowna is now 1-0-0-1 on its current four game home-stand. The Rockets will host Prince George on Saturday and Calgary next Tuesday to round out the home-stand before heading out on the road to Victoria and Prince George