Birthday boy Nick Merkley showed why he is highly touted for the NHL draft with two soccer-inspired strikes, helping the Kelowna Rockets look like a reasonable facsimile of a Memorial Cup favourite during a 7-3 rout of the Rimouski Océanic.
Merkley and the Rockets, betraying not a whit of desperation after losing their opener, authored three-goal runs in each of the first two periods in front of a Colisée crowd of 6,981. The playmaking forward, two days removed from celebrating his 18th birthday, scored both of his goals after kicking passes up from his skate blades to his stick blade.