It's safe to say Rourke Chartier won't likely match Brandon Wheat King Ray Ferraro's record-setting 108-goal season set nearly three decades ago, but right now in the WHL there's nobody who does it better than Chartier.
The 18-year-old Kelowna Rockets right winger showed Friday he's quite capable of picking the eye out of a snake with a puck on his stick and his two-goal outburst tamed the Prince George Cougars in a 6-3 win.
Chartier's second goal broke a 3-3 deadlock 10:15 into the third period. Chartier's high wrist shot from an impossible angle on a nifty pass from linemate Nick Merkley found the net high over the shoulder of Cougars goalie Jared Rathjen. It was Chartier's 22 goal of the season in his 20th game and he continues to lead the league in that department.
The Rockets added to the total 2:33 later. Kris Schmidli fired in a rebound to make it 5-3 and the Rodney Southam, a recent acquisition from Tri-City, capped the scoring into an empty net.
Aaron Boyd, a 16-year-old Cougar rookie, tied the game 8:42 into the third while shorthanded, accepting a cross-ice feed from Jared Bethune. It was the first of Boyd's WHL career, but the euphoria on the Cats' bench didn't last long.
The win left the Rockets with a league-best 19-1-1-0 record, while the Cougars dropped to 11-10-0-0.
Outshot 15-3 in the first period, the Cougars gave up two goals to the league's best power play but trailed only 2-1 heading into the middle frame thanks mostly to the solid and sometimes spectacular netminding from Rathjen, making his first start of the season.
Denied of his sixth goal of the season by a goalpost in the first period, Brad Morrison continued to generate offence while centring a Cougar line with Chase Witala and Bethune and the 17-year-old Prince George minor hockey product finally got what he was after 1:09 into the second period. Morrison took the puck in deep and flicked a wrist shot at the Kelowna net and it deflected in off the body of goalie Jackson Whistle.
Witala was back in the lineup after missing two games with a suspension for an illegal cross-check and it didn't take long for him to find his rhythm. Morrison's goal extended his points streak to eight games and it got the crowd of 2,714 buzzing and the Cougars used that their advantage, taking the play to the Rockets with a relentless attack that produced eight shots and four more quality scoring chances before the mid-period timeout.
The Cougars maintained momentum and Whistle swallowed Cal Babych's labeled one-timer. Then with the Cats on their second power play, Whistle got some help from Rockets defenceman Joe Gatenby, whose shot-block took away a sure-goal from Jansen Harkins.
Harkins opened the scoring on a Cougars' power play, sprung free on a 2-on-1, set up by a perfect feed from Witala on a lead pass from Cats defenceman Sam Ruopp. Tyson Baillie potted the first two Kelowna goals, bringing his season total to 15.
The Cougars were good when they had to be defensively and held the Rockets to eight shots in the second period but got caught when their six-foot-three defenceman Josh Anderson inadvertently made head contact as he nailed a smaller Rocket in the corner with an otherwise clean check. That was all the Rockets needed to restore their lead. They won the draw and Tyrell Goulbourne got a shot away, leaving a rebound close to the post for Chartier, who made no mistake putting the puck past Rathjen. His 21st goal extended Chartier's goal streak to nine games.
LOOSE PUCKS: The rematch is set for tonight starting at 7 p.m... Cougar forwards Jari Erricson, a 20-year-old who leads the team in scoring with 11 goals, and Aaron Macklin were healthy scratches as punishment for breaking a team rule, an off-ice incident which also involved suspended Cats forward Chance Braid. Braid was already serving the second game of a two-game sentence for an illegal hit last Friday in a game against Victoria.
