If only Tyson Baillie could play the Prince George Cougars 72 times per season.
In 34 career games against Prince George, he’s netted 17 goals and 39 points. At the rate he’s made life miserable for the Cougars, Baillie would need just 10 more goals or 10 more points the rest of this season to erase Brett McLean’s name from the Rockets’ career record book.
Saturday in a 6-4 win over the Cougars at CN Centre, Baillie was in on half of his team’s scoring plays with a goal and two assists and none of the four Cougar goals were scored while he was on the ice.
That’s the kind of leadership the Rockets have come to expect from the 20-year-old centre from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and once again he delivered. Four minutes and change after he set up linemate Justin Kirkland for the game-winner, stripping the puck away from Cougar defenceman Max Martin, Baillie scored his team’s sixth goal to put the game out of reach with five minutes left. That killed all the momentum the Cougars had working in their favour after they’d scored two quick goals.
Baillie assisted on the overtime winner in a 4-3 win over the Cougars Friday and was picked as the first star Saturday. He now has 32 goals and 78 points in 55 games.
“For some reason I like playing up here – they’re a physical team and they like to get in your face and that kind of gets me fired up,” Baillie said. “I always want to play my best against Prince George. They’re a fast team and they got a lot of pucks on net and I thought Brodan (Rockets’ rookie goalie Salmond) did a really good job to get the win, he was a big part of it.”
The Cougars looked to be dead and buried, down 5-2 with less than 10 minutes to play after Kirkland pocketed his second goal of the game, but the Cougars responded with goals 13 seconds apart. Joel Lakusta scored on an innocent-looking shot from the point and Jared Bethune jumped all over the rebound of Sam Ruopp’s blue-line shot.
But Baillie took care of business with his team-leading 32nd goal with less than five minutes left. The Cougars had pressure in the late stages with their goalie on the bench but couldn’t beat Salmond, who made 30 saves in his WHL debut for his first major-junior victory.
Salmond, 16, didn’t mind that the Cougars came out like a house on fire.
“It was actually kind of nice to get some touches early and get a feel for the game,” said Salmond, a 10th-round bantam pick in 2013. “The boys did a good job of killing those penalties off with some big blocked shots. It’s been kind of a whirlwind, I was extremely excited when I got the call to come up here.”
The Rockets struck the first blow on a slick goalmouth move from Dillon Dube, who beat Nick McBride cleanly with a high shot 9:04 into the game. Just 34 seconds later, Cougars winger Brad Morrison took the carom of a Ruopp point shot off the end boards and had an open net in which to dump in a backhand shot, his 22nd goal this season.
The Cougars had the luxury of playing nearly six minutes of the first period on the power play but were unable to score with the man advantage and found themselves trailing 2-1 heading into the period break. Late in the period, Baillie chipped the puck away from Cougar Jesse Gabrielle and that sprung Cole Linaker on a shorthanded breakaway that Linaker finished with high snapshot in over McBride’s glove.
“They were burying their chances and we weren’t, it’s pretty simple,” said Gabrielle. “We were getting shots but they weren’t exactly quality, we have to find a way to get more from inside in the slot position and those are going to go in."
The ice was barely dry to start the second period and the Rockets had just killed off their third penalty when Kirkland let go a shot from the face-off circle which gave McBride trouble. The puck dropped off the goalie’s equipment and Colby McAuley tried to clear it but instead hit the backside of Cats’ defenceman Tate Olson and it ricocheted into the net.
The Rockets made it a 4-1 count with 2:29 gone in the second period, scoring their fourth goal on only their 10th shot of the game. On the play, McBride appeared to hurt himself making the initial stop off Tanner Wishnowski and remained down on his knees, unable to track Tate Coughlin as he dragged the puck across and tucked it in the net.
That was it for McBride. Ty Edmonds, who started warming up on the Cougar bench after the third Kelowna goal, came in to replace him. Ruopp had the only other goal of the second period.
The Cougars outshot the Rockets 34-27.
The Cougars (31-2-3-1, fourth in Western Conference) have now lost five straight, their longest losing streak of the season, a cause for concern for Mark Holick. The Cougars head coach lamented his team’s wasted opportunities while they were pouring on their power-play heat in the first period.
“You gotta go upstairs, especially with your second and third (chances) and we kept too many pucks down low and then missed the handle on a few or shot wide or over the net,” said Holick. “We outchanced them by about 12 chances (Saturday).
“They’re a nationally-ranked team for a reason. They’ve got a bunch of guys in that room who went to the Memorial Cup last year so they’re experienced, they don’t get rattled and they cash in their opportunities. They had three scoring chances in the first period and we’re down 2-1.”
While McBride didn’t have a very good game, he didn’t get a lot of help around his own net. Holick liked Ruopp’s game and thought Martin did his job on defence, while Lakusta had his moments of brilliance, but said the rest of his blueline crew – Joseph Carvalho, Shane Collins and Olson – are capable of much more and will need to be better next weekend when the Cougars host the Red Deer Rebels in a two-game set.
The Rockets (39-15-3-0, first in Western Conference) maintained their two-point lead over the Victoria Royals, who won their 11th straight game Saturday, 3-0 over Everett. The Royals lost 4-2 Sunday night in Seattle.
LOOSE PUCKS: An enthusiastic crowd of 3,744 turned out on the inaugural Aboriginal Night, sponsored by RBC… Martin returned to the Cougar lineup for his first game since September and second of his WHL career. The 16-year-old rookie missed 55 games with a shoulder injury which required surgery.
