Losing the game may not have been as devastating as losing their captain.
In Game 1 of an opening-round Western Hockey League playoff series Friday night in Kelowna, the Prince George Cougars fell 4-1 to the Kelowna Rockets. In a best-of-seven series, the Cats certainly have time to bounce back. But, they may have to move forward without Brett Connolly, their locker-room leader and top offensive talent. Connolly, who fired a team-leading 46 goals during the regular season, left Friday's contest part way through his first shift with a suspected arm injury.
"I don't know how serious [the injury is]," said Cougars head coach Dean Clark. "I can tell you it's an upper body injury, but other than that I don't know a whole lot more. Obviously we'll find out more later tonight and [Saturday] morning."
The Rockets and Cats were tied 1-1 in the third period but a miscue by Prince George defenceman Sena Acolatse led to the winning goal for the home team. While the Rockets were on a power play, Acolatse tried to clear the zone but didn't get enough mustard on the puck. It was picked off by Shane McColgan, who quickly sent it down low to teammate Geordie Wudrick, and Wudrick wasted no time in beating goaltender Ty Rimmer.
Later in the third, Damon Severson extended the Kelowna lead to 3-1 when he held the puck in at the blueliine and fired it high through a crowd of bodies. Rimmer, on his knees and fighting for a decent view of the puck, had it go over his shoulder and into the net.
Mitchell Callahan completed the scoring when he hit an empty net at the 18:19 mark.
Callahan opened the scoring on a first-period power play when he tipped home a cross-ice feed from Tyson Barrie. The Cougars tied the score 1-1 in the second period, the goal by Charles Inglis. On the play, Inglis jumped into the rush, took a pass from Taylor Stefishen, and barely coaxed the puck past Kelowna goalie Adam Brown.
In the game, Kelowna was awarded seven power plays, to just two for Prince George. The Cougars were penalized three times for accidentally firing pucks over the glass on attempted clearing plays.
"I can't remember the last time we shot the puck over the glass in a game, never mind three times," Clark said. "We're in the playoffs and obviously, experience-wise, we've got to do some things a little bit better than we did. You take the three that we shoot over and the fact that we just passed it to them on the second [Kelowna goal] to go ahead, I think that obviously took us a little bit by surprise."
The Cougars were outshot 30-25, and too many of their 25 shots weren't from good scoring positions.
"We didn't create a lot of great chances so I would like to see us create some better chances and do some things," Clark said. "We got some pucks to the net [but] we didn't get to the second-chance rebounds. Brown let out a lot of rebounds on some pucks and we didn't do a very good job to get to the dirty areas to get those. Those are the things that we've got to get better at."
The Cougars had two breakaways in the first period, one by Nick Buonassisi and the other by Spencer Asuchak while shorthanded. Brown made pad saves on both plays.
Attendance was 6,059.
Game 2 is tonight. The series will shift to Prince George for Tuesday and Wednesday games at CN Centre.
