When the Prince George Cougars are playing with a lead heading into the third period they’re good as gold and have won 19 games this season.
Without that lead after 40 minutes, it’s a much different story.
The Cougars have been absolutely abysmal at mounting third-period comebacks and were 0-for-25 when facing a deficit after two periods. They can blame Adam Kidd for making it 0-for-26.
The 19-year-old Kelowna Rockets winger scored on a rebound five minutes into the third period and that stood up as the gamewinner in a 3-2 victory over the Cougars Friday night at CN Centre.
Kidd got the jump on defenceman Keaton Dowhaniuk to get to a fat rebound kicked into the slot by goalie Ty Young and buried it for a 3-1 lead.
Riley Heidt raised the comeback hopes of the Cougars and their fans in the crowd of 1,684 when he scored his 13th goal with nine minutes left, firing a wrist shot in over the tall right shoulder of six-foot-eight Kelowna goalie Talyn Boyko.
The Cougars were unlucky late in the game when Jonny Hooker put the puck over the glass to draw a delay-of-game penalty with three minutes left. They came close in the dying seconds with Young on the bench when Craig Armstrong deflected a shot just wide of the net.
The loss was the fourth straight on home ice for the Cougars, whose sixth-place Western Conference record dropped to 19-26-2-1. The fifth-place Rockets moved 18 points ahead of Prince George as they improved to 27-12-1-3.
After being held to just three shots in the opening 20 minutes, the Rockets came out a much different team for the second period. They were all over the Cougars for the first two minutes but came away empty-handed and that was a sign for Young that he would be a lot busier than he was in the early stages.
He kept the Cougars unscathed when the Rockets dominated a 4-on-4 situation late in the second period and drew their first power-play opportunity. Kelowna kept up the pressure with the extra skater but couldn’t get their shots through the puck-blocking Cats defenceman. Hudson Thornton and Jonas Brondberg each contributed two blocks during that power play.
After absorbing a 5-2 beating at the hands of the Cougars Wednesday in Kelowna, it was obvious the Rockets meant business at that point and they were finally rewarded about a minute before the second intermission.
Mark Liwiski gained the puck in the slot and spun while shooting, rifling a high wrister into the corner behind Young, the 15th goal of the season for the Dauphin, Man., native.
Jake Lee nearly doubled the Kelowna lead when he streaked in on the right side and fired a buzzer-beating shot square of the goal post, one of four posts the Rockets nailed in the game.
“We weathered the storm when they had a good push early and really took it to them in the second and obviously held on a scored a couple in the third as well,” said Rockets goalie Talyn Boyko, who made 26 saves as the game’s third star.
“We obviously hit a couple of posts and their goalie made a few pretty good saves too and I thought he had a strong game. It’s a good character win to come in here win. That’s a pretty good team and I think it was a great team win. I think the difference tonight was we just beared down on a couple of chances and tightened things up.”
The visitors got off to a quick start again in the third period and Marcus Pacheo potted a rebound 1:19 into the period to make it a 2-0 count.
Koehn Ziemmer cut the lead in half, 27 seconds later, when he snuck a shot in under Boyko’s stick blade and through the goalie’s legs for his team-leading 20th goal.
“We had a really good first period and worked for each other, first on pucks and got it deep and worked hard (but) the second period we came out a little on the heels,” said the 20-year-old Brondberg.
“It’s important to get that first goal and make a statement and get momentum from the beginning. If we poke one in from the beginning in this game it would have been way different.
“It’s a young group and we’ve got to learn how to stay consistent though all 60 minutes. I especially liked our pushback towards the end there, getting behind two goals, getting one quick. Then getting behind 3-1 and getting another one. We definitely had our chances to get a goal or two.”
The shot total favoured the Rockets 29-28.
The rematch is set for Saturday at CN Centre. The opening puck drop is at 7 p.m.
Friday WHL summary
Rockets 3 at Cougars 2
First Period
No scoring.
Penalties – Dorey Kel (holding) 11:08, Liwiski Kel (charging) 16:46.
1. Kelowna, Liwiski 15 (Kovacevic) 18:49
Second Period
Penalties – Cristall Kel (slashing) 2:21, Bowie PG (holding) 14:39.
Third Period
2. Kelowna, Pacheo 2 (McMillan) 1:19
3. Prince George, Ziemmer 20 (Heidt, O’Brien) 1:46
4. Kelowna, Kydd 10 (Novak, Feist) 5:00
5. Prince George, Heidt 13 Brondberg, Glover) 11:01
Penalty – Hooker PG (delay of game) 17:19
Shots on goal by
Kelowna 3 14 12 -29
Prince George 11 9 8 -28
Goal – Kelowna, Boyko (W,19-12-2-1); Prince George, Young (L,2-5-1-0).
Power plays – Kel: 0-2; PG:0-3.
Three stars- 1. Mark Liwiski, Kel; 2. Riley Heidt, PG; 3. Talyn Boyko, Kel.
Referees – Brayden Arcand, Taylor Durzminski; Linesmen – Anthony Maletta, Blair Scott.
Attendance – 1,684.
