For nearly 45 minutes of a 60-minute game, the Prince George Cougars were beating the best major-junior hockey team in Canada.
But all the good work they'd done to fend off the Kelowna Rockets unraveled in the third period Friday in Kelowna, where the Rockets scored three unanswered goals, including an empty-netter, to defeat the Cats 4-2.
Rourke Chartier was the primary culprit in the gutting of the Cats. The Rockets centre scored the winner with just 25 seconds left in regulation time and found the empty net a few seconds later to seal it.
Former Cougar Carter Rigby tied it up at 2-2 with 5:35 gone in the third period, after rookie Nick Merkley got Kelowna on board late in the second period.
Both Cougar goals came on second-period power plays. Todd Fiddler, with his 37th of the
season, and Marc McNulty scored on Rockets goalie Jordon Cooke.
The Rockets outshot the Cats 42-28.
The win improved Kelowna's WHL-leading record to 46-8-0-4, while the Cougars dropped to 24-29-2-5. The good news for the Cougars was the eighth-place Tri-City Americans lost 3-0 in Seattle on Friday. The Cats are in Kamloops tonight and travel to Seattle for a game Sunday.
