The Kelowna Rockets, with surgical precision, have sliced and diced their way to the top of the WHL standings this season.
As good as they've been at doctoring hockey scores in their favour, the Rockets looked vulnerable to the Prince George Cougars Friday night at CN Centre. Problem was for the Cougars, they also left their A-game somewhere else and lost 4-2.
A 90-second spurt of offence in the second period and timely third-period goals from Ryan Olsen and Marek Tverdon were the difference for Rockets, who played just well enough to edge a desperate Cougar team that can't afford to throw away any points.
"I didn't like our game from the get-go, I didn't like our habits, I didn't like our intensity," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "Out of the six times we've played Kelowna (all Rockets' victories), they were ripe for the picking. They didn't seem to have that jump on their end as well and instead of us turning it up a notch or two I thought we looked lazy. We had a ton of passengers tonight."
The Cougars appeared to want to make a game of it in the third period when Cougars scoring leader Todd Fiddler, who came into the game with 40 goals and 83 points, finally cashed in his own rebound to make it a 3-2 game with eight minutes left. That came on a feed off the end wall from linemate Zach Pochiro.
The Cats kept up the pressure and Pochiro had a labeled shot blocked by goalie Jackson Whistle. The puck came out to the blueline and hopped over the stick of Cats defenceman Marc McNulty, springing Slovakian import Marek Tverdon on a 2-on-1. He rifled a low shot that nicked the goalpost before it went in behind goalie Adam Beukeboom.
After that, there really wasn't much for the sparse crowd of 1,461 to get excited about.
In stark contrast to the Rockets and their No. 1-ranked defence, only the last-overall Lethbridge Hurricanes have allowed more goals than the Cougars this season. But with Beukeboom holding the fort and his teammates doing their jobs clogging the shooting lanes and pouncing on rebounds, the high-powered Rockets were held in check until the late stages of the second period.
On a Kelowna power play, Damon Severson found a seam with a wrist shot from the point with Justin Kirkland obscuring Beukeboom's view, and 90 seconds later Kirkland broke in on the left wing and aid a shot on goal that bounced in off McNulty's skate.
Nineteen seconds into the period, McNulty opened the scoring on a Cats' power play, jumping on his own rebound and firing into the empty side of the Kelowna cage.
Down 2-1, heading into the third period, the Cougars had a chance to get back into it with a power play opportunity but nine seconds after Nick Merkely was sent to the box, McNulty got caught elbowing. The teams were playing 4-on-4 when Myles Bell took the puck behind the goalline and fed a pass to Ryan Olsen, standing all alone in front for his 27th of the season.
The win left the Rockets with a 48-8-0-4 record. With nine regular season games left, the Cougars (25-31-3-5) have yet to lock up a playoff position. They rank ninth in the Western Conference, two points behind the eighth-place Tri-City Americans, who lost 6-4 to the Prince Albert Raiders Friday in Kennewick, Wash. If they do manage to bypass Tri-City and end up eighth, chances are the Cats will play Kelowna in the first round. The Rockets, who will stick around for a rematch tonight at 7 at CN Centre, started the game Friday with a nine-point lead over Portland atop the West standings.
"We can't leave points on the table," said Holick. "We're going to get a better effort tomorrow from Kelowna, I guarantee and I can pretty much guarantee we'll have to be better as well."
LOOSE PUCKS: Centre Troy Bourke picked up two assists last week in Kelowna to become the all-time Cougars assists leader with 141, passing former Cougar captain Blake Robson. The 19-year-old Bourke, a third-round draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche in 2013, is now 10 points from matching Eric Hunter's career points total of 233... Prince George native and converted defenceman Raymond Grewal put in a solid effort playing left wing on the fourth line with Zach Gonel and Tyler Mrkonjic. and they were rewarded with more icetime in the third period. Grewal had a couple of great scoring chances early and was picked as the Ryobi hardest working player of the game... The Rockets are closing in on their franchise record for wins. With 48 wins, they've got 12 games left to try to beat their 52-win season in 2012-13.
