After four losses to start the season, two at the hands of the Prince George Cougars, the Kelowna Rockets and their stagnant offence were fed up.
Instead of fizzling on the launch pad with another dud Saturday night at CN Centre, they simply sizzled, scoring three times in the first 10 minutes on the way to a 5-2 victory over the Cougars.
Held to six goals in their first four games, the Rockets got the boost they needed from their top forward trio – Nolan Foote, Kyle Topping and Leif Mattson. That line had a hand in all five goals and proved too hot to handle for the Cougars.
“We came out hard, we were upset with 0-4 and we knew we could play a lot better and we decided to just work hard and play our systems and it worked,” said Foote, who had a goal and an assist and was a plus-5 in the game.
“Our line played great. I love playing with Topping and Mattson. It was a great team game all around, everyone played good. We don’t like losing three in a row to them, we wanted to come here and steal at least one.”
Foote stoked the furnace before the ice was dry from the pre-game flood, setting up rookie blueliner Devin Steffler with a pass back to the point. Steffler dragged the puck into the middle and fired off a wrist shot that got through a maze of bodies in front of goalie Taylor Gauthier, just 23 seconds into the game.
The Cougars thought they’d tied it up just before the five-minute mark. Josh Curtis got tripped up as he headed to the net and slid into goalie James Porter, who came out to save a shot from Ilijah Colina. The puck was left uncovered in the crease and Curtis was standing on the goal line when he dragged the puck into the cage but the goal was disallowed when the officials ruled he’d made incidental contact with Porter.
On the next rush, Mattson cruised down the left side and dropped the puck back for Topping who found a sliver of net to make it 2-0. A fortuitous ricochet led to the third Kelowna goal. Topping’s shot deflected high off the glass and came out to the opposite side right on the stick of Mattson, who put it in past a pivoting Gauthier.
Mattson finished with two goals and an assist and had a plus-4 rating, while Topping had a goal and an assist and was also plus-4.
“They were really good tonight,” said Rockets head coach Jason Smith, referring to his top line. “They played well throughout the whole rink. They put the puck to the net and were getting to the areas where goals are scored. They were really good on the penalty kill and generated some momentum on the power play, which is an important part of the game.
“They did a real good job of skating to the net and not always looking to make an extra pass or an extra play. They shot the puck and got to the net for some rebounds and created some opportunities from below the goal line, which is a hard play to defend.”
A point shot through a screen from Austin Crossley stoked the Cougars’ offence late in the period, the first of the season for the 19-year-old defenceman from Fort St. John.
The teams traded goals in the second period. Foote tipped one in from the side of the net for the Rockets and Cougars defenceman Ryan Schoettler answered about a minute later with an unassisted effort.
“It was a weird start, I thought we played pretty well in the first six or eight minutes but we were down 3-0,” said Cougars head coach Richard Matvichuk. “We didn’t quit, we kept battling and got it to 3-1 and it was another weird goal on the fourth one.
“This was just a game of bounces and I’m not going to dig too deeply into it.”
The Cougars came out with a big push in the third period and had a 7-0 shot advantage through the first five minutes but had nothing to show for it. The Rocket defenders forced the play to the outside and gave Porter good views of the puck most of the time.
Foote helped put the icing on the Kelowna victory 14 minutes into the third while trying to split the defence. On the play, Crossley swatted the puck away, right to Mattson, who went five-hole on Gauthier to cap the scoring – his team-leading fifth goal.
In Friday’s 3-2 win over Kelowna the Cougars were much more aggressive, using their bodies and sticks to separate the Rockets from the puck, which led to quality scoring chances. That element was missing in the rematch.
“At the end of the day they outworked us in the corners and beat us in the battles down low and they did get a couple bounces too,” said Crossley. “We had our chances in their zone and we moved the puck pretty well. We had a couple lines going down low that were working hard down there.”
The Cougars’ power play looked somewhat disorganized and predictable, a disturbing trend that began last weekend in the two games in Victoria. They did score one with the extra skater in their 4-2 win Wednesday in Kelowna but that’s all they have to show for 25 opportunities through five games.
“That’s not good enough,” said Matvichuk. “We all know that at this level, special teams wins hockey games.”
LOOSE PUCKS: The Cougars will have the week to prepare for their next opponents, the Vancouver Giants, who will play at CN Centre Friday and Saturday… The Cougars organization lost a longtime volunteer Saturday morning when penalty timekeeper Russ Bailey died in his sleep at his home of an apparent heart attack.
