Cougars 2 – Rockets 1
The Prince George Cougars are heading home from a four game, nine day road trip on an excellent note. Brogan O’Brien broke open a 1-1 tie at the 9:32 mark of the third period and the Prince George Cougars held on to a 2-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets Friday at Prospera Place. Jesse Gabrielle added his 10th of a season and fourth shorthanded marker of the season and Ty Edmonds was strong (again) in goal making 30 saves on 31 shots faced to earn his fourth victory of the season.
Coming into this game the Kelowna Rockets had won three straight and seven of their last 10 and the Cougars knew they’d need to set a physical tone and they did. Within the first 46 seconds of the game the Cougars dropped the gloves twice. First it was Josh Anderson who squared off with forward Tomas Soustal just 18 seconds in. Anderson made short work of Soustal who left the game and did not return after the scrap.
Seconds later Colby McAuley and Riley Stadel squared off and after a heated scrap the officials separated the two. Stadel, like Soustal did not play another shift after the fight.
Kelowna outshot the Cougars early, but Ty Edmonds did his part to keep the game tied, and eventually the Cougars were rewarded offensively.
Mid-way through the first period the Cougars were shorthanded, but for a fifth time in the young season they found a way to strike shorthanded. Guess who: jesse Gabrielle. The Cougars leading scorer took a Brogan O’Brien pass, outraced Lucas Johansen to create a breakaway and then he slid a backhand past Jackson Whistle and in to give his team a 1-0 lead.
The shots were 10-2 Rockets after one, but the Cougars led the game 1-0.
In the second the Cougars were better. They fired nine shots on the Kelowna goal while the Rockets peppered the Cougars net 11 times. The Rockets power play finally converted on their fourth chance of the game at the 10:43 mark when Cole Linaker knocked a loose puck past Ty Edmonds for his fifth of the season. Shaun Dosanjh did a great job to block the Tyson Baillie one-timer, but the puck deflected off Dosanjh and right to Linaker in front who did the rest.
After two the shots were 21-11 for Kelowna, but the score was tied 1-1. It was the first time all season that the Cougars had skated into the second intermission tied.
Brogan O’Brien ended the tie at the 9:32 mark of the third period when Aaron Boyd pushed a pass between two Kelowna defenders in the neutral zone. O’Brien used his speed to split through the defense and he raced in alone on Jackson Whistle and tucked home a backhand shot past his left pad to put the Cougars ahead 2-1.
From there, Ty Edmonds took over. The Cougars netminder made a series of big saves, the biggest coming in the final minute off of Rodney Southam who had a point blank chance, but Edmonds kicked out his left pad and stopped him, and the Cougars were able to hold on for their seventh victory of the season and their second victory of the season against Kelowna.
The final shots on goal were 31-20 for the Rockets who went one-for-five on the power play. The Cougars went scoreless on their two power play chances, neither of which lasted the full two minutes.
With the win, the 7-6 Cougars can now return home from their 2-2 road trip with some confidence. They’ll now square off on Monday night at home against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
