Frustrating outcome for Cougars despite outplaying Rockets

What more could they have done?

Aside from the obvious of scoring more goals, the Cougars (0-4-0-1) had just about everything else go their way in a 2-1 loss to the Kelowna Rockets (4-1-1) Friday night.

Playing in front of 2,243 fans at the CN Centre, they outshot the Rockets (28-21), they won the faceoff battle (31-25); they even managed to keep themselves out of the penalty box until the third period while spending nearly ten minutes on the powerplay.

Friday night brought another loss for the Prince George Cougars as they remain in search of their first win of the season. It also marked their third straight game that was decided by one goal.

“I’m not frustrated at all because we’re playing the right way,” said Cougars’ General Manager and Head Coach Mark Lamb following his team’s loss. “As a coach, you get frustrated when you’re not doing the right things. I’m thinking it’s all positive. We’re not frustrated with the way we’re playing. We’re frustrated with the results.”

Taylor Gauthier took the loss in the Cougars’ crease despite a solid outing between the pipes. Gauthier stopped 19 of 21 shots but made several key saves, majority of which came during back-to-back powerplays for the Rockets in the third period.

Kelowna opened up the scoring early in the first period. Pavel Novak snuck a quick dish from Liam Kindree between the pad of Gauthier and the post.

The Cougars started to show more jump in their step in the second period, adding tempo and meaning to their passes in the offensive zone as they began to get set up after a sluggish start in the opening 20 minutes.

And it wasn’t just in the offensive zone, as the Cougars showed some emotion in the defensive zone. A sprawling Gauthier drew a crowd midway through the second period as he seemed unsure of where the puck was. As a scrum converged upon the crease, the trio of Matej Toman, Josh Maser, and Reid Perepeluk all showed a willingness to scrap with the Rockets.

Luckily for Prince George, officials were quick to break things up without any penalties.

While the Cougars managed to keep themselves out of the penalty box, they failed to capitalize on their powerplay opportunities going 0-3 through two periods as they looked for an answer against Roman Basran, Kelowna’s netminder.

“That second period, we came at them,” said Lamb. “Our D had the puck the whole second period, and we’re getting shots in there. We just couldn’t get it in.”

Over half of the Cougars’ shots came by way of their blueliners, showing a style of play that promotes bodies in front of the net and pouncing on rebounds.

After just coming off of back-to-back penalty kills, the Cougars got back on the man-advantage. As Tyson Upper looked to test Basran from the right circle, Josh Maser made quick in handling the rebound and netting his first of the WHL season. The goal evened things up with half a period worth remaining in the game.

A late penalty to Maser for hooking put the Rockets on the powerplay.

After being the one who drew the penalty, Novak once again found his stick having the scoring touch as he’d let a wrister rip from the top of the left circle.

The goal came with just 1:49 remaining in the game, dousing out the momentum for the Cougars as they couldn’t respond.

Kelowna ended up winning their first road game of the season and will be back in action against the Cougars at the CN Centre again tomorrow (Saturday). Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.