After a 6-3 victory on home ice Friday, the Prince George Cougars dropped a 7-5 decision Saturday, earning a weekend split with the Kelowna Rockets. Myles Bell paced the Rockets with a goal and three assists, while Troy Bourke and Colin Jacobs responded with two-point nights for the Cougars.

For a second straight night, the first period featured a ton of offense. This time though it was Kelowna who was the more opportunistic squad. Dylan McKinlay opened the scoring for the Rockets at 4:29 off a feed from Myles Bell. 13 seconds later the Cougars tied it when Chase Witala buried a back-hand shot past Jordan Cooke for his second of the season. Jarrett Fontaine had the lone assist.

Kelowna took a 2-1 lead when Zack Franko potted his third of the season with Myles Bell and Ryan Olsen adding the helpers. Bell would then add a goal of his own at 13:48 to give Kelowna a 3-1 cushion.

The Cougars went to a power play and were rewarded when Troy Bourke roofed a back-hand shot past Jordan Cooke for his first of 2012-2013. Colin Jacobs assisted on the goal which extended his consecutive points streak to six games.

Kelowna would score once more before the end of the period, and it was Rourke Chartier with his first ever WHL tally. Chartier put a puck on goal from the left wing boards, and the puck found its way past Devon Fordyce at 19:10 of the first.

Brett Zarowny started the second period in goal for the Cougars, but was greeted by a second Rourke Chartier goal at 2:15 to make it 5-2.

Back came the Cougars though with two goals in the span of 53 seconds. First it was Zach Pochiro who potted his third of the weekend, and then Colin Jacobs scored a lovely goal off a saucer pass from Jordan Tkatch to make it 5-4.

Kelowna called a timeout and it definitely seemed to help their cause. The Cougars managed just one shot for the remainder of the second, and Jesse Lees added one for Kelowna to give the 6-4 advantage after 40 minutes.

Early in the third, the Cougars snuck back to within one when Troy Bourke notched his second of the evening. But the Cougars were silenced from there. Jordan Cooke made some timely saves, and a Damon Severson power play goal clinched the victory for the Kelowna Rockets who earned their third victory of 2012-2013.

For the Prince George Cougars, it was their first regulation loss of the season. They finished one-for-two on the power play and killed off three of the four penalties that they took. Brett Zarowny stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced in relief while Devon Fordyce stopped 10 of the 14 he faced in the first period. Kelowna outshot the Cougars 36-27.

The Cougars will take their 4-1-1-0 record to the road for the next three games. They’ll square off with the Kootenay Ice on Wednesday night, marking the first time since 2010-2011 that the Cougars have made a trip to the Kootenays.