Rockets Earn Sweep In Prince George

Saturday, January 23, 2010 11:04 PM

The good news; the Cougars snapped out of their power play funk Saturday night against the Kelowna Rockets. The bad news, though, remained the same, as the Rockets dropped the Cougars 6-2 and extended the Cougars losing streak to nine.

The Rockets ended a seven game losing streak Friday night with a 4-1 win to open the weekend doubleheader at CN Centre. The Cougars knew they had to come out much better than they had Friday, which they did with a physical tone set early in the second contest. But the Rockets would come out of the first period with a 2-0 lead. Brett Bulmer scored his 10th goal at 7:05 at the end of a Cougars penalty kill and Cody Chikie recorded his 16th goal from the side of the net, sneaking the puck past Kyle Jahraus on his blocker side at 9:01. The Rockets out-shot the Cougars 10-7 in the first period.

In the second period, a former Cougar extended the visitor's lead, when Dallas Jackson ripped home his 13th tally of the season at the two minute mark, coming on the power play for a 3-0 Rockets lead. The Cougars got some life back though with a power play goal of their own at 13:40. Nick Buonassisi knocked a shot from Petr Senkerik out of the air while cruising through the crease area and beating Adam Brown for his 9th goal of the season, cutting the Rockets lead to 3-1. The goal was the Cougars first power play goal in 30 opportunities with the man advantage. James Dobrowolski added an assist along with Senkerik, which ended a five game pointless skid for both Buonassisi and Dobrowolski. But before the middle stanza was out, Bulmer would connect for his second goal of the game, pounding a big rebound home for a 4-1 Rockets lead at 17:44. The Rockets out-shot the Cougars 13-9 and 23-16 through 40 minutes.

Early in the third, another Rockets goal, this time coming off the stick of Brandon McMillan at 3:32. McMillan fired a shot over Jahraus' blocker hand for his 13th goal of the season and third in two games against the Cougars. The Cougars would get their second power play goal at 6:46, when Kurt Torbohm slapped home his third goal of the season, driving a shot low on the glove side of Brown. Buonassisi and Alex Rodgers drew helpers on the goal that ended Rodgers' five game skid without a point. Shane McColgan finished the scoring at 13:13 for his 19th of the year and giving the 16-year old rookie a three point night, as the Rockets sweep the Cougars at CN Centre with a 6-2 win, giving Kelowna a 21-25-2-2 record, while the Cougars fall to 9-37-1-1. The Rockets out-shot the Cougars 10-9 in the third period and 33-25 in the game. Both teams scored twice on the power play, with the Rockets getting 11 chances and the Cougars had five. Cougars penalty killers killed off two 5-on-3 Rockets power plays, making Prince George 7-for-7 on home ice and 8-for-9 overall in killing two-man advantages this season.

The Cougars have a couple of days to get ready for the Medicine Hat Tigers, who will face the Cougars in back-to-back games to end the Cougars seven game homestand Tuesday and Wednesday. Puck drop on both nights in 7:00 and Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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Posted on Saturday, January 23, 2010 11:04 PM in Sports by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: inmyopinion on January 23 2010 11:22 PM

I was at the game and I only have one thing to say, and I have been saying it for years......main man grab some baskets balls.....some really big ones and send DT to the curb....PLEASE if not for yourself do it for the people of PG, the ones that pay to see them play.

Posted by: dirtcheap on January 24 2010 1:48 AM

It looks like someone better wake up here or start giving away tickets to the games or the attendance numbers will only get worse. I guess it will take a few more empty seats to wake up the "management".

Posted by: lmorge on January 24 2010 1:55 AM

Its a two way street that ends up going round and round...the management sucks, the team sucks...back and forth.

Posted by: Resident on January 24 2010 8:25 AM

After watching the Cougars get out played for 2 games it becomes abundantly clear the talent level is insufficient to compete with other teams in the WHL. Unfortunately there are no rising stars to build a team around that will create a winning situation next season.
Dallas has had ample time to put his stamp on the team and show his worth. It is now time to bite the bullet and replace the G.M. with a person with a proven track record in developing a winning team.
A winning team can only payoff in putting butts in the sea of green. It is time for the owner to act and save what is left of this dismal franchise.

Posted by: MrPG on January 24 2010 8:39 AM

"Unfortunately there are no rising stars to build a team around that will create a winning situation next season."

Brett Connolly would probably disagree with you.

Giving away tickets is not the solution either. Once people get something for free, they tend not to want to pay for it in the future.

Posted by: Pylot Project on January 24 2010 8:48 AM

As you all have noticed, the Spruce Kings are not doing much better, although they gave Merritt a good whooping last night. But the biggest difference I see between them and the Cougars is pride.

The Cougars have no pride on the ice anymore. They play like a bunch of Eeyores. "here we go, we're going to lose again so why bother?"

The Spruce Kings on the other hand come out of to the gate like Tiggers. Every game is a new opportunity and they play with high energy. They rarely ever take a lazy shift. Unfortunately that enthusiasm hasn't equated to more wins but that's another story...

My point here is The Cougars need get some pride back into their locker room or things will never change for them.

Posted by: verballabel on January 24 2010 11:02 AM

The Cougars need to be downsized the the BCJHL, or put the Cougars and Kings together as a BCJHL team. The Brodskys and Thompson can't handle a WHL team.

As for free tickets.. People tend not to always use what is free, especially when the odds of winning are not so good.

Posted by: lmorge on January 24 2010 11:03 AM

Connelly is only as good as until he re-injures himself. Then he'll be cut loose like they did to Marcus Watson. Just another piece of meat these boys are to them.

Posted by: Resident on January 24 2010 12:52 PM

MrPG

You can hardly build a team around Brett Connolly if he not on the ice. Best thing he can do is stay off the ice, let his injuries completely heal, go as a high draft choice and collect a big pay check.
Dallas will probably trade Brett anyway. He certainly wouldn't want to tarnish his losing record.

Posted by: NMG on January 24 2010 5:30 PM

All one has to do is take a look at the on ice perdormance of the team for the past 6 years (including this one) to see why people aren't showing up. Based on stats from whl.ca over that period of time the Cougars:

- have 148 wins, 232 losses, 10 OT losses and 18 Shootout losses. That means that they lose almost 65% of the time they step on the ice, they lose. That also translates into a 0.397 winning percentage over that period, which is terrible AND consistent.
- missed the playoffs half of the time (I'm including this year as well), didn't make it out of the first round twice and made it to the Conference finals once. On that last one, anyone who followed the team that year knew that the ONLY reason that occured was because of the late season acquisition of Setoguchi and his ability to carry the team on his shoulders for two rounds of the playoffs before finally being shut down, with nobody else to carry the load.
- Had the worst record in the Western Conference for 2 years and the second worst record in the conference for 1 of those years. The BEST record they achieved in the regular season was 3rd place (out of five teams) in the BC Division and they only did that once. For 2 yearts they finished 4th and for 3 seasons they finished 5th. As of right now, I do believe they are also fighting with Halifax of the Quebec League for being the worst team in the entire Canadian Hockey League.

That's a 6 year span of complete and utter futility. Most teams would've gone through 2 full re-building cycles in that period and would have at least 2 above average seasons to put in the record books, possibly more. Some teams, like Vancouver, manage to put a high quality product on the ice most every year.

So the question is not why aren't the fans showing up (because that is painfully obvious), the question is why does the General Manager (Dallas Thompson) still hold that position with the team? You can only go through so many coaches before you have to look deeper into the organization as to why the results aren't coming. Why does the accountibility seem to stop with the coaching staff? Strange eh? LOL.

Posted by: verballabel on January 24 2010 6:12 PM

Thats what happens when Family work together. Brodsky is probably too afraid to tell Thompson to step aside.

Posted by: Stompin Tom on January 24 2010 7:33 PM

The question is why 1800 fans would show up to watch that garbage.

Posted by: MrPG on January 24 2010 9:37 PM

"You can hardly build a team around Brett Connolly if he not on the ice."

Agreed. This year is a write off for Connolly and the Cougars, and I never said otherwise. If he can let his injuries heal, he will be back next year. This is in response to your original comment, "Unfortunately there are no rising stars to build a team around that will create a winning situation next season."

Posted by: Pylot Project on January 24 2010 10:18 PM

It's not just Rick Brodsky, Randi is the Cougar's VP. She'd have to fire her own husband. Ain't gonna happen.

If Dallas had any pride whatsoever, he'd step down... but that ain't gonna happen either.

Posted by: Mr. PG on January 26 2010 8:42 PM

Hey Brodsky, are we still in the playoff hunt?

Dallas has no pride whatsoever. He is hiding behind the Brodsky skirt, hoping to keep his job. Fire Thompson and sell the team!