Cougars Earn Point In Last Game of the Season In Kelowna

By 250 News

For the third time this season, the Cougars went to a shoot-out with the Kelowna Rockets at Prospera Place in Kelowna, earning at least a point for the second straight night on Saturday.  But defenceman Tyson Barrie, who had the game winning goal in the two previous shoot-outs against the Cougars scored again and Brett Bulmer, a Prince George product, scored the deciding goal in a wild 6-5 Rockets win, bringing an end to the Cougars 2009-10 regular season.

The Cougars and Rockets were getting together for the eighth and final time this season, with the Cougars 1-4-0-2 vs. Kelowna this season going into Saturday.  The Rockets pulled out a 5-4 win in a shoot-out on November 4 and then the last time these two BC Division rivals met on January 29, the Rockets prevailed again in a shoot-out, 4-3.

The Cougars were out-shot by a 9-2 margin in the first period but took a 1-0 leading into the dressing room after 20 minutes, when Daniel Medland-Marchen scored his first Western Hockey League goal at the 3:15 mark.  Medland-Marchen, who is from Kelowna, becomes the 14^th player on the Cougars roster to get his first WHL goal this season.  Brett Connolly, coming off a three point game Friday in the Cougars 5-1 win over Kamloops, drew an assist, as did Brock Hirsche, the Cougars leading rookie scorer this season, getting his 24^th point on the goal.

The Rockets tied the game just 38 ticks into the second period, with Brandon McMillan scoring his 22^nd of the season past Cougars starter Hudson Stremmel.  But Tyler Halliday had an answer for the Cougars at 4:14, beating former teammate Adam Brown for his ninth of the year, putting the Cougars up 2-1.  Bruin McDonald and Nick Buonassisi drew helpers, with Buonassisi picking up his eighth point in eight games against Kelowna this season.  But McMillan would draw the hosts even again at 13:08 on a power play goal, tying the game at 2 through two periods.  The Rockets had an 18-8 advantage in shots in the second period and 27-10 through 40 minutes, but the game was back at square one heading to the third.

Parker Stanfield kicked off what turned out to be a wild third period, scoring his 13^th goal of the year just 16 seconds into the frame to give Prince George a 3-2 lead.  For Stanfield, that extended his point streak to seven games, the longest streak of any Cougars player this season.  James Dobrowolski extended his point streak to five with an assist and Jaroslav Vlach drew an assist, as well.  But the Rockets scored two quick goals 66 seconds apart to take the lead.  McMillan earned his third goal of the game at 4:32 to tie the game at 3, then at 5:38 Mitchell Callahan scored his 20^th goal of the season to put Kelowna up for the first time in the game.  But before the excitement had much chance to die down, Vlach put a certain end to it with his eighth goal of the season just six seconds later at 5:44.  Hirsche had his second assist of the game, which was tied again at four.  58 seconds later, Connolly scored his 10^th goal of the year and fifth point in the last two games when he beat Brown at 6:42 to put the Cougars back in front 5-4.  Alex Rodgers picked up his final point of 2009-10 and his of WHL career with an assist, finishing the season with a five game point streak and leading the Cougars in points with 61, one more than Connolly’s team high last season.  Dobrowolski had his second assist, giving him 44 points on the season, a 17 point improvement from his previous season high a year ago while with the Prince Albert Raiders.  Dobrowolski’s 23 goals this season more than doubled his previous career best, 11, also set last year.  But the Cougars efforts to end the season with two wins on the road was put on hold by McMillan, again, getting his fourth goal of the game and second power play goal with 3:41 left to play, which forced the game to overtime tied at 5.  The Cougars were out-shot 9-7 in the third and 36-17 through regulation time, but headed to the extra period guaranteed at least a point and would start with a 53 second, 4-on-3 power play.

But the Cougars couldn’t get the winning goal with the man-advantage or during the five minute fourth period, even though they out-shot the Rockets 6-1 in OT.  A third shoot-out this season between the Cougars and Rockets would be required and the Cougars had a 1-0 lead through two rounds of shooting, when Rodgers scored in the second round, after Troy Bourke was stopped for the Cougars and Stremmel had shut down both Geordie Wudrick and McMillan.  Connolly had a chance to win it, but he couldn’t solve Brown, which brought up Barrie, the Rockets Captain, to force a fourth round, which he did.  Stanfield was stopped on the next attempt and Bulmer, who played for the Cariboo Midget Cougars last season, ended the game with the Rockets second shoot-out goal to give Kelowna a 6-5 victory, ending their season record at 35-31-2-4.  The Cougars season goes into the books at 12-56-1-3.  The Cougars went 1-for-8 on the power play in the game, finishing the season with a power play goal in each of the last eight games, a season best, going 13-for-54 over that time, which is a 24.1% rate.  The Rockets were 2-for-8.

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