Rockets Defeat Cougars 6-2

By 250 News

The Prince George Cougars continued to struggle on the road, dropping their fifth straight away from CN Centre in a 6-2 loss to the Rockets in Kelowna Wednesday.

The Cougars and Rockets were meeting for the first time since November 20 with the Rockets taking the last four get-togethers after the Cougars opened the season series with a 6-2 win in Kelowna on the opening weekend of the season.  The Rockets needed just 102 seconds to open the scoring Wednesday, when Evan Bloodoff tipped a Tyson Barrie wrist shot from the blue line past Ty Rimmer for a 1-0 Rockets lead.  The goal came on the power play.  Cody Chikie then scored a pair of goals at 6:07 and the 13 minute mark to put the Rockets ahead 3-0 and end Rimmer's night, after stopping six of nine shots.  James Priestner took over in goal and made two big saves early in relief, which kept the Cougars within three.  Then on the Cougars first power play of the game, Taylor Stefishen finished off a pretty passing play from Sena Acolatse and Martin Marincin to get the Cougars on the board, cutting the Rockets lead to 3-1 with 10 seconds to play.  The Cougars out-shot the Rockets 14-12 in the opening frame.

The Rockets added to their lead at 17:13 of the second when Brett Bulmer scored.  The Rockets appeared to take a 5-1 lead on a power play goal from Mitchell Callahan, but a view of the goal on the centre ice scoreboard allowed the Cougars to appeal that the goal was kicked in, which was proven correct by video replay.  The scored stayed 4-1 Rockets after two, out-shooting the Cougars 8-5 in the middle frame.

The Rockets would put the game out of reach in the final period when Colten Sissons scored on the power play at 6:08 and Callahan beat Priestner at 7:56, putting the hosts up 6-1.  Nick Buonassisi finished the scoring with a nifty redirect off a Josh Smith point shot that beat Adam Brown to narrow the gap to four goals, but the Rockets would claim a 6-2 victory, improving to 24-20-0-0 and moving one point ahead of the Cougars for second in the BC division.  The Cougars out-shot the Rockets 13-9 and 32-29 in the game, but fall to 22-20-2-1.  The Cougars were 1-for-5 on the power play and the Rockets went 2-for-7.

The Cougars head to Vancouver Friday and finish the three game trip in Chilliwack Saturday.  The Cougars will return home for a date with the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday, January 26.  Puck drop is 7:00pm at CN Centre and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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