Kelowna Squeaks Past Cougars

Wednesday night in Kelowna the Prince George Cougars put 60 strong minutes together effort-wise, but still fell short 2-1 to the Kelowna Rockets. Defenceman Myles Bell scored an early third period power play which proved to be the game winner.

The Cougars ran into some penalty trouble early as Troy Bourke received a five-minute boarding major just 22 seconds into the game. Bourke was kicked out of the game, leaving the Cougars without one of their leading goal scorers.

Even without Bourke in the game, the Cougars were easily the better team after one period of play. They outshot Kelowna 11-6, and had a strong edge territorially. Greg Fraser came very close to giving the Cougars the lead, but was stopped on a breakaway by Adam Brown. Unfortunately for the Cougars they went into the locker room trailing 1-0 thanks to Shane McColgan’s fourth of the season.

It was more of the same in the second period. The Cougars outshot Kelowna 8-5, and controlled the game for the most part, but a couple of missed power play opportunities cost the Cougars and they skated into the locker room after 40-minutes still trailing 1-0.

Early in the third period the Rockets extended their lead on the power play. Myles Bell one-timed a pass through traffic that beat Drew Owsley, and the Rockets led 2-0.

Back came the Cougars when Charles Inglis sent a beautiful pass cross-crease to a waiting Jarrett Fontaine who buried his third of the season, and second in as many nights.

The Cougars were given one more opportunity on the power play but Rockets goaltender Adam Brown held his ground. In the end the Kelowna netminder stopped 28 of 29 shots that he faced while Drew Owsley turned aside 15 of the 17 shots that he faced.

The Cougars ended up outshooting the Rockets by a 29-17 margin, but still would up short on the score board. Kelowna went one-for-three on the power play while Prince George finished zero-for-four.

The Cougars head home with a record of 3-10-0-1. They welcome the Vancouver Giants for two weekend games which go Friday and Saturday from CN Centre. A reminder that Friday night's game is "Student Night" and tickets will be discounted for all students who show their student ID card at Ticketmaster. There will also be a loonie-grab taking place during the second intermission courtesy of RBC.