Four Third Period Goals Sink the Cougars in Kelowna.

Wednesday night in Kelowna the Prince George Cougars surrendered four unanswered goals in the third period, and lost 7-3 to the Kelowna Rockets. A strong 40 minutes was not enough for the Cougars who dropped their sixth straight.

The Kelowna Rockets opened the scoring just 4:27 into the game. Tyrell Goulbourne followed up a Colton Heffley shot and knocked home a rebound through Devon Fordyce to give his team the 1-0 lead.

Just under three minutes later the Cats tied it when Troy Bourke converted on the power play. Bourke positioned himself in front of the net and made no mistake off an Alex Forsberg pass to tie the game.

Though they were badly outshot in the first period, the Cougars had the last laugh. Greg Fraser made a nifty behind-the-back pass to Charles Inglis, who danged his way through the defense and roofed one on Adam Brown to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Mid-way through the second period Kelowna tied it when Jesse Astles followed up a Brett Bulmer shot, and buried a back-hand by Devon Fordyce for a 2-2 score. 81 seconds later the Rockets took the lead again when Kevin Smith fired a point-shot that found it’s way through everybody and into the back of the net. It was a power play marker for Kelowna which gave them a 3-2 lead.

Late in the second the Cougars failed to score on a 70-second five-on-three but they did managed to tie the score when Cody Carlson was able to squeeze the puck past Adam Brown with only .2 seconds left on the clock. The referee had to go upstairs to confirm, but the goal stood, and the score was 3-3 after 40 minutes.

Early in the third period, the Cougars seemed tentative, and it cost them. Colton Scissons carried the puck across the blue-line and fired a shot over the shoulder of Devon Fordyce to give Kelowna the 4-3 lead. Scissons made it 5-3 a few minutes later on a power play, and all of a sudden Kelowna had full control.

Cody Chickie and Carter Rigby added goals late for Kelowna to make the final score 7-3 for the Rockets.

The Cougars finish one-for-five on the power play while Kelowna went three-for-four. Kelowna finished with 31 shots while the Cougars countered with 22.

The Cougars have four games remaining in their road-trip which continues Friday night from Seattle. Puck drops at 7:30 Friday night from Kent, Washington.