iSight Optometry Recap: Rockets swipe shootout victory from Cougars
After falling to the Prince George Cougars on Friday night, the Kelowna Rockets were able to split their weekend trip with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Cougars at the CN Centre in Prince George, BC.
Tied at two through regulation, the two needed a shootout to determine the winner. In the skills competition, Gabriel Szturc was the lone goal scorer for Kelowna, while Jari Kykkanen stopped three Cougar shooters.
GAME SUMMARY
Trae Johnson and Hudson Thornton squared off for a fight three minutes into the period. With the Rockets pressing and Prince George goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen down, Max Graham (8) was able to put the rebound in to give the Rockets the opening lead of the game at 4:29. Carter Kowalyk and Zac Funk then dropped the gloves at the midway point of the game. Terik Parascak, ranked No.14 on the mid-season rankings for North American Skaters by Central Scouting, was awarded a penalty shot after being hauled down. Jari Kykkanen made a blocker save to deny Parascak.
Gabriel Szturc from the top of the right faceoff circle fed the puck to Caden Price (6) who let a shot go from the top of the left circle that Ravensbergen wasn’t able to handle pushing the Rockets out to a two-goal lead at 3:46 into the second. With one second left on the Cougars power play opportunity, Ondrej Becher’s (17) one-timer from the right faceoff circle beat Kykkanen to cut Kelowna’s lead in half at 16:22. Skating in on a two-on-one, Terik Parascak (27) held onto the puck ripping it from the slot to tie the game with 1:24 to go in the period.
Tied at two through sixty minutes of regulation, the Cougars and Rockets needed extra time to determine a winner.
Prince George started the overtime period with 1:48 of power play time. After successfully killing off the penalty, the two played the majority of the remainder of the overtime at four-on-four as no whistles were blown. After five minutes of overtime, the two headed to a shootout.
The Rockets shot first in the shootout. Gabriel Szturc (goal) and Andrew Cristall (X) fired for Kelowna.
Borya Valis (X), Ondej Becher (X) and Zac Funk (X) were shooters for Prince George.
ADDITIONAL STATS
- The Rockets record is now 20-18-2-0
- Kelowna’s power play was 0/4 on the night, while Prince George was 1/3 with the man advantage
- The Cougars outshot the Rockets 37-24
- Jari Kykkanen made 34 saves on 36 shots to earn first-star honors
- The Rockets were without forward Tij Iginla, who is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
- Rockets leading scorer Andrew Cristall extended his point streak to twenty-one games after posting a pair of assists
- Gabriel Szturc recorded two assists to push his career point total to 173 points, tying him with Vaclav Varada for the Tacoma/Kelowna franchise record of points by a European player
- This was the sixth meeting of the regular season between the two, with the Cougars leading the season series 4-2. The two will meet next on Feb. 24 at Prospera Place
UP NEXT
Kelowna will now return home to host Nate Danielson and the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday, January 17 at Prospera Place. A Fan First Menu game, hot dogs will be on for $2 and Lucky Lager beers will be on for $5.
Single Game Tickets for all Rockets games can be purchased:
- Online at selectyourtickets.com
- By calling Select Your Tickets at 250-762-5050
- Or by visiting the Select Your Tickets box office at the Prospera Place box office. The box office is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and opens at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday home game days.
Six and twelve game Mini Packs for the Kelowna Rockets season are now on sale through Select Your Tickets. To learn how to save on walk-up tickets and use the flexibility of a Mini Pack click here.
