Form just win baby, to win one maybe.
The Prince George Cougars continue to suffer from a bad case of the home ice blues.
On Friday, the latest setback came at the hands of the Kelowna Rockets who skated to a 4-1 win against the Cats in front of 3,129 fans at CN Centre.
Tomas Poletin’s deflection on the power-play at 2:51 of the second period was the difference-maker in what was an otherwise listless contest from both sides.
Cougars bench boss and general manager Mark Lamb concurred with the astute observation from yours truly and stated the players need to find a way to get up for these games.
“I thought it was a sluggish game by us. I thought they were very sluggish too. It was one of those games where there wasn’t a lot of room out there, not a lot of skilled plays – they mucked it up better than we did,”
“It wasn’t like they ran us into the ice and made it look like a 4-1 game.”
Tre Peck opened the scoring for the Cougars on a delayed penalty as he found a sliver of open ice following a Corbin Vaughan feed, sniping it past Kelowna netminder Harrison Boettiger.
Much like the cluster of power outages outside, the Cougars were unable to muster up any sustained offense the rest of the way giving up four unanswered Rockets goals.
Colton Lien notched his first of two in the contest as a shot tipped off a Cougars player and past goalie Peyton Shore for a 1-1 draw after 20.
In a game with very little in it, the fundamentals loomed large and the visitors from Kelowna simply wanted it more by winning most of the loose puck battles and driving to the net.
Case in point at 8:08 of the third period, Lein was rewarded again for his efforts collecting his second goal of the game off a Cole Braunhausen feed to make it 3-1 Rockets.
Overage forward Dawson Gerwing added an empty-netter with 2:27 remaining to give Kelowna a 6-3-3-3 record.
After the game, Rockets head coach Derrick Martin gave Kudos his bottom six forwards to taking over the game and capitalizing on their opportunities.
“We have given away a few of those leads in third periods this year so to get one and close it out was nice.”
“We have given away a few of those leads in third periods this year so to get one and close it out was nice.”
“You need that. We are going through a little bit of injury right now and that happens over the course of the season. When guys go down, it allows an opportunity for other people and it was nice to see some guys take a hold of that,” added Martin.
Peyton Kettles and Jacob Handerson had two assists each in the victory for the Rockets
Poletin, a New York Islanders prospect, went 15-for-24 in the face-off circle.
Prince George outshot the Rockets 23-22 but went 0-for-3 on the power-play while Kelowna was 1-for-2.
The Cougars fall to 0-2-1-0 on a seven-game homestand and will play the Rockets again tomorrow night (Saturday) at 6pm from CN Centre.
What’s more troubling is that they have lost seven straight on home ice with their last victory coming on October 2nd against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Frustrated by the recent struggles, Lamb is trying to remain optimistic in what can be considered a rebuilding year.
“It’s a totally different team. We have had some powerhouses the last few years and this team isn’t like that – we don’t have those types of players.”
“We are going to have to grind out some wins,” added Lamb.
PG drops to 4-8-1-1 remaining last in the Western Conference.
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