Photo credit: Gord Rufh

By Regan Bartel

Another one goal loss

‘This one hurts’ – Rockets AC Josh MacNevin

Feb 18, 2024 | 8:14 AM

The Kelowna Rockets likely deserved a better fate.

But in a season filled with more frustration than jubilation, with 10 losses in their last 13 games, maybe last night’s 3-2 loss in Victoria was inevitable.

The Royals scored the game-winning goal when top defenseman Caden Price mishandled a puck at his blueline after the home team was called for too many men on the ice penalty.

With a chance to win it with the extra man, with the potential of ending a three-game losing streak, Victoria forward Cole Reschny had other ideas. The rookie stole the puck, and deftly moved it through the feet of Price before firing home the game-winner past Jari Kykkanen with 2:33 remaining on the clock.

“It was a tough way to lose,” assistant coach Josh MacNevin said after the game. “You have to work for these breaks. Just because you play a couple of periods the right way, or a period the right way, the hockey gods aren’t going to smile on you. We have to get back to working hard, and then hopefully we get those breaks.”

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You can’t lay all the blame on Price, despite the miscue. The 18-year-old logs huge minutes and is having a career year offensively with 10 goals and 42 points. The third round NHL draft pick of the Seattle Kraken is healthy this season, showing that he is arguable one of the best rearguards in the entire Western Conference.

“He is one of our more offensive defenseman,” MacNevin added. “He is good with the puck. It happens. You never want that to happen [turn over the puck]. The decision made before that [miscue] was the real issue for me. We have to figure that out, not do it again.”

The Royals opened up the scoring for a second consecutive night and built up a 2-0 lead before the Rockets roared back with two-third period goals from Tij Iginla and Gabriel Szturc.

“You never like to lose a game like that, but if you are looking for positives, we didn’t quit, MacNevin offered. “We’ve been snake bitten as of late [offensively]. We have been getting lots of chances, but they haven’t been going in. This game was no different.”

Iginla’s goal, his 37^th of the season, tied a Kelowna Rockets franchise record for goals by a player in his first years of NHL draft eligibility. The mark is now shared with Brett McLean, who also scored 37 times in the 1995-96 season before eventually being chosen by the Dallas Stars.

While the power play struck only once in six chances, while surrendered a league high 17^th shorthanded goal against, MacNevin liked the way it created scoring chances and momentum.

“We made some adjustments and the guys executed and it turned into chances,” he said. “But again, you can’t just think that things are now going to work. You have to be doing good things for a long time. We’ve done that and then gotten away from it…but the playbook is to just get back to work.”

With back-to-back 3-2 losses to the Royals on the weekend, the team now playing in 27 one-goal games this season, the eighth place Spokane Chiefs are within two points of bumping the Rockets out of seventh.

“It is a tough spot,” MacNevin added. “We have another one Monday [against Tri-City]. That is the best part of it. You get back on the horse. If you make that mistake and you don’t play for a while, that eats at you. The key is to not let it happen again.

“We have no time to lick our wounds. It is right out of the frying pan into the fire.”