Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Earning a point when all seemed lost

‘If you can play in these games, you can play in any game’ – AC Josh MacNevin

Feb 25, 2024 | 12:23 PM

It may have been a shootout loss on the scoreboard, but in some respects, it felt like a win.

Facing one of the quickest skating teams in the Western Hockey League, with a lethal power play, the Kelowna Rockets had to deal with the Prince George Cougars and suspect officiating in a 6-5 shootout loss.

Wanting to get in the way of letting two teams settle the outcome themselves, referee Jake Podann made what can only be described as a poor decision by sending captain Gabriel Szturc to the penalty box for a ticky-tack hook in a non-scoring situation. The infraction, with 3:26 left in regulation time allowed Cougars leading goal-man Zac Funk to find the back of the net with his third goal of the game, gift-wrapping a victory for the road team.

Wait a minute.

Forty-five seconds later, with the Rockets still hot under the collar with the call, rookie Hiroki Gojsic scored with 2:06 left on the clock, sending many of the 4,726 fans into a frenzy.

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“There has never been any quit in us,” assistant coach Josh MacNevin said after the game. “It is pretty easy to do at that point.”

MacNevin, trying to use his words carefully, was looking at what could have been decisions by the on-ice officiating staff that got in the way of his team coming back from a 3-1 deficit.

“It is what it is…I don’t know what to say…its too bad. If that is [the call]…..you are going to be on your whistle all night,” he said.

It would be hard also not to question an early missed call in the third period when Cougars d-man Viliam Kmec, upset with a Brett Calhoon hit in the corner, swung his stick, clipping the Rockets forward in the head. No call was made on a clear infraction. RocketFAN had to ask MacNevin if referees are sometimes swayed by one team having a higher skill level than the other?

“I hope not,” he added. “You want it to be fair. Just consistency. That is all you can expect. Everybody makes mistakes, and everyone is going to have an off day or an off call, but you want consistency.”

The Cougars ended up going 3 for 5 on the power play, while the Rockets failed to score on three attempts with the extra man. The half-cup-full approach would suggest the Rockets out-scored the Cougars, who have scored a league-high 90 goals with the extra man,  5-2 while playing even strength.

“That is something you can’t teach,” MacNevin referring to his teams’ composure when down by a goal so late in the game and a loss in regulation looking almost inevitable. “You keep swimming. That is what we did. When something like that happens, you feel helpless. I feel bad for our team, and I feel bad for our fans, but we did a good job recuperating from it.”

While Gojsic ended the game with two goals, Tij Iginla also scored twice with goals 39 and 40.

“That is part of their [Cougars] m-o is to pressure,” MacNevin said. “They are a good skating team. They come at you, and they don’t stop. We had a few practices where we put guys under pressure, so they got accustomed to it.

“We know these guys. It isn’t the first time we have played these guys. It is just a matter of learning to react to it. If you can play in these games, you can play in any game.”

The win came on the heels of a 4-1 dominating victory the night prior against the listless Vancouver Giants, a team they meet again, this time at the Langley Events Centre this Friday night.

“You figure out a lot about your team in these instances, and we rose to the occasion,” MacNevin concluded.

“I have felt good about this team all year, we just haven’t been as consistent as we would like.”