Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

Rockets look for the split in game two

A lot of good in game one loss

Apr 13, 2024 | 8:00 AM

The Kelowna Rockets were their own worst enemy in a 4-0 game-one loss last night to the Prince George Cougars

Rookie goaltender Josh Ravensbergen made 21 saves, giving the BC Division regular season champions a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven affair. Game two is tonight at 6 pm.

“We didn’t do the things we need to do to generate [offense] and didn’t do the things we need to do to defend,” Rockets Assistant Coach Josh MacNevin told RocketFAN. “They are a good team over there and they will make you pay.”

When pressed to explain what his team didn’t do right, spoiling an excellent performance from goaltender Jari Kykkanen, MacNevin dug deeper into why his team was held to just four shots in the first and four shots in the third period.

“I thought for the first 17 or 18 minutes of the game we started the right way,” he continued. “We were staying above pucks, we forced them to turn the puck over, we had some chances, but we didn’t shoot the puck. We had a two-on-one, and we are trying to saucer pass it through the middle. Just shoot the puck.”

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While the Cougars scored late in the opening period and held a 10-4 shot advantage much to the delight of the standing-room-only crowd of 5,867, the backbreaker was a breakaway shorthanded goal from rookie Terik Parascak in the second period that turned out to be the turning point.

“We did some real good things to start and then we cheat on offense and it’s in the back of our net,” MacNevin added. “Jari [Kykkanen] is playing great and stopping everything. He is like a vacuum cleaner with no rebounds and kicking things to the side and getting things out of the rink and into the netting and then we give up that shorthanded one. Then it snowballed, and it hurt us.”

The Rockets went 0 for 3 on the power play, gave up a shorthanded goal, yet showed excellent discipline against a team that torched them with a 42 percent success rate with the man advantage during the regular season.

“Those are your most offensive guys [on the power play], so you would like to see chances,” MacNevin added. “Let’s not worry about the result but the process. Let’s get into the zone, set up and work them. Let’s get some shots on the net, get some rebounds, bang away, and execute some plays. I did not think we did a good job of that.

“They are a real aggressive team,” MacNevin continued. “They are playing to their strength. If we can keep it really simple, the chances will come. You don’t have to force it.”

Two of the Cougars’ four goals came from defenseman who chose to join the attack.

“They’ve had a lot of success being aggressive and getting up in the play and hitting that late guy, and attacking in layers,” MacNevin added. “On the forecheck, you have to finish checks, even if it is a little bump, it stops them from jumping past you and getting in on the rush. At times we did that really well, but in those two instances not so much.”

Losing game one against the Wenatchee Wild in round one, the Rockets rebounded nicely in game two to earn a split on the road. The team hopes to follow a similar path when the two teams face off again in front of another big crowd at CN Centre.

“It is the playoffs. You aren’t going to be perfect,” MacNevin explained. “We need to change some things, look where things went wrong, adjust, and move on.

“We have done a nice job of bouncing back from these types of games. We just weren’t sharp.”