Photo credit: Steve Dunsmoor

By Regan Bartel

Cougars lead series 3 games to none

Rockets backs are against the wall

Apr 17, 2024 | 7:00 AM

Matteo Danis scored at 1:22 of overtime, lifting the Prince George Cougars to a 4-3 win over the Kelowna Rockets Tuesday night at Prospera Place.

The Cougars lead the series three games to none, with game four tonight (104.7 The Lizard pre-game show starts at 6:35 pm) at Prospera Place.

Danis, acquired in October for a fourth-round bantam pick from the Calgary Hitmen, scored just seven goals during the regular season, and found the back of the net for his first career playoff goal.

“It is tough to take for sure,” Rockets Assistant Coach Josh MacNevin said after the game. “We hit a couple of posts there late in the third [period], and I thought we were playing really well, so that was a tough one.”

With the game tied at three, the Rockets had several chances to find the lead goal, with defenseman Ethan Mittelsteadt hitting the cross-bar before d-man Caden Price rang one off the post, the puck then striking Cougars goaltender Josh Ravensbergen’s leg before trickling dangerously wide of the net.

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“You get the bounces when you are doing the right things, and I thought we should have tonight,” MacNevin added. “We did a lot of good things. That is a good team, obviously, but now we have played them enough to know we can play with them, but that just shows how close it is.”

The Rockets forced overtime when Captain Gabriel Szturc fired home a wrist shot from the right face-off circle with just over five minutes left in regulation time, beating Ravensbergen to the blocker side.

While the Rockets ended the night going 0 for 5 on the power play, including an extended four minute man advantage in the first period, it created some excellent looks.

“It looked good tonight,” MacNevin said about a power play unit that was significantly more dangerous than in games one and two. “We made some adjustments but we just couldn’t get one to go. That’s the difference in the game really. They get two [2 for 4] and we get none. It would have been nice to at least get one and then we wouldn’t be in this spot.”

Despite surrendering the opening goal, yet out-shooting the Cougars 18-9 in the first period, the Rockets rallied with back-to-back goals in the second period just 51 seconds apart from Ethan Neutens and Michael Cicek. Those goals came after going over seven periods without finding the back of the net.

“I know we got shut out, but that was by our own doing,” MacNevin responded when asked if the goals provided his team with a sense of relief. “He is a good goalie, no question but that was us. We are passing up really good scoring opportunities. We weren’t getting to the hard areas. We were playing perimeter up in Prince George.

“We have played this guy [Ravensbergen] lots this season. We were imploding when we got into the offensive zone. I don’t think there was any, oh we scored. We knew we were going to score, we knew we could, we just had to start playing and getting to those tougher areas and paying the price. That is what we did tonight.”

Out-scored 13-3 in the series, the Rockets face playoff elimination in the rematch tonight. A win and it’s back to CN Centre for game five on Friday night.

“We have to turn this [loss] into a positive,” MacNevin said. “We are moving in the right direction. We picked ourselves up from getting our butts handed to us, so that is a good thing. This game could have easily gone the other way. The fourth one is a hard one to put a team down, and end their season. Our guys like each other. Our guys want to be here, they want to continue, and hopefully those bounces go our way this time.”

“We just move forward and stay positive and now we are backed into a corner and we have to fight for our lives here.”