Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

Veteran coach reflects on series loss

‘You have to experience losing to win’ – Rockets HC Kris Mallette

Apr 21, 2024 | 7:05 AM

The Kelowna Rockets season ended Friday night at the hands of the Prince George Cougars.

Heading into a Western Hockey League semi-final series, most believed the result was inevitable considering the Cougars were rated as the top team in the Canadian Hockey League for the majority of the season.

Losing the series four games to one, after a game five 6-3 road setback, Rockets Head Coach Kris Mallette reflected on his team taking a 2-1 – second-period lead – only to surrender five consecutive goals.

“The goals they scored were hardworking, but they got some fortuitous bounces,” Mallette told RocketFAN. “They rode the momentum.”

Three of those goals came within 4 minutes and 33 seconds and turned a one-goal lead into a two-goal deficit.

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“I don’t think we were sitting back,” Mallette added. “It just seemed like every chance they got in that stretch went in. Our guys weren’t panicking, but in that environment the crowd was going crazy.”

With the majority of the sellout crowd of six-thousand and 14 fans behind them, forward Riley Heidt would score his second of the game before Cougars leading point producer Zac Funk would score his hattrick goal and the route was on.

Despite out-shooting the Cougars 12-7 in the third period, and getting a goal from captain Gabriel Szturc, the home team remained undefeated in the playoffs with a perfect 5-0 record at CN Centre.

“What do we take from the series,” Mallette asking his own question. “It is hard to win. Those little mistakes. The inability to deal with the crowd, the refereeing, those small sequences, in many cases its inches. Those small details win or lose you games.”

Playing against a team that lost in the second-round a season ago to the eventually WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds, the Cougars put into practice what they learned, and used it to advance to the Western Conference final for the first time since 2007.

“You have to experience [losing] to do it,” Mallette continued. “When we won the Western Hockey League [in 2015], we played Brandon. Who won the league the following year? Brandon. The Wheat Kings played Seattle and the following year the T-Birds win it. You have to go through those high pressure moments in order to realize how to deal with those situations.”

The playoffs often reveal character, with 11 pressure packed games benefitting a team that returns 20 of the 23 players for the 2024-2025 campaign.

“You saw some guys that were willing to sacrifice a little bit more,” Mallette pointing out third year d-man Ethan Mittelsteadt as a great example. “You saw some guys stick to our structure, keep it simple and not giving up [scoring] opportunities. I thought [Michael] Cicek, [Max] Graham and [Luke] Schelter were really good. They were heavy and created chances by playing hard. Did I see some guys do things I hadn’t seen during the regular season? Yes. I saw more desperation in our game that wasn’t there as consistently as it needs to be if you want to be a champion.”

Eliminating the Wenatchee Wild in a six game opening-round series as the lower seed was a step forward in the progression of the group, and being the first team to hand the Cougars their first regulation loss in 26 games was another feather in their cap.

“They had gone two-and-a-half months where they hadn’t lost a game,” Mallette added. “We should have won game three [a 4-3 overtime loss]. We deserved to win that game. Even though we lost those opening two games, I knew coming home our group still felt like we had a chance.

“To bounce back after trailing the series three-nothing, says a lot about our group.”