Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

Now 7-8-1-1 including 2-5-0-0 on road

Rockets show resilience in narrow loss

Nov 16, 2024 | 7:00 AM

The Kelowna Rockets’ performance against the Prince George Cougars on Friday night showed resilience despite a tough 4-3 road loss.

After a difficult 48 hours that saw the team trade away two veteran players, the Rockets could have easily folded. However, despite a rough start, they came out strong.

“I thought five-on-five we were very good,” Rockets assistant coach Derrick Martin said after the game. “Again, two mistakes in the first period and it’s in the back of our net. We have to clean that up in the defensive zone, but we came out of the first period deserving a better fate.”

Despite out-shooting the Cougars 11-7 in the opening frame, the road team trailed 3-1 on the scoreboard. 

“We came out in the second period and picked right back up, and again we were stacking up solid hockey on top of each other,” Martin continued. “Unfortunately, on the fourth goal (the game winner), it is a too-many-men penalty. Obviously, it is a lack of communication on the back end [defensively], and that falls on me.” 

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Despite firing 21 shots on net in the middle frame, the Rockets again found themselves facing a two-goal deficit heading into the third period. 

“I thought our group stayed resilient,” Martin added. “We fought to the bitter end, to the final buzzer and gave us a chance in a tough environment.” 

Rookie Jakub Stancl would score his 7th goal of the season with 2:18 left in regulation time and we were in for a tremendous finish. With starter Jari Kykkanen on the bench for the extra attacker, Rockets leading point getter Andrew Cristall was stopped on a backdoor look when Cougars goalie Joshua Ravensbergen, a projected first round NHL draft pick next summer, came across from his right to his left to rob the Washington Capitals second-round draft pick from extending his goal scoring streak to eight games. 

“I thought we really had some good looks [on net], and I thought he did an excellent job for them,” Martin said about Ravensbergen’s antics. “He is obviously a top-end goaltender and I thought we threw a lot at him today. I thought we had better traffic at the net. We got more point shots through. We tested him. We did a lot of good things, but just a dollar short on the goal front.” 

It was the eighth-one goal game the Rockets have played this season, with the team winning just two of them. It also marked only the third time the Cougars have been out-shot on home ice. 

“You don’t want to take penalties against this team,” Martin stated after watching his team give up two power play goals on six kills. “If you do, you are going to pay the consequences. While I thought they were a little lopsided (six chances compared to three), but certainly on the penalty kill giving up one, which is the game winner, is an area we will focus on getting ready for Saturday night.” 

Dating back to last season, in the last ten regular season meetings between the two teams, seven of the games have been decided by a single goal.

“Again, we thought we gave ourselves a chance tonight,” Martin concluded. 

“We haven’t felt that way after every one of these 17 games, so to see the resiliency continue in this group and some low hanging fruit to clean up, there is certainly a sense of optimism in our dressing room.”