‘We can play with them’ – Rockets AC Josh MacNevin

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“That kid was on fire,” Rockets Assistant Coach Josh MacNevin said postgame. “And that doesn’t hurt when you have a brick wall in the net.”

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The win was huge, considering entering the game, the Rockets trailed the Cougars by 18 points in the standing and had failed to win a game at CN Centre this season.

“That is a big one,” MacNevin told RocketFAN. “That is a good hockey club. That [win] reaffirms to our guys that we can play with anyone. Again, we have to play the right way and do things that bring us success. If we deviate away from it, we are in trouble.”

The win didn’t come easy when forward Luke Schelter took a penalty with 12 seconds left in the third period, and the Cougars with the third-best power-play unit in the league, went to work in overtime.

“We did it. It [the penalty killing unit] is coming along,” MacNevin said with relief in his voice after the team killed off the penalty before captain Gabriel Sztruc scored the game-winning goal in the shootout. “We couldn’t get out a couple of times including their first goal. You just keep working and it is coming.”

The two games were eerily similar outside of the result. The Rockets enjoyed a lead only to see the Cougars fight back to tie it. Unlike Friday’s 5-2 loss, the road team didn’t allow another goal in Saturday’s victory.

“It was a pretty calm feeling on the bench when they tied the game,” MacNevin said. “We had our moments. That confidence in third periods to come back and play well, that has been reaffirmed the last couple of weeks.”

MacNevin was especially happy with the defensive core, who played without newcomer Carter Kowalyk after he had to leave the game after a first-period scrap with Cougars leading point producer Zac Funk.

“Jackson Gillespie came up big,” he said. “Everybody logged some time. Caden [Price] was really good. We make mistakes but we recover from them, learn from them and that’s all you can expect.”

When RocketFAN suggested to MacNevin that it was the biggest win of the season, the second-year assistant to Kris Mallette came back with a deadpan answer.

“We are on to the next one,” he added. “We just move on to the next one,” with a certain look of mischievousness in his eyes.

“You definitely want to steal some of these games from these top-tier teams. We can. We can play with them. It is a big one absolutely.”

The win, the Rockets’ 20^th of the season, came without the services of leading goal scorer Tij Iginla, who missed both games on the weekend with a lower-body injury.

“The belief that we are never out of it. Even when the tides turned, there wasn’t a panic button,” MacNevin added after his team surrendered a 2-0 lead. “We have done this many, many times, so that is what the regular season is for.”

The victory marked the first time the team had won on the road in the 2024 calendar year.

“You are preparing and get ready to get into the playoffs,” MacNevin said. “If you get into the playoffs and things don’t go exactly your way, you don’t know how to react and come out of it.

“It is important to fail if you learn from it. You only fail if you quit.”