After a wild first period, the Kelowna Rockets couldn91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t muster up any more offense as they fell 5-2 to the Prince George Cougars on Friday night.
Pucks often found the back of the net in the first frame, with two Rockets goals sandwiched between another two from the Cougars.
Carlin Dezainde scored just 2:49 into the contest to give Prince George a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Rockets leading scorer Andrew Cristall extended his point streak to 20 with his 25th goal of the season, assisted by Caden Price and Gabriel Szturc.
An absolute rocket off of the blade of Andrew Cristall to push his point streak to twenty games. x
91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets)
A minute and a half after that, fresh off being ranked the 94th-best North American skater in the NHL Central Scouting midterm ranking, Hiroki Gojsic scored his ninth goal of the season to give the Rockets a 2-1 lead. Michael Cicek collected an assist on the goal.
Fresh off of being ranked on the NHL Central Scouting mis-season rankings, Hiroki Gojsic finds the back of the net.
91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets)
Prince George tied the game later in the period when Oren Shtrom scored his 10th goal of the season.
The Cougars pounced to start the second period as Dezainde scored his second of the game, followed by Hudson Thornton91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s 11th goal of the campaign, making it 4-2 Prince George.
In the third period, Dezainde completed the hat trick, scoring his third of the game, 11th of the season.
Goaltender Jari Kykkanen made 30 saves in the loss.
In his first game with the Rockets after being acquired before Wednesday91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s trade deadline, defenceman Carter Kowalyk did what he could to make his presence felt in his new team91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s line-up.
*boom*
91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” Kelowna Rockets (@Kelowna_Rockets)
welcome to the BC Division Carter Kowalyk!
With the win, the Cougars (29-12-0-0) padded their Western Conference lead to five points over the Portland Winterhawks. Meanwhile, the Rockets remain sixth in the conference with a 19-18-2-0 record.
The Rockets and Cougars will do it all again on Saturday night in Prince George, with puck drop at 6 p.m.
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