In their last game ahead of the Christmas break, the Prince George Cougars discovered defence was their best offence.
Defencemen Villiam Kmec and Carson Carels both answered the call with goals which led the Cats to a 5-3 win Tuesday over the Kelowna Rockets night in Kelowna.
Kmec had a two-snipe game and also picked up a pair of assists. He finished off a 2-on-1 rush into the Kelowna zone with a shot from the circle that found the net behind goalie Rhett Stoesser for the gamewinner, 11:20 into the third period.
Terik Parascak capped the victory into an empty net in the final minute.
Kmec also set up the rookie Carels for his fourth of the season, that tied the game eight minutes into the second period. Then it was Kmec’s turn a couple minutes later when he joined the rush and scored with one second left in a Cougars’ power play to make it a 3-2 game.
Rockets forward Brett Calhoun tied it up before the period ended on a play set up by Andrew Cristall, who scored his 23rd and 24th goals to stake the Rockets to a 2-1 lead five minutes into the period.
Matteo Danis also scored for the Cougars, who improved to 18-9-3-2. Prince George leads the BC Division and ranks second in the Western Conference. The Rockets (13-14-2-1, remained fourth in BC Division.
The Cougars outshot the Rockets 34-30.
Cougars goalie Josh Ravensbergen improved his record to 15-4-3-1. He also picked up his third assists of the season, starting the play that led to Kmec’s first goal.
The win leveled the Cats’ road record to the .500 mark at 8-8-0-0, one of their goals when they left Prince George a week ago to start their four-game roadtrip. They started with a 4-3 shootout win in Tri-City, lost 4-1 in Portland, then defeated Spokane 3-1.
LOOSE PUCKS: The Rockets were missing four regulars out of the lineup. Defenceman Caden Price is with Canada’s world junior team, while defenceman Marek Rocak and left winger Jakob Stancl will be playing for Czechia at the tournament that starts Dec. 26 in Ottawa… Cougar players will be catching flights out of Kelowna to go home for the weeklong Christmas break. They’ll meet again in Vancouver for the ferry ride to Victoria for a two-game set Dec. 27-28 in Victoria against the Royals…. The Cougars lead the BC Division by two points ahead of the second-place Royals… Cristall now has 55 points in just 23 game, averaging a league-high 2.39 points per game… Cougars forwards Kaden Lemire and Patrick Sopiarz served their one-game suspensions for illegal hits in the Portland game…The WHL trade deadline is on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
