The Kelowna Rockets are close to officially clinching a playoff spot.
That’s the good news. The bad news? With the post-season just three weeks away, they looked terrible on Wednesday night, losing 6-2 to the visiting Prince George Cougars.
Team captain Ethan Samson tallied a goal and an assist for Prince George (31-24-5-0), which outshot Kelowna 47-18 and asserted their grinding dominance with five answered goals, including four in the third period.
Koehn Ziemmer, Zac Funk, Cayden Glover, Chase Wheatcroft and Ondrej Becher also scored for the Cougars, who outshot the Rockets 23-5 in the final frame.
Riley Heidt also notched three assists, giving him 60 on the season – a franchise record, as he eclipsed the previous high-water mark of 59, set by Jansen Harkins in 2014-15.
Gabriel Szturc, who opened the scoring at 3:10 of the second period, and Carson Golder, who made it 2-1 eight minutes later at 11:58, replied for Kelowna (23-34-3-0), which has now lost three straight games.
Tyler Brennan stopped 16 shots for the Cougars, while Jari Kykkanen had a far busier night, making 41 saves.
Prince George was 4-for-7 on the power play, while Kelowna was 0-for-5.
“Take a selfish penalty, a retaliatory penalty in the third period, a minute in, and then from that point on it was just a snowball effect,” said Rockets head coach Kris Mallette.
“Our group is making the extra play instead of playing to our identity, where that’s getting pucks below the hash marks and really grinding it out and getting it to the blue paint. We’re very hesitant to get a shot; it’s almost like we want the perfect play every time and that’s just not cutting it.”
In Western Conference standings, Kelowna is eighth out of 10 with 49 points. They are six points back of seventh-place Vancouver (55) and 12 points up on ninth-place Victoria (37).
The positions seem mostly locked, as there are few regular-season games remaining for teams to gain ground. For example, Victoria has seven games left. If the Royals were to run the table and win their remaining seven games, they could earn a maximum of 51 points.
However, that’s highly unlikely, as Victoria’s schedule features games against Kamloops (90 points), Prince George (67 points) and Everett (63 points). The Royals are also going through a rough patch, and are winless in their past eight games at 0-7-1-0.
If Victoria loses once — giving them a maximum of 49 points — and Kelowna wins once — which would give them 51 points — the Rockets will clinch a playoff spot.
But more concerning for Kelowna is trying to build positive energy heading into the playoffs — because their opponent will be first-place Seattle, and the Rockets are 0-4 against the Thunderbirds this season.
This weekend, Kelowna will host Vancouver (24-28-5-2) on Friday, then visit Spokane on Saturday (14-38-3-4). The Rockets’ regular season will conclude on March 24-25 with a home-and-home set against Vancouver.
“Right now, I feel we’re ultra-perimeter and teams are taking advantage of it,” said Mallett. “It’s real easy to play against us.
“I feel bad for our goaltenders right now. We’ve given up so many shots – and not just outside shots; I can live with shots from the outside – but we’re giving up some quality, Grade-A scoring opportunities that are gift-wrapped for teams.
“I don’t understand it. I don’t quite know why we panic so much on the defensive side of things, how, potentially, we’re late to block a shot. We’re not getting in the way to sacrifice anymore. We were when we were having success. Right now, we’re just kind of going through the motions.”