It was a wild night at Prospera Place on Wednesday (Nov. 9) as the Kelowna Rockets beat the Prince George Cougars 8-6.
The game featured four ties and the Rockets regaining the lead four different times. Prince George never led in the game.
Just 3:17 into the contest, Rockets captain Colton Dach got the scoring started with his second of the season. Later in the period, forward Gabriel Szturc found the back of the net for the seventh time this season to give the Rockets a 2-0 lead. But before the end of the first, Prince George cut the deficit in half when Chase Wheatcroft scored his 11th goal on the campaign.
The two teams then exchanged two goals each, with two from Rockets forward Adam Kydd sandwiched between goals by Cougars leading scorer Koehm Ziemmer scoring his 14th goal of the year and Wheatcroft scoring his second goal of the game.
It was 4-3 Rockets through 40 minutes.
And if seven goals through two periods wasn’t enough, another seven goals were scored in the third period alone.
Just under seven minutes into the third, Rockets defenseman and highly ranked prospect Caden Price scored his second of the season, giving Kelowna a 5-3 lead. Prince George stormed back to tie the game once again, scoring twice in 86 seconds.
The Rockets regained the lead for the third time in the game when Kydd completed the hat trick, though just a minute and a half later, the Cougars tied the game again when Noah Boyko found the back of the net.
With less than five minutes to go in the game, the Rockets put the game away for good when Rilen Kovacevic scored his fifth of the year, giving Kelowna a 7-6 lead.
Dach put the nail in the coffin when he scored his second of the game into the empty net in the final two minutes.
Kydd also had two assists in the game, ending with a five-point night. Forward Andrew Cristall also had a five-point night as he collected five assists.
Six Rockets in total had multi-point nights.
Kelowna goaltender Taylor Boyko made 22 saves in the win.
With the victory, Kelowna improved to 6-7-1-0 on the season. They still sit fourth in the B.C. Division and eighth in the Western Conference.
The Rockets have a couple of days off now before travelling to Kamloops to take on the Blazers on Saturday night (Nov. 12). Kelowna took the first of 10 matchups on the season again Kamloops last Saturday (Nov. 5) with a 3-1 win at home. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.
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