By Larry Fisher

The game was there for the taking — and the Prince George Cougars took it.

Talented rookie Alex Forsberg potted a rebound 34 seconds into the third period, and the Cougars outworked the host Kelowna Rockets to score a 3-2 win on Saturday night at Prospera Place.

The Rockets (11-14-2-1) didn’t deserve to win this one, struggling mightily in man-advantage situations — going 0-for-4 on the power play — and shooting themselves in the foot by taking a too-many-men penalty in the final minute.

“It’s pretty embarrassing,” said Rockets captain Colton Sissons, who was pointless with a minus-1 rating. “We have the best fans and we can’t be having efforts like that, especially at home. It’s unacceptable, but we’re going to go to work for the next couple days and come back hard on Wednesday.”

Brett Bulmer and Carter Rigby scored for the Rockets, who got 28 saves from Adam Brown in a losing cause.

Looking on the bright side, Kelowna has still earned points in seven of its last 10 games (6-3-1-0), including six wins and an overtime loss to Vancouver. However, nobody was thinking glass half-full following Saturday’s disappointing performance.

“Not a good game at all. Period,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska, whose squad was outshot 31-18, including 12-4 in the final frame that saw Forsberg score the only goal after the teams were tied 2-2 through two periods and 1-1 after the first. “We didn’t have a lot of anything from anybody... it’s frustrating. There was no skate again tonight, it was the same thing we saw (Friday) night, where we didn’t work as a group. No matter who you are playing, if you don’t work as a group, you’re not going to win.”

The Rockets had been a perfect 4-0 this season against Prince George, including a 7-3 win to open this home-stand on Nov. 23 after sweeping the Cougars in a two-game road set the weekend prior to that.

Prince George (9-18-0-2) avenged that lopsided loss, with Campbell Elynuik and Cody Carlson, with a power-play goal, also scoring and Drew Owsley stopping 16 shots.

In fact, the Cougars have since won three of their last four — all on the road — including an upset 5-4 win at Spokane last Saturday.

“Coming down and getting this win in the third period, I’m happy for our guys,” said Cougars coach Dean Clark, whose club was coming off a hard-fought 5-4 loss in Kamloops to the B.C. Division-leading Blazers (20-7-1-0) on Friday night. “We’ve travelled a lot of miles here lately and we’re getting some good character wins... All four lines and all of our defence played a real key component to us winning that third period.”

With Saturday’s loss, on the heels of Friday’s 2-1 setback to the visiting Victoria Royals, Kelowna sunk to 3-3 on this season-long, seven-game homestand.

Talk about a turn for the worse, with the Rockets having hammered the top-ranked Tri-City Americans 6-2 back on Wednesday to set themselves up for a successful showing here with three games remaining against teams below them in the standings.

Instead, Victoria leapfrogged Kelowna for sixth place in the Western Conference with Friday’s lacklustre effort, and now the Rockets must beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes (9-20-0-1) on Wednesday night just to salvage a winning record before embarking on a six-game, pre-Christmas road trip through the Prairies.

Kelowna’s latest loss could have been hung on the power play, which failed to generate any quality chances in four attempts, including a couple with the Rockets leading 2-1 in the second period. But Huska insisted, “It wasn’t just the power play. It was all night, and it was five-on-five. We have to play better everywhere.”

ICE CHIPS: Kelowna’s scratches were D Jesse Lees (upper-body, 1-2 weeks), C Cody Chikie (upper-body, 1 month), C Spencer Main (2 weeks), D Myles Bell (lower-body, day-to-day) and RW Jessey Astles (suspension). Prince George scratched G Devon Fordyce, D Reid Jackson, C Charles Inglis, C Brock Hirsche and D Linden Springer.

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