Jessica Dempsey
The Kootenay Ice looked to get into the win column on Sunday afternoon after a loss to Regina Pats on Friday and a shootout loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers Saturday night.
However, Kootenay lost to the Prince George Cougars 2-1 in overtime at Western Financial Place.
Both teams were playing their third game in three nights as they both looked to keep their energy up.
“I don’t know if it was the most entertaining game when you have both teams playing three games in less than three days. I thought it was sloppy for the first half, our puck management wasn’t that good,” said head coach James Patrick.
Scoreless in the first, but not without some excitement. Ice forward Brad Ginnell and Cougars defenceman Austin Crossley dropped the gloves with less than half the period to go.
The fight seemed to give both teams energy, especially the Ice who had some chances at the end of the period.
The Cougars took an early penalty in the second, but the Ice couldn’t find the back of the net. About halfway through Ice forward Peyton Krebs had a breakaway, but couldn’t get it past Prince George goalie Taylor Gauthier.
The Cougars, however, were able to get on the board to make it 1-0 with a shot by forward Jackson Leppard that squeaked by Ice goaltender Duncan McGovern.
With the Ice down 1-0 to start the third, Krebs one-timed it to get his third goal of the year to tie the game up less than four minutes into the period.
“The second and the third I thought we played hard. We got lots of puck on net, [Taylor] Gauthier played really well on their team. I think we put a good effort in,” said Krebs.
After a flurry of chances in the last minute of play by the Ice they weren’t able to convert on them, and for the second night in a row, they went to overtime. Shot at the end of the three periods was 46-26 for the Ice.
“I liked the third period, I thought we started to get some pucks to the net, some bodies there, much better middle lane drive. We were able to get some zone time. We got a lot of pucks there and we had a lot of chances. We just weren’t able to put one away,” said Patrick.
It only took until 33 seconds into overtime when Cougars forward Ilijah Colina scored.
All three games the Ice lost this weekend were one-goal games, with two going into overtime.
“It’s a real tough league, there are no easy nights. Every game is tough,” said Patrick.
“A lot of good signs, all three nights there was times I really liked the way we played, so it’s hard this league is to come out with two of six points this weekend.”
Krebs noted the three games in three days can be tough, but the team showed resilience during the span.
“We battled back and I think anytime you can see that it [shows] it’s a good group. It’s definitely tough, anytime you have that in this league it’s really demanding on the body, but it was good to see the guys battle hard there,” he said.
The Ice will have a day off and then head to Lethbridge to play the Hurricanes.
