It was a milestone night for Andrew Cristall but it wasn't how the 91大黄鸭 Rockets wanted to go into the holiday break as they lost 5-3 to the Prince George Cougars on Tuesday night (Dec. 17).
With his three-point night (two goals, one assist), Cristall moved up to second all-time in points in Rockets franchise history. He now has 335 points (133 goals, 202 assists) in 214 games. With the milestone, he passed his teammate's Kalder Varga's dad, John, for second all-time. He's just 40 points away from becoming the franchise leader in points.
Cristall opened the scoring with his 23rd goal of the season at the 13:10 mark of the first period, assisted by Jacob Henderson and Kanjyu Gojsic.
Prince George countered with a quick response, scoring just 58 seconds later when Matteo Denis scored his fifth goal of the season.
In the second period, Cristall found the back of the net once again, this time assisted by Owen Folstrom and Connor Pankratz.
The Cougars responded as Carson Carels scored his fourth goal of the campaign, followed by Viliam Kmec's fifth goal of the year, on the powerplay, making it 3-2.
Some more magic by Cristall helped the Rockets tie the game as he fired a pass to Brett Calhoon who one-timed it into the back of the net with under two minutes to go in the frame.
But the third period was all Cougars as Kmec scored his second of the game at the 11:20 mark. Terik Parascak added an empty net goal in the final minute to secure the 5-3 win for Prince George.
Rhett Stoesser made 29 saves in the loss for the Rockets.
Tuesday's contest was the last game before the winter break. The Rockets are now off until Saturday, Dec. 28 when they welcome the Kamloops Blazers to Prospera Place. Puck drop is at 6:05 p.m.
