In a hard-fought game, the Kelowna Rockets fell 4-3 to the Prince George Cougars on Friday night (Nov. 15).

The Cougars came out firing and were up 2-0 within the first 5:46 of the game as they got goals from Viliam Kmec and Carson Carels.

Kanjyu Gojsic got the Rockets on the board in the first period when he scored his second career WHL goal unassisted at the 13:40 mark of the frame.

But Prince George snuck one more goal with just eight seconds left in the first to make it 3-1. Lee Shurgot's third goal of the season came on the powerplay.

In the second period, the Rockets made it a one-goal game again... for only 2:08. Defenceman Caden Price scored his fifth goal of the season from Andrew Cristall to make it 3-2 but Koehn Ziemmer responded with his 18th goal of the season on the powerplay to double Prince George's lead.

The game remained 4-2 until late in the third period when Jakub Stancl scored his seventh goal of the year for the Rockets but that's as close as they would come.

Rockets goaltender Jari Kykkanen made 19 saves in the loss while Cougars Joshua Ravensbergen made 31 saves in the win.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday night to finish their weekend series. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. at the CN Centre in Prince George.