Cougars Drop 2-0 Score to Victoria.
Friday night in Prince George, the Victoria Royals earned a 2-0 victory over the Prince George Cougars. Patrik Polivka turned aside all 30 shots he faced for the Royals while Alex Gogolev notched two assists in the victory. Cougars goaltender Mac Engel countered with 26 saves on the 28 shots he faced in response.
Victoria went up 1-0 early in the first off a two-on-one opportunity. Alex Gogolev skated down the left-wing and placed a pass onto the stick of Austin Carroll who made no mistake. For Carroll it was his third of the season.
Prince George responded really well, and put a flurry of pucks on the Victoria goal, but unfortunately for the home team they were unable to capitalize and the score was 1-0 after one. The Cougars held a large lead in the shots category, outshooting the Royals 14-8 after one.
The second period would ultimately be defined by penalties. The Cougars would end up being shorthanded on three different occasions, which ultimately cost them.
After killing off an early second period penalty, the Prince George Cougars put themselves in a big hole when Colin Jacobs was kicked out of the game for a five-minute major penalty. Less than two minutes later, Jake Mykitiuk took a cross-checking penalty, and the Cougars were down five-on-three for a full two minutes.
Jamie Crooks was able to beat Mac Engel on the five-on-three to give the Royals a 2-0 edge. For Crooks it was his 13th of the season with assists going to Logan Nelson and Alex Gogolev. The Cougars would kill off the remaining penalty, and did their best to mount a comeback late in the second.
Veteran forward Ryan Hanes did his best to spark the Cougars by dropping the gloves with Keegan Kanzig late in the second stanza. The second period would end with Victoria on top 2-0, and holding a 23-18 lead in the shots department.
After killing an early third period penalty, the Prince George Cougars continued to put a lot of pucks towards the goal, but Patrik Polivka was up to the task. Alex Forsberg, Carson Bolduc and Caleb Belter were all denied on opportunities, and the Royals were able to hold on to their 2-0 lead.
The Prince George Cougars finished zero-for-four on the power play, while killing off four of five penalties. Mac Engel turned aside 26 of the 28 shots he faced in net for the Cougars, making several big saves in the second period to keep the game close.
These teams will wrap up a stretch of four games against each other on Saturday night at CN Centre.
Comments
…and so the Cougars lose another one. If they could manage to stay out of the freaking penalty box, they might actually win a few more games! Kinda hard to win when you are constantly playing short handed and are fighting off penalties!!
You would think that the Coach and the Team Manager would have figured that out by now.
Too many penalties is usually a sign of a team that can’t keep up. Not fast enough, or strong enough usually causes a player to take other liberties. I think they try hard but “try” only gets you so far.
What drives me nuts (when I get the chance to watch them), is too much passing in the opposing end, and when they do shoot the puck it’s straight into the goalies chest. There’s no set plays, nor anybody in front of the net looking for rebounds. That part is coaching.
How many times have we read this line in the story… “Prince George responded really well, and put a flurry of pucks on the Victoria goal, but unfortunately for the home team they were unable to capitalize.. “
Comments for this article are closed.