Tuesday night in Prince George, the Cougars dropped a 6-5 score to the Vancouver Giants in what proved to be a wild 60-minute affair. Jackson Houck scored three times for Vancouver while Chase Witala continued his strong play with a goal and three assists for Prince George. The teams combined for six goals in the first period, and each scored a shorthanded goal as well.

31 seconds into the game the Cougars took the lead when David Soltes finished off a Chase Witala pass for his third of the season, and second in as many games. Troy Bourke added an assist to move his point streak to five games.

Moments later the Cougars went to a power play, but it was Vancouver who took advantage. Joel Hamilton forced a turnover at the Cougars blueline, and fed a pass to Dalton Sward who beat Ty Edmonds with a backhand deke for his first of the 13-14 season.

Jackson Houck then gave Vancouver their first lead at the 10:00 mark after finishing off a nice give-and-go passing play with Joel Hamilton.

Just one minute and 13 seconds later, Brett Kulak padded Vancouver’s lead to 3-1 when he raced the puck from one end of the ice to the other, toe-dragged a defender and beat Ty Edmonds with a low shot to the stick side for his sixth of the season.

24 seconds later the Cougars answered with a power play marker of their own. Off a faceoff win, Marc McNulty directed a shot towards the goal that deflected off of two different Vancouver Giants defenders and in past Payton Lee. For McNulty, it’s his third of the season, and the Cougars were back within one.

Late in the first it was the Cougars turn to score shorthanded. Troy Bourke forced a steal at his own blueline and raced in alone on Payton Lee. Bourke beat Lee with a gorgeous backhand move to tie the game at three.

The first period ended without any more goals being scored.

Vancouver would strike twice in the second period, the first of which came at 7:40 on a power play. Ty Edmonds stopped Dalton Thrower’s point shot, but Cain Franson was standing in front of the goal and was able to tuck home a backhand shot for his fourth of the season.

Jackson Houck then added a goal off a deflection at 16:24 to give the Giants a two goal cushion after 40 minutes.

Brett Zarowny relieved Ty Edmonds in the Cougars goal after the second period, but was greeted rudely by Jackson Houck’s third of the game just 56 seconds into the third. Vancouver led 6-3 and continued to pepper the Cougars goal with shots in the first half of the third.

Fortunately, Brett Zarowny was up to the task for Prince George and his teammates gave him a little offense after the halfway point of the final frame. Alex Forsberg beat Payton Lee off a two-on-one rush at 10:52 to pull back within two.

From there, the Cougars kept pushing and were finally rewarded with another one at the 19:35 mark of the third. Zach Pochiro found Chase Witala with a nifty drop-pass down the left wing, and Witala made no mistake for his team-leading 10^th goal of the season. For Witala it was his fourth point of the night.

With 35 seconds remaining in the third and the net empty, the Prince George Cougars had one final chance. After winning the neutral zone face off, the Cougars raced into the Giants zone. The puck ended up on Zach Pochiro’s stick, who deked out the defender and came within a whisker of tying the game at six. But Payton Lee made a fantastic right pad save to keep the puck out of the net.

Vancouver held on for their fifth win of the season, and lead the season series 1-0 over Prince George. The Giants outshot the Cougars 41-26 and went two-for-seven on the power play.

Payton Lee is credited with the win for Vancouver and is now 5-1 lifetime against Prince George.  Brett Zarowny takes the loss for Prince George despite only being on goal for just the final goal against from Vancouver. Zarowny was actually brilliant stopping 16 of the 17 shots he faced.

The Cougars went one-for-three on their power play chances, and grabbed their first shorthanded goal of the season in a losing cause. The loss is the first in regulation in five home games for the Cougars who will look to bounce back tomorrow night with a rematch against the same Giants at the CN Centre.