Cougars Drop OT Game to Vancouver.
24 hours after a tough 6-5 loss to the Vancouver Giants, the Prince George Cougars responded Wednesday with a better effort in the rematch. Unfortunately the Cougars were only able to salvage one of two possible points though in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Giants. Dalton Thrower ended the game at 3:13 of overtime for his sixth goal of the season off a three-on-two rush.
7:27 into the first, the Prince George Cougars opened the scoring when rookie defenceman Sam Ruopp snuck a shot home from the right point. For Ruopp it was his first ever WHL goal and it gave his team an early lead. Jordan Tkatch and Klarc Wilson assisted.
Vancouver bounced back at 14:26 right off the face off. Trent Lofthouse found the lose puck, snuck by two Cougar defenders and beat Brett Zarowny with a backhander for his second goal of the season. The Lofthouse tally was unassisted.
The game remained tied until the 8:50 mark of the second when Jackson Houck skated down the right wing, waited for the defenceman to screen the Cougars goaltender, and then fired a shot off the Cougar defender and in for his fourth of the week and seventh of the season. Houck’s goal was also unassisted.
Prince George responded well with a flurry of chances towards the end of the second, but they hit posts, missed nets, and when called upon, Jared Rathjen was strong for Vancouver in goal.
More of the same in the third from the Cougars who outshot and outplayed the Giants for a majority of the period, but were simply unable to score the equalizer.
Late in the third, the Cougars killed off a late Vancouver power play, and almost immediately afterwards they called a timeout and pulled their goaltender for the extra skater. With about 24 seconds remaining, Chase Witala forced a puck free from beside the Vancouver goal, fed Zach Pochiro behind the net, who then centered a pass in front to David Soltes who banged home his fourth goal of the season, and the game was tied!
The Cougars had a great chance immediately following the tying goal, but Jordan Tkatch deflected a puck just wide of the goal, and for a fifth time in six games at the CN Centre, overtime would be needed.
After some promising offensive pressure in the Vancouver zone, the Cougars missed a shot wide, and Vancouver came back the other way three-on-two. Dalton Thrower wired home a shot from the right wing for his sixth of the season, and the Giants secured four of a possible four points this week in Prince George.
Prince George outshot the Giants 36-25, and were able to kill off all five Vancouver power plays, snapping a streak of seven consecutive games surrendering at least one power play goal. On the flipside, the Cougars were zero-for-six on the power play. Jared Rathjen stopped 34 of the Cougars 36 shots, while Brett Zarowny stopped 22 of Vancouver’s 25.
The Cougars record now sits at 7-8-1-2, and the schedule only gets tougher. This weekend the B.C. Division’s top team, the Kelowna Rockets are in town for two games on Friday and Saturday night.
Comments
pathetic effort…even if they outshot the Giants tonight, they were not quality shots. Here we go again, half an effort against a team that sits at the bottom of the league. Very very disappointing.
Previously the effort against Calgary was excellent. All the players worked hard and the final tally indicate the Cougars can complete with some of the top teams. The 2013/2014 version of the cats appears to be better than that of the previous 1/2 dozen years.
Previous DOZEN years! One second round playoff run courtesy of the Setoguchi gift doesn’t count…that was still a terrible team until he showed up mid-season.
Regardless of what this fresher-looking squad has done in the early going, and even if they were undefeated, crowds will continue to languish at a thousand warm bodies dressed up as a 1400 person “announced crowd” until the GM is replaced, plain and simple. As an owner you can’t give fans the finger for a decade (while looking after incompetent family members) and expect them to forgive you with their wallets just because Witala and Edmonds are having a reasonably good start to the season.
1400? The crowd was 1298 last night. I’m sure the cleaning crew was told to keep it down as they were too noisy.
;-)
Is this turning into a game of business chicken? People are not coming back until Brodsky cleans out the office? How long do you think that will take before enough is enough and he tries to move the team? He’s already spurned previous purchase offers so that’s not an option.
I can’t go to Cougar games any longer so I listen on the net. I’d rather chew off my fingers than ever pay to see a Giants game. Never going to happen (unless the Cougars are in town).
Last nite we reverted to a Dean Clark style of game.. ie.chip it off the boards or glass in an attempt to get out our own end or dump and chase.. in most cases we just gave the puck away. ..also a variety of line combinations .
Does anyone believe if the GM was fired the fans would magically come back overnight?
The “I’m not going because I’m against management” excuse is old and tired. If the GM was fired tomorrow, I would bet you wouldn’t see much of an increase in fan support if at all.
People have simply become tired of watching losing teams, and they have found other things to do. Firing one person will not change that.
Comments for this article are closed.