Saturday night in Victoria the Prince George Cougars fell 5 – 2 to the Victoria Royals. Brandon Magee led the way with a goal and two assists for Victoria while Coleman Vollrath turned aside 33 of the 35 shots he faced for his second victory of the weekend against the Cougars. Jordan Tkatch responded with two assists for the Cougars. Todd Fiddler and Klarc Wilson had the goals.

The Victoria Royals scored four unanswered goals in the first period, but it was an early penalty kill that seemed to kick-start their momentum. The Cougars had an early power play and fired five shots on goaltender Coleman Vollrath, but the 18-year-old stopped them all, and Victoria took advantage a few moments later.

Ben Walker ripped his 16th of the season past goaltender Ty Edmonds at the 6:01 mark, thanks to some great work from Branden Magee on the right wing. 1:21 later Jack Palmer pounced on a rebound to bury his second of the weekend and fourth of the season. Branden Magee and Axel Blomqvist would add goals in the later minutes of the period to help secure the Royals 4-0 lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Early in the second, the Cougars got on the scoresheet when Klarc Wilson banked home a shot from behind the Victoria goal off the skate of Coleman Vollrath and in for his 11th of the season. Wilson’s goal gave him 26 points on the season, which is a new season high. Jordan Tkatch and Josh assisted on the Wilson goal.

Unfortunately the Cougars then found some penalty trouble. Tanner Lischynsky went off for a high-sticking double minor and then Zach Pochiro put the Cougars down five-on-three with a charging penalty. Victoria capitalized on their five-on-three opportunity when Austin Carroll netted his 20th season from in close. Credit the Cougars for killing off the remainder of their penalties, but the string of Royals power plays helped them regain momentum. Despite outshooting the Royals 24-23 after two periods, the Cougars tailed 5-1.

Todd Fiddler grabbed the game’s final goal on a five-on-three power play at the 6:58 mark of the third. Overall the Cougars outplayed Victoria in the final 20 minutes, but simply could not solve Vollrath again.

Prince George finished the game one for seven on the power play and killed of five of their six penalties.

With the loss, the Cougars are now 14-20-2-3, but remain just five points shy of eighth place thanks to Tri-City’s loss to Portland. The Cougars will now head to Vancouver for a day of practice before taking the ice against the Vancouver Giants on Monday night from Vancouver.