Monday afternoon in Prince George the Cougars had their six game winning streak halted after an 8-4 loss to the Portland Winterhawks. Chase De Leo had two goals and three assists for Portland while Taylor Leier added a goal and three assists. Zach Pochiro and Troy Bourke each responded with two points for the Cougars. Special teams were a huge factor in the game as just three of the 12 combined goals came five-on-five.

Portland led 2-0 after the first period thanks to goals from Garrett Haar (7:25) and Chase De Leo (13:26). De Leo’s marker came on Portland’s third power play of the period. The Winterhawks outshot the Cougars 16-7 in the first.

Early in the second the Cougars inched their way closer when Zach Pochiro knocked home a Brett Roulston rebound for his 23rd goal of the season, but 30 seconds later Portland responded when Oliver Bjorkstrand capitalized off a defensive zone turnover in the Cougars zone.

Chase De Leo and Paul Bittner then both added power play markers in the back-half of the second to make it 5-1 Portland. Zach Pochiro answered for the Cougars with his second of the game in the late stages of the second, also on a power play.

Moments into the third period the Cougars thought they had moved back within two when Zach Pochiro appeared to complete his hat-trick. But the officials ruled that there had been some incidental contact on Portland’s Brendan Burke, and the goal was disallowed.

Brad Morrison moved the Cougars back within two anyway at 6:03 when he knocked home a Jordan Tkatch rebound for his 10th of the season.

Back came Portland just 1:22 later when Taylor Leier knocked home a Garrett Haar pass off a shorthanded two-on-one.

Marc McNulty then made the score 6-4 with a shot from the left point on a five-on-three power play. But again Portland responded with a shorthanded goal of their own. This time it was Dominic Turgeon off a two-on-one making the score 7-4 for the visitors. Keegan Iverson grabbed the game’s final goal for Portland on a late third period power play giving them their fourth power play goal of the game.

Portland finished the game four-for-eight on the power play while the Cougars responded with a three-for-eight clip of their own. Unfortunately the Cougars also allowed two shorthanded goals which helped Portland maintain strong momentum.

Adam Beukeboom faced 50 shots in the Cougars goal and stopped 42 of the shots he faced, while at the other end Brendan Burke made 28 saves off of 32 shots faced.

With the loss the Cougars are now 24-27-2-5 and are trailing the Tri-City Americans by four points now in the race for eighth place. The Cougars will host Portland again on Wednesday night at the CN Centre.