As far as debuts go, 20-year-old Cougars forward Chance Braid made a very strong first impression with the Cougars faithful. Braid had two goals and an assist, and he and linemates Chase Witala and Jansen Harkins combined for four goals on the night in a 5-3 preseason victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings.

After the game, Braid said, “My game is to create open ice for the more skilled players in the league, and both Chase and Jansen did a great job tonight. I just did my part and went to the net, and good things happened for us.”

Harkins added a goal and two assists while Witala chimed in with one goal and one helper. From the drop of the puck those three were flying, and were rewarded for their efforts.

The game’s first goal came at 9:52 of the first period on a power play. After Jansen Harkins won a faceoff, Marc McNulty pushed the puck to the middle of the blueline, and wired a shot from the point on goal. The puck deflected in off of Chance Braid to give the home team a 1-0 lead.

A few shifts later, the trio of Braid, Harkins and Witala came eerily close to making it 2-0. But Edmonton goaltender Tyler Santos made a stellar stop off of Braid to keep his team within a goal. Prince George outshot Edmonton 9-8 in the first, but only led 1-0.

Jari Erricson increased the Cougars lead at 8:08 of the second period on a five-on-three man advantage. Erricson followed up his own rebound, and as he was falling to the ice, he was able to knock the puck past a sprawling Santos for his first goal of the preseason.

Chase Witala increased the lead to 3-0 at 13:50 when he raced down the right wing, and snuck a puck past young goaltender Patrick Dea who replaced Santos at the halfway point. On the other end, Ty Edmonds stopped all 10 shots he faced for the Cougars, but was pulled after 31 minutes in favor of Tavin Grant.

Edmonton responded though with a tally of their own at 16:05 when Tyler Robertson got a step on a Cougars defender, and beat Tavin Grant to the glove side for his fourth goal of the preseason.

Through two periods the Cougars held a decisive edge in shots on goal: 24-15.

1:26 into the third period, the Cougars were once again rewarded on the power play. Again it was Chance Braid doing the dirty work down low, and after Dea stopped Jansen Harkins’ initial attempt, Braid snuck the rebound home for his second goal of the game.

Jansen Harkins then converted off a two-on-one rush with Chase Witala to grab his third point of the game and ninth point of the preseason – Which puts him atop the WHL in preseason scoring.

Lane Bauer and Mads Eller added late goals for the Oil Kings, but their push was not enough to stop the Cougars who improved their preseason record to 2-0-1-0 and in the process they handed Edmonton their first preseason loss of the 14-15 campaign.

Prince George finished the night three-for-six on the power play and they managed to kill off all five of Edmonton’s power play chances. The Cougars outshot the Oil Kings 37-23.