Cougars Fall 5-2 to the Raiders at Home.
Wednesday night in Prince George, the Cougars dropped a 5-2 decision to the Prince Albert Raiders. Josh Morrissey paced the Raiders offense with a goal and two assists while Craig Leverton chipped in with a goal and an assist. David Soltes had two points in response for Prince George.
Both teams came out firing in the first period as goaltenders Ty Edmonds (Prince George) and Rylan Parenteau (Prince Albert) were both tested early. Parenteau made a breakaway stop off of Chase Witala, and Edmonds countered with a terrific save off of Josh Morrissey on a five-on-three Raiders power play chance.
Prince Albert drew first blood with a five-on-three power play goal that came on their second two-man advantage of the period. Craig Leverton pounced on a rebound was able to lift one over the diving Edmonds for his 13th of the season at the 13:29 mark of the first period.
David Soltes responded quickly for the Cougars with a power play goal of his own at the 15:52 mark, giving him nine goals now on the season.
After one period the game was tied 1-1 with the Raiders holding a slight 12-10 lead in the shots department.
The game’s next goal came at the 10:44 mark of the second period courtesy of Raiders forward Jordan Tkatch. The former Cougar skated in on a two-on-rush rush with Josh Morrissey, took his pass and one-timed it past Ty Edmonds for his sixth of the season.
Then in the final minute of the period, Gage Quinney added to the Raiders lead when he one-timed home a pass from Simon Stransky off an odd-man rush.
Shots after two periods were: 22-17 for Prince Albert.
Early in the third, the Cougars crept a little closer when Brad Morrison grabbed his own rebound and lifted a backhand shot over the glove of Parenteau and under the crossbar for his ninth tally of the season. Morrison’s goal was assisted by David Soltes and Zach Pochiro.
On the very next shift, Chase Witala once again found himself on a breakaway, and once again was unable to get the puck past Parenteau who finished the game with 24 saves on the 26 shots he faced.
Reid Gardiner restored the Raiders two goal advantage with an unassisted marker at the 9:30 mark of the third period, then Josh Morrissey iced the game with an empty-netter at 18:50 to give the Raiders win number 14 on the season.
The Cougars penalty kill was impressive on the evening going six-for-seven, and the power play converted on one of their three chances. The final shots were: 35-26 for Prince Albert.
Next up for the Cougars (13-15-0-0) is a weekend double-header in the Okanagan. On Friday night the Cougars will face the Kelowna Rockets in a game that will be featured live on SHAW TV.
Comments
Poor Cougars…
couldn’t beat them or
out play them either….
beginning to sound like days of last year….
Game lacked intensity..we deserved the loss.
Pretty tough to win when you are outplayed, outworked, and out battled all night long. The Cougars couldn’t string 3 passes together, and when they did manage to get a pass through it was in the player’s skates!
It’s not a wonder that these guys are the worst penalty killing team in the league..so weak on the puck with their sticks that they couldn’t clear the zone!
And that line change? How do you do a complete line change with the puck at the offensive blueline? Quick turnover and it was a 4 on 1 !
I can see that there is talent in these kids, but honestly can’t see a system in place, and their conditioning is atrocious! There is no way that having been at home for 10 days during which they played only one game they should have been outworked by a team that’s in the midst of a long road trip!
Ownership has done a lot of good things on the management and game experience front, but perhaps they should have gone out and hired a real qualified GM, and a real qualified coach!
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