Wednesday night in Prince George the Spokane Chiefs defeated the Prince George Cougars by a 5-0 score. Goaltender Tyson Verhelst  stopped all 41 Cougar shots he faced to record his sixth victory of the season, and the 18^th victory overall for the Chiefs who secured their third straight win against the Cougars in less than a week. The Cougars trailed 3-0 after the first, and despite outshooting Spokane 20-10 in the second were unable to solve Verhelst.

Mitch Lipon opened the scoring for Spokane at 12:17 of the first period. Hudson Elynuik took the puck into the left corner, centered a pass in front and Lipon did the rest snapping a quick shot through Ty Edmonds and in for his second goal of the season.

Markson Bechtold increased the Chiefs lead to 2-0 with a shorthanded tally at the 17:16 mark of the first.

Back came the Cougars with some offensive pressure. Chase Witala hit two goalposts in about a 20 second span, and right after the second post, the Chiefs came back on a two-on-one and Dominic Zwerger fired a shot past Edmonds from the right circle to make it 3-0 for the Chiefs after one.

It was a different story in the second as the Cougars had control for much of the second period outchancing the Chiefs by a wide margin. But goaltender Tyson Verhelst made a number of top notch saves for his team to keep the Chiefs ahead 3-0.

Calder Brooks and Kailer Yamamoto would add third period goals for the Chiefs to secure their victory. It was just the second time this season that the Cougars had been shutout overall and the first time that they’d been silenced offensively at home.

The Cougars will now head into their holiday break with a 17-18-0-0 record which still puts them in third place in the B.C. Division just three points shy of the Victoria Royals. Fittingly the Cougars will head to Victoria after the break and will continue their season on December 27^th in Victoria.

—

Despite the loss, Wednesday’s game was a special one for 15-year-old Cougars prospect Justin Almeida.  The pride of Kitimat, B.C. dressed in his first ever WHL game and played a regular shift alongside Jari Erricson and Chance Braid. Almeida had a couple of great scoring chances, and was named the game’s second star.