Tuesday night in Prince George, veteran forward Chase Witala celebrated his 200^th career game with a goal against the Tri-City Americans. However it was 17-year-old forward Brad Morrison who stole the show. Morrison scored twice, and added two assists and the Cougars struck for five unanswered goals in the third period en route to an 8-4 victory over the Tri-City Americans. Seven different players scored for the Cougars. Beau McCue led the way with two goals for the Tri-City Americans.

46 seconds into the game McCue opened the scoring for Tri-City off a shot from the high slot.

Joe Carvalho then evened the score for the Cougars on a power play one-timer from the right point at 5:55. Carvalho’s second of the season was set up by Jansen Harkins and Zach Pochiro.

Taylor Vickerman restored Tri-City’s lead at the 13:43 mark of the first when he picked the pocket of a Cougars defender and raced in alone on Ty Edmonds. Vickerman slipped a shot past his glove and in for his third of the season.

After one, the score was 2-1 for Tri-City with the shots even at 11-11.

Early in the second Brad Morrison notched the first of two goals on the night. Jansen Harkins started the play with a backhand shot, and Morrison won the race for the rebound in the slot, and slid his own backhand shot past Evan Sarthou and in for his 13^th of the season.

Just over two minutes later Chase Witala got in on the act. He skated down the right wing, stopped in the circle and then snapped a shot through Evan Sarthou and in. For Witala it was his team high 22^nd goal of the season, and in his 200^th career game he put the Cougars ahead by a 3-2 score.

Less than two minutes later the game would be tied. Lucas Nickles snuck a Justin Hamonic rebound through the legs of Edmonds on a Tri-City power play, and just like that the score was tied.

37 seconds later the Americans regained the lead when Beau McCue notched his second of the game his 16^th of the season on a shot from the slot.

Tri-City took a 4-3 lead into the second intermission, and were previously 12-0 when leading after two periods. The third period though completely belonged to the Prince George Cougars.

Zach Pochiro erased the one-goal gap at the 2:57 mark of the third with his eighth of the season off a pass from Brad Morrison behind the Tri-City goal.

Colby McAuley then gave the Cougars their second (and final) lead of the night when he snuck a wrist shot past Evan Sarthou from the top of the left circle.

Sarthou was then pulled from the game in favor of 16-year-old AP call up Nicholas Sanders who surrendered three goals on the nine shots he faced in the remainder of the game.

First it was Sam Ruopp at the 9:%2 mark who blasted home a shot from the point for his third of the season. Then Jari Erricson snuck a puck past Sanders at the side of the goal at 10:28, and then just for good measure, Brad Morrison tipped home a Sam Ruopp point shot at 12:08 of the third to round out the game’s scoring.

Six different Cougars had multi-point games. The final shot tally was 39-34. Prince George finished one-for-five on the power play and killed off two of the three Tri-City chances on the man advantage.

With the win, the Cougars are now 20-21 and are back in the top three in the B.C. Division standings. The Cougars can climb back to .500 tomorrow night in the rematch between these two clubs.

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Before the game it was announced that forward Aaron Macklin and defenceman Tate Olson were named the Ryobi Hardest Working Cougars for the month of December. Congratulations to both Aaron and Tate for their outstanding play during the month of December!