Saturday night in Prince George the Cougars dropped an 8-2 score to the Portland Winterhawks. Oliver Bjorkstrand led the way with two goals and two assists for the Winterhawks while Brad Morrison and Jansen Harkins had the goals in response for Prince George. The Cougars outshot the Winterhawks 40-33 in a losing cause.

Portland led 2-0 after one period thanks to goals from Bjorkstrand and Miles Koules. Bjorkstrand opened the scoring at 10:25 off a two-on-one rush with Paul Bittner, and Koules made it 2-0 off another two-on-one goal at the 18:24 mark of the first period.

In the second the Cougars outshot Portland 15-9 but were unable to solve Aidan Hill. It took the Winterhawks nearly seven full minutes to record their first shot on goal, yet the score remained 2-0. 8:51 into the second period, Colby McAuley and Dominic Turgeon dropped the gloves. The fight didn’t last long as McAuley dropped Turgeon with one punch. Turgeon left the game and didn’t return.

Portland increased their lead to 3-0 when Brendan De Jong took a Nic Petan pass and snuck it by Ty Edmonds and in for his first goal of the season.

The Cougars outshot Portland 25-22 through two periods but trailed 3-0.

Portland struck for three quick goals early in the third period. Oliver Bjorkstrand notched his second of the game 38 seconds into the period, and then Skyler McKenzie scored at 1:46 which spelled the end of the night for Ty Edmonds.

In came Patrick Gora who was greeted by a Keoni Texeira goal at 3:16 of the third to give Portland a 6-0 lead.

Brad Morrison and Jansen Harkins then struck in succession for the Prince George Cougars at the 9:12 and 11:47 marks of the third period. For Morrison it was his 17^th of the season while Harkins buried his 14^th.

Layne Viveiros and Alex Schoenborn scored late goals to increase Portland’s lead to 8-2 which is how the game would end.

Prince George finished the night one-for-six on the power play while Portland went one-for-four.

Despite the loss the Cougars still remain in third place in the B.C. Division thanks to a Vancouver loss in Kamloops. The Cougars record now sits at 20-24-1-1 ahead of Tuesday night’s home contest with the Everett Silvertips.