Prince George, B.C. – Prince George Cougars 19-year-old netminder Ty Edmonds had one heck of a night on Friday at home. The pride of Winnipeg, MB turned aside all 35 Kelowna shots fired his way, and his offense did the rest supplying him with three goals in a 3-0 Cougars shutout victory over the 2014-15 League Champions, the Kelowna Rockets. Bartek Bison, Jared Bethune and Sam Ruopp all grabbed their first goals of the season. Bison led all Cougars with two points in the victory, their third of the season. 

12:09 into the first period Bison got the Cougars on the board when he took a Kody McDonald pass, skated into the right circle and fired a low shot past the right pad of Jackson Whistle and in. It was the first ever goal in the WHL for the Cougars first round import draftee. Kelowna responded with some chances of their own, but Edmonds held his ground in goal and turned aside all 12 shots he faced in the opening frame. At the other end, Jackson Whistle was strong too making 14 saves on 15 shots faced.

The game’s next goal wouldn’t come until the 12:45 mark of the second off a Cougars power play chance. Jared Bethune took a Tate Olson pass, skated to the top of the right circle and fired a low slap shot past Jackson Whistle and in. For Bethune, it was his first goal of the season and it also gave Tate Olson his team high seventh point (all of which have been assists). The Cougars had three power plays in the second and five unanswered altogether through periods one and two but Jackson Whistle, to his credit kept his team within striking distance and despite the 29-20 shot gap the Cougars only led 2-0 after two periods.

Cougars captain Sam Ruopp gave his team some insurance at the 1:56 mark of the third when his low point shot found its way through traffic and in to make it 3-0. Ruopp’s first of the year was assisted by Aaron Boyd and also by Bartek Bison who added an assist to his night. He was named the game’s second star.

The game’s first star honors obviously went to Ty Edmonds who saved his best heroics for the third. He faced 15 shots, many of which were terrific Kelowna scoring chances. Edmonds made spectacular saves off of Dillon Dube, Calvin Thurkauf and Tomas Soustal in the third and was able to hang on to earn his third career WHL shutout and the first PG Cougars shutout victory since October 1^st, 2013 (against Victoria).

Prince George outshot the Rockets 41-35. They killed both Kelowna power play chances and went one-for-seven on their man advantage opportunities. The victory improves the Cougars record to 3-3 and gives Prince George their first home ice victory against Kelowna since February 22, 2014.

These two teams will meet again on Saturday night at the CN Centre, and twice more before October 31^st in Kelowna.