Sunday night in Victoria the Prince George Cougars kicked off the ‘unofficial’ second half of the season with a 6-2 loss in Victoria.

Dante Hannoun and Vladimir Bobylev each had three points for Victoria while Coleman Vollrath turned aside 34 of the 36 shots fired his way between the pipes for the Royals. Chase Witala and Kody McDonald responded with goals for the Cougars while the goaltending tandem of Ty Edmonds and Nick McBride combined for 27 saves on 33 shots faced.

Victoria wasted no time in getting on board as Jared Dmitriw raced in alone on Ty Edmonds and snuck one past him 62 seconds into the first

Alex Forsberg made it 2-0 a minute and 25 seconds later off a turnover in front of the Cougars goals and Ty Edmonds was removed from the net after two Royals goals on their first two shots.

By the end of one Victoria led 4-0 as Tyler Soy and Ryan Gagnon added first period markers.

Ty Edmonds returned to the net to start the second period and the Cougars gained some momentum with some early chances, but Coleman Vollrath made some timely stops to keep the Royals ahead by four.

Chase Witala finally solved Vollrath at the 14:11 of the second period on a power play when he slid a puck through the legs of Vollrath and home for his 22^nd of the season.

Back came the Royals though when Brayden Pachal snuck his first ever goal in the WHL past Edmonds at 19:16 of the second to give Victoria the 5-1 lead through two periods.

Jack Walker increased Victoria’s lead to 6-1 when he ripped home his 14^th of the season from the slot. Kody McDonald added a late one for the Cougars at 9:47 of the final stanza to round out the game’s scoring.

Prince George finished the game one-for-eight on the power play but they managed to kill off all six Victoria power plays. The final shots were 36-33 favoring the Cougars who now sit 21-12-1-1 and in third place in the B.C. Division, two points back of the Royals.

The two B.C. Division rivals will square off again tonight in Victoria.