Prince George, B.C. – Colby McAuley scored two goals and veteran Ty Edmonds stopped 30 of 31 shots he faced to lead the Prince George Cougars to a 3-1 victory over the Victoria Royals in their opening game of the 2016-17 WHL season in Victoria Friday night.

Max Martin had the other goal for the Cats, who led 2-0 after one, 2-1 after 40 minutes and McAuley finished things off with an empty netter at 19:03 of the third to seal the victory.  Ty Westgard scored the lone goal for the host team with five minutes to go in the second period.

The Cougars, who placed a heavy emphasis on cutting down on the number of penalties they take during the pre-season, gave the Royals 9 power play opportunities in the game.  Fortunately, the Prince George penalty killers did an excellent job all night and the Royals came up dry in that department.  The Cougars went 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

The Royals outshot Prince George 31-20 before 6539 fans.  The victory marked his first as head coach of the Cougars for Richard Matvichuk.

The clubs meet again at 7 tonight at Save-on Foods Memorial Arena.