Cougars Fall 6-1 In Chilliwack

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 11:10 PM

The Chilliwack Bruins used three power play goals to propel themselves to a 6-1 victory over the Prince George Cougars Tuesday night. The Cougars will end the three game road trip in Vancouver Wednesday.

The trip started on Sunday with a 6-1 loss to the Kamloops Blazers. The Cougars and Bruins were meeting for the fifth time this season, with each team winning twice in the season series. Alex Wright got the start in goal for the Cougars, his first since December 9 in Tri-City. But the Bruins got to Wright early, with Colton Grant scoring his third goal of the year just 1:11 into the hockey game. Prince George product Ryan Howse got his 29th goal of the season at 12:20 on the power play and Jesse Craige tallied his third marker of the year with another power play goal at 17:36. The Bruins out-shot the Cougars 10-4 in the first period, to go along with the 3-0 lead.

The Cougars would finally solve Bruins goalie Lucas Gore in the second period, when Spencer Asuchak knocked home his career high fifth goal of the season at 2:32. Parker Stanfield drew the lone assist for the Cougars, which cut the lead to 3-1. But Chris Collins' 8th goal of the year at 15:34 and Kevin Sundher's 16th marker on a power play goal at 16:56 put the Bruins ahead 5-1 and ended Wright's evening between the Prince George pipes. Wright blocked 14 of 19 shots in the game and gave way to Hudson Stremmel. The Bruins out-shot Prince George 11-8 in the second period and carried a 21-12 advantage in shots into the second intermission.

The Bruins Jamie Crooks finished the scoring at 14:24 with his ninth goal of the year, for a 6-1 final. The Cougars out-shot the Bruins 12-9 in the final 20 minutes, but were out-shot in the game 30-24. Stremmel stopped 10 of 11 shots he faced in just over a period's worth of action for the Cougars. The game was a scrappy affair with six fighting majors handed out, along with a total of 84 penalty minutes. The Cougars went 0-for-5 on the power play, the first time in six games the Cougars had failed to score with the man-advantage. The Bruins were 3-for-6 on the power play in the game. With the win, the Bruins improve to .500 with a 17-17-1-5 record, holding on to the sixth seed in the Western Conference. The Cougars record drops to 7-28-1-1.

One of the highlites for the Cougars Tuesday was seeing 16-year old defensive prospect Mattia Bortolotto make his Western Hockey League debut. Bortolotto, a product of San Mateo, California, is in the lower mainland with the San Jose Junior Sharks, playing in a tournament in Vancouver. Bortolotto signed with the Cougars near the end of training camp in early September. While Bortolotto didn't see much ice time in Chilliwack, Head Coach Dean Clark got a glimpse of what the young blue liner can bring to the Cougars down the road. "We could see he does have some offensive ability and moves the puck well and does do some great things. Tonight, we had him out with some veteran defencemen that didn't help him out very much. But you can see some of the things he does will make him a very solid player for us."

The Cougars, who are playing without forwards Brett Connolly (injury) and Marek Viedensky (World Juniors) and defenceman Jesse Forsberg (World U-17), will head into Vancouver for a date with the Giants Wednesday night. The Cougars get back on home ice Saturday and Sunday in a pair of games with the Kamloops Blazers. Saturday's game starts at 7:00 and Sunday's begins at 2:30. The second game of the double header is the Cougars Family Day game, with Family packages available, a kids zone, face-painting and Two Rivers Gallery Creation Station. After the game, fans will have a chance to skate with the Cougars, with Eurest and CN Centre providing free popcorn and hot chocolate. Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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