Giants Down Cougars 3-1

By 250 News

Hard to believe a disallowed goal would not be the most controversial moment of a hockey game, but that was the case Friday in Prince George.  The Vancouver Giants skated to a 3-1 victory over the Cougars in the first game of a weekend doubleheader, but it was a reckless high stick to Cougars defenceman Jesse Forsberg that went undetected by all four officials, quickly followed by a Giants goal that essentially put the game on ice, that was the centre of attention during the contest.

Even though the Giants won the first four games of the season series with the Cougars, the Cats had taken the last game between the two BC Division foes in Vancouver December 30, thanks to a 4-1 decision at Pacific Coliseum.  Kyle Jahraus was back in net for the Cougars, two nights after turning aside 26 shots of 28 he faced against Red Deer in his Prince George debut, a 2-1 win for the Rebels.  Jahraus continued his hot play against the Giants, kicking out 16 shots in the first period, which went scoreless.  The Cougars after a slow start, put eight shots on Giants goalie Mark Segal.

In the second period, the Giants had a great chance to open the scoring shorthanded when James Henry stole the puck at the Giants blue line and raced in on a breakaway.  But Jahraus was equal to the task, sliding over to his left to turn the opportunity away.  But the Giants would crack through to open the scoring at 16:05, when David Musil's point shot was knocked down by Jahraus, but Craig Cunningham, the WHL scoring leader, swept the rebound underneath the Cougars goalie for his 27th goal of the season.  Later in the period, the Cougars appeared to tie the score on a power play, when Nick Buonassisi and James Dobrowolski worked a give and go that ended up with Buonassisi firing a shot on goal that Segal appeared to stop, but the puck ended up in the back of the net.  Buonassisi celebrated moments after his attempt and after Segal swept the puck out, CN Centre began celebrating what looked like the tying goal.  But inconclusive evidence took the goal away, keeping the game 1-0.  A scary moment took place in the second period when Brock Hirsche went to the ice in obvious pain in his arm after a battle in a corner of the rink and headed to the Cougars dressing room, but fortunately returned not long after.  The Giants out-shot the Cougars 17-11 in the second and led 33-19 after two periods.

In the third frame, the Giants got a big save from Segal and responded by giving him a 2-0 lead.  Brett Breitkreuz, the older brother of Cougars forward Clarke Breitkreuz, slid a pass to Tomas Vincour who tucked home his 18th goal of the season at 2:14 at the left side of the goal.  Breitkreuz and Vincour came to the Giants in a deadline day trade.  The hard hitting quickly came to a halt with a scary incident with under seven minutes to play.  Brendan Gallagher of the Giants took a pass at centre ice and Cougars defenceman Jesse Forsberg seized the opportunity to try to catch Gallagher with his head down.  When Gallagher turned, the blade of his stick got underneath Forsberg's visor, ripping the helmet off his head and leaving the 16-year old on the ice.  Fortunately, the high stick was not as serious as it could have been, with Forsberg going to the dressing room for a couple of minutes before returning to play.  Somehow, though, the high stick went unpenalized.  Sure enough, Gallagher, the man who's stick caught Forsberg, was sprung loose on the ensuing face-off and went to the backhand and roofed the puck high on Jahraus' glove hand for a 3-1 Giants lead and Gallagher's 28th goal of the season.  The goal came at 13:21.  Jaroslav Vlach ended Segal's shut-out bid at 16:44, bouncing home a rebound off a point shot from Art Bidlevskii that hit the goal post behind Segal.  For Vlach, it is his fourth goal of the season and second in consecutive games.  Bidlevskii, the Cougars Captain, earned his first point in 37 games with the assist.  However, the goal was the last of the game as the Giants won the contest 3-1.  The Cougars out-shot the Giants 19-10 in the third, but were out-shot in the game 43-38, giving Jahraus 40 saves on the night.

The Cougars went 0-for-7 on the power play in the game, while shutting down the Giants power play three times.  With the loss, the Cougars fall to 9-34-1-1; the Giants improve their BC Division leading record to 28-16-1-2.  The two teams go at it again Saturday night on Kellogg's Student night.  The Salvation Army will be on hand, with donation bins at the front door.  Fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the game.  Puck drop is 7:00 and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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