Cougars Fall 7-4 In Vancouver

By 250 News

While the Prince George Cougars and Vancouver Giants didn't match their January 16, 204 penalty minutes performance on Saturday night, they still spent plenty of time in penalty box.  The teams combined for 150 penalty minutes as the Giants used a four goal first period to power past the Cougars 7-4.

The Cougars and Giants were squaring off at the Langley Events Centre, with the Giants being pushed out of the Pacific Coliseum due to the approaching Vancouver Olympics.  The teams were meeting for the final time this season, with the Giants taking six of the previous seven games.  The Cougars were coming off a difficult 4-3 shoot-out loss in Kelowna Friday night, while the Giants were victorious in a shoot-out, edging the Kamloops Blazers 2-1 Friday night.

The Giants would open the scoring on the Cougars and starting goaltender Hudson Stremmel five minutes into the game.  Rookie defenceman David Musil scored his fifth goal of the season to break the ice.  But the Cougars had an answer less than two minutes later.  Jaroslav Vlach converted his fifth goal of the year at 6:56 to tie the score at one, beating Giants starter Derek Tendler.  Taylor Orser drew the lone assist.  But for the third time in the last four games, the Cougars would give up four goals in the first period.  Brendan Gallagher's 29th goal at 9:00, Musil's second goal of the game at 15:02 on the power play and another power play goal from Tomas Vincour at 17:50 gave the Giants a 4-1 lead heading to the dressing room.  The shots were heavily in the Giants favour, 16-5.

Vancouver's lead increased to 5-1 when Neil Manning notched his 13th tally at 8:03, again on the power play.  But the Cougars brought themselves back to life when Taylor Makin scored his ninth goal of the season at 11:18 to cut the Vancouver lead to 5-2 through 40 minutes.  Brock Hirsche and Alex Rodgers got the assists.  For Rodgers, that extends his point streak to five games.  The Giants had a 12-10 shots advantage in the second period.

The Cougars were able to bite into the Giants lead a little more in the third period, when Clarke Breitkreuz scored his second goal of the season at 9:52, getting an assist from Spencer Asuchak.  Then with under 7:00 to play in the third, the Cougars had a power play to work with, but the Giants were the team to get the next big goal.  James Henry scored short-handed to boost the Giants lead to 6-3 at 13:33.  The Cougars would score on that same power play, though, as Vlach scored his second of the game at 14:16, again assisted by Orser.  But Gallagher put the game out of reach for good with an empty net goal, short-handed, at 19:16 for a 7-4 Giants win.  The Cougars out-shot the Giants 16-13 in the third, but were out-shot in the game 41-31.  The Cougars power play scored once out of 10 tries with the man-advantage, while giving up two short-handed goals.  The Giants scored a total of five goals on special teams, going 3-for-7 on the power play.

The Cougars come back to Prince George with a record of 9-40-1-2 and begin a five game homestand against the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday, February 5, which is Mascot Mania night.  Puck drop is 7:00 and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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