Bourke and Dumais Record First WHL Goals Tuesday vs. Chilliwack

Tuesday, March 09, 2010 10:48 PM

It was the youngsters for the Prince George Cougars who stole the spotlight Tuesday in the Cougars first game of back-to-back tilts with the Chilliwack Bruins at CN Centre. In the return of Brett Connolly to the Cougars roster after a 39 game hiatus, 17-year old forward Wilson Dumais and 15-year old forward Troy Bourke both scored their first WHL goals, with the latter notching a pair. But Prince George product Ryan Howse got the last laugh, recording a hat-trick to lift the Bruins to a 7-4 win.

Bourke joined the Cougars this week after his Alberta Major Midget Hockey League season came to a close on the weekend. Bourke, a rookie, finished second in league scoring with 53 points and was tops in goals with 27. In Prince George, it took one shift for Bourke, who had one game previous for the Cougars on February 20 in Edmonton, to find the score-sheet. Parker Stanfield threw a perfect pass rink wide through the legs of Connolly and onto the tape of Bourke coming down the left side. Without wasting any time, Bourke fired home his first WHL goal past Bruins goaltender Lucas Gore at 1:32. Connolly also drew an assist on the goal and with the assist, Stanfield extended his point streak to four. The Bruins, though, began dictating play as the first period wore on and capitalized when Jeff Einhorn blew a one-time slap shot past Hudson Stremmel for his third goal of the season. Then at 14:47, the Cougars turned the puck over at the Bruins line and another Prince George kid, Brandon Manning, took advantage, beating Stremmel on a break-away for his 12^th of the year and a 2-1 Bruins lead. The Bruins out-shot the Cougars 11-5.

In the second period, the Bruins added to their lead with two goals from Howse, earning his 42^nd and 43^rd goals at 4:57 and 14:46, the latter on the power play, to up the Bruins lead to 4-1. But the Cougars got a late goal with the man-advantage to cut the lead in half. Alex Rodgers, the Cougars leading scorer who was honored before the game along with fellow 20-year olds Tyler Halliday and Garrett Thiessen, barged into the Bruins zone and fed Nick Buonassisi a pass in the slot. Buonassisi got spun around, but pushed a pass to James Dobrowolski who fired home his 19^th goal of the season with four seconds left in the middle stanza to make it 4-2 Bruins. The Bruins out-shot the Cougars 14-10.

Kevin Sundher scored his 25^th at 3:50 of the third period to return the three goal lead to the Bruins at 5-2. But Dumais, who was enjoying one of his better games since joining the Cougars in February, got his first WHL goal on a one-time shot from the slot that beat Gore between the legs. Stanfield got his second assist and it was 5-3 Bruins. Just over three minutes later, Dumais was at it again, stealing the puck in the Chilliwack zone and passing to Dobrowolski, who slipped a feed to the left wing where Bourke tapped home his second of the game to cut the lead to 5-4. But Howse put the game out of reach with under 90 seconds to play, firing a perfect wrist shot from the right face-off circle past Stremmel on the glove side for his hat-trick goal and 44^th of the season. Dylen McKinlay added an empty net goal to reach the 20 goal plateau and make the final 7-4 Bruins, giving the Bruins a 31-32-1-5 record on the season. The shots in the final frame went the Cougars way at 11-9, but they were out-shot in the game 34-26. Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power play.

With the loss, the Cougars find themselves at 11-55-1-2 and will play their final home game of the 2009-10 season Wednesday on Clean Out the Closet Night. Donations of gently used clothing and household items will be accepted at the game, with donations being used to support local Salvation Army programs. Puck drop is 7:00 and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.