Cougars Hammer Blazers 5-1

Friday, March 12, 2010 10:52 PM

No Prince George Cougars victory this season had nearly the number of storylines coming out of it like the Cats 5-1 thumping of the Kamloops Blazers Friday night. The obvious one is the extinction of the Cougars season high15-game losing streak, with their last win coming over the Blazers on February 10, 4-2. A 12-game road losing streak is also a thing of the past. Alex Wright was tremendous in goal, with a 40 save performance. Brett Connolly, in just his third game back from a 39-game layoff because of a hip injury, recorded his third, three-point game in 15 contests this season. For the second straight game, the Cougars scored three power play goals and one short-handed goal. Alex Rodgers earned his second four point game this season against his former club, picking up four assists and reaching the 100 assist plateau in his WHL career. Captain Garrett Thiessen, meanwhile, scored his first goal in over three years and like Rodgers, did it against the team that drafted him in 2004.

After no scoring through the opening half of the first period, the Cougars would pick up three tallies in a 6:43 span. Connolly would notch his eighth goal of the year at 12:45 with a power play goal, beating Blazers starter Kurtis Mucha. Rodgers, the Cougars leading scorer, would draw the lone assist on the tally. Two and a half minutes later, James Dobrowolski would add another power play goal for his team leading 23^rd of the season, giving Dobrowolski not only a four game point streak, but four straight games with a goal, giving him 10 in the last 10 games. Rodgers would get his second assist and Connolly notched his second point with a helper. That goal was Dobrowolski’s 15^th power play goal of the year, putting him into a tie for 7^th in the WHL. The Cougars would get another goal on special teams with 32 seconds to play in the first when Connolly got his second goal and third point of the game short-handed at 19:28 for his ninth of the year and second short-handed goal of the season. Another assist went to Rodgers, putting him one away from the century mark for helpers in his WHL career. Even though the Cougars were leading 3-0 after one period, Alex Wright turned aside 16 shots, with the Blazers out-shooting the Cougars 16-10.

The Cougars faced a new goalie to start the second period, with Jon Groenheyde taking over between the pipes. But the Cougars continued to find the back of the net. Spencer Asuchak collected his 10^th goal of the season at 1:52 and Rodgers earned his fourth assist of the game, completing in 21:52 of action Friday that would have normally taken a pretty good weekend’s worth of production for him to complete heading into the final two games of the season; hitting the 100 assist mark. The Blazers finally solved Wright at 5:14 when Brendan Ranford recorded his 28^th goal of the season to cut the Cougars lead to 4-1. But at 15:28, Thiessen scored another Cougars power play goal to make it a 5-1 game. Thiessen was close to scoring Wednesday in the final minute of the Cougars last home game against the Chilliwack Bruins, but rang a wrist shot off the goal post. But he beat Groenheyde and found the back of the net for his first of the season and first goal since December 27, 2006 against the Spokane Chiefs during his first tour of duty with the Cougars, 220 games ago. Also, Parker Stanfield earned the lone assist, giving Stanfield a six game point streak. The shots were even at 15 a side and the Cougars took a 5-1 lead into the dressing room after 40 minutes.

Wright turned away 10 more Blazers shots in a scoreless third period to earn his fourth win of the season and first since January 2, against the Blazers, in a 5-1 Cougars victory. The Cougars improve to 12-56-1-2 with the victory, being out-shot 41-33 in the game. The Blazers record drops to 32-33-2-4. The Cougars went 3-for-6 on the power play, while the Blazers were 0-for-4. Friday was the 10^th meeting of the season between the two long-standing rivals, with the Cougars getting their fourth win over Kamloops this season.

Game 72 for Prince George is Saturday in Kelowna against the Rockets.