Cougars Fall 3-1 To Giants Saturday

Sunday, October 03, 2010 12:07 AM

The Cougars found themselves 20 minutes away from a split of a weekend doubleheader with the Vancouver Giants. The only problem was the last 20 minutes. The Vancouver Giants scored three unanswered goals in the final frame to pull out a 3-1 win at CN Centre.

The Cougars had dropped their home opener Friday 5-3 and were looking to bring their record back to .500 with a win Saturday night. The Cougars made a change in goal, with James Priestner making the start, his first since the season opening game September 24 in Kamloops. Priestner faced nine shots from Vancouver shooters in the opening 20 minutes and blocked them all as the teams skated to a scoreless draw through one period. The Cougars fired four shots at Mark Segal, the winning goalie Friday.

The Cougars drew first blood early in the second period on a power play goal from Nick Buonassisi. James Dobrowolski went behind the Giants goal and fed a pass to Buonassisi on the right wing, who blew a one-time shot past Segal for his second goal of the season, giving the Cougars a 1-0 lead just 1:17 into the second period. Brett Connolly also drew an assist, giving him a point in each of the Cougars first four games this season, and Dobrowolski has an assist in three straight games. The Cougars out-shot the Giants 14-5 in the middle frame and took their one goal lead to the dressing room.

But the Giants had an early answer, with Dalton Sward notching his second of the season at 2:33 to tie the game at one. The Giants would add two more goals, from Matt MacKay at 8:20 and Marek Tvrdon at 10:01, to pull out a 3-1 decision. The Giants controlled the third period, out-shooting the Cougars 15-5, for a 29-23 shots edge in the game.

The good news for the Cougars is their penalty killing, which is sitting at 90% efficiency through four games. The Cougars did not allow a Giants power play goal in eight situations short-handed in the two games. The Giants were 0-for-4 Saturday, while the Cougars went 1-for-3.

The 1-3-0-0 Cougars head on the road for a four game trip, starting in Cranbrook Wednesday against the Kootenay Ice. The Cougars will head to Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Edmonton before returning home to meet the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday, October 15. Fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the Cougars next home game, where every pound of non-perishable items donated will be matched by Shaw and Campbell's. Also, a donation of three non-perishable items will get you entered to win an HD PVR from Shaw. For Tickets, contact Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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Posted on Sunday, October 03, 2010 12:07 AM in Sports by 250 Sports

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Comments

Posted by: Resident on October 3 2010 2:47 PM

Good second period for the Cougars. Don Hay probably had a few words for his guys after 2 and the Giants owned the 3rd.
Atleast the sound system was fixed so score one for the CN Center staff.

Posted by: canuckfan on October 4 2010 5:12 PM

No Matter who they get or trade for nothing will help, no matter how many coaches they go through nothing will help. My opinion on this is if any team struggles for a long period of time like the cougars if its another WHL, CHL, AHL, or even the NHL if a team struggles the first guy they go after is the coach and we've been through enough and still no improvement again if its any other team the next step is management and thats dallas thompson i'm sorry the guy can't do it he is the worst GM out there but we can never get rid of him because hes married to the bosses daughter and well i think mr brodski needs to make a serious decision if he wants his team to seceed and the fan base to come back and thats fire the weak link thompson family or not make that call see what happens. Try putting a bid to host the memorial cup we have the canada games in 2015 lets go for the memorial cup too that would be one hell of a story worst team in CHL wins the memorial cup ok i may be dreaming but a person can dream. I hope the boys like chara, brewer and the rest of the gang put another off on the table to buy the team from brodski cause we can see he can't do his job not in victoria and not here to him family comes first but when owning a WHL team the team should come first and fire your son in-law he can't do a dam thing.

Posted by: Resident on October 5 2010 12:39 PM

1900 fans at game 2. Does not look good going forward. It will take a winner to bring the fans back and there is not much chance of that happening with Dallas in charge. Even the Citizen relegates Cougar news to a single print column on page 2 of the sports section of the paper. The Citizen reports more about high school football that the basement dwelling Cougars. After game 2 and I am already sorry I purchased season tickets.