Cougars Blank Thunderbirds 2-0

By 250 News

Talk about an excellent debut.  Cougars goalie Ty Rimmer stopped all 36 shots he faced in his first start between the pipes for the Cougars, leading Prince George to a 2-0 win in Seattle Friday night.

The Cougars were looking to get back in the win column after a 7-3 loss to Spokane Wednesday, playing their second game of a four game road trip.  The Cougars were the meeting Seattle for the first of four meetings this season.  The teams were scoreless through the first period, with the Thunderbirds out-shooting Prince George 12-8.  Rimmer made key stops in the first, especially late when he robbed Burke Gallimore, Seattle's top sniper, from point blank range.  Rimmer and opposing netminder Calvin Pickard stayed perfect through 40 minutes, with the Cougars out-shooting Seattle 12-11 in the middle frame and had survived a 40 second 5-on-3 power play for the T-Birds, the second ranked power play in the league coming into the game.

In the third period, Rimmer came up huge again, stopping Travis Toomey with a short-handed breakaway, as Toomey tried to beat Rimmer on the blocker side.  The ice breaker finally came at the 13:59 mark, when Nick Buonassisi got control of a loose puck and fired a shot over Pickard's glove hand for his fifth goal of the season.  Taylor Stefishen and Martin Marincin each drew assists on the goal.  The same trio combined to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead, with Stefishen banging home his second goal of the season, sneaking the puck along the ice past Pickard after a wrap-around attempt.  Seattle got a late power play and had the net empty, but could not solve Rimmer and the Cougars penalty killers, as the Cougars held on for the 2-0 victory, Rimmer's first WHL shut-out.  The T-Birds out-shot the Cougars 13-12 in the third and 36-32 in the game.  The victory is the first for the Cougars in which they had scored fewer than three goals, with all of their previous seven wins seeing at least five goals on the board.

The Cougars went 1-for-8 on the power play, while Seattle was 0-for-7, bringing the Cougars up to third in the league on the penalty kill at 86.7%, including 7-for-7 when facing a 5-on-3 power play.

The Cougars, now at 8-6-1-0, square off with the Tri-City Americans Saturday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick, Washington.  The meeting will be the third in eight nights between the clubs, after splitting a weekend doubleheader in Prince George October 22 and 23.  The Americans, winners in a shoot-out in Everett Friday, are 11-4-1-0.

The Cougars next home game is Friday, November 5 against the Edmonton Oil Kings.  Puck drop is 7:00pm at CN Centre and tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585.

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