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Acolatse Gets 4 Points, Cougars Double Oil Kings 6-3

By 250 News

One down, one more to go against the Edmonton Oil Kings for the Prince George Cougars. The Cougars scored three third period goals for a 6-3 win Friday night at CN Centre, giving the Cougars a 10-7-1-0 record. The Cougars were playing their first home game since defeating the Tri-City Americans 8-3 on October 23. The Cougars and Oil Kings were meeting for the second time this season, after the Oil Kings won 8-7 on October 11 in overtime at Rexall Place in Alberta's capital. But the Cougars jumped on the board first, with Nick Buonassisi scoring his seventh goal of the season and second short-handed goal of the year, at 3:55 unassisted. The Cougars then scored on the power play at 7:48, on a pretty passing play finished by Troy Bourke. Buonassisi sent a left wing pass to the right point to Jesse Forsberg, who quickly fired a pass to Bourke at the side of the goal. Bourke made no mistake depositing his sixth goal of the year on the blocker side of Laurent Brossoit, the starting goalie for Edmonton. 40 seconds later, Brock Hirsche stepped into a shot from outside the right face-off circle that eluded Brossoit's glove hand for Hirsche's second of the year and a 3-0 Cougars lead. Charles Inglis and Sena Acolatse drew helpers. Brossoit's night was done, replaced by recently acquired Jon Groenheyde, who the team picked up in a trade with Kamloops late this week. The Oil Kings would get one of those goals back on a power play marker from Michael St. Croix, beating Ty Rimmer at 16:42. The Cougars carried that 3-1 lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes, out-shooting Edmonton 15-12 in the opening frame. The Oil Kings scored the only goal of the second, when Klarc Wilson notched his fourth of the year at 12:56, just out of the penalty box, and the Cougars took a 3-2 lead into the intermission. The Cats were out-shot 16-10 in the middle frame. But the Cougars penalty killers came up big in the third period, stopping a 45 second 5-on-3 power play chance for the Oil Kings. The Cougars are 8-for-8 when killing off opposition 5-on-3's. The Cougars parlayed that into a 4-2 lead, when James Dobrowolski tucked home his fourth of the season on a Cougars power play. Acolatse and Martin Marincin drew assists on the goal at 5:19. The Cougars would get another power play goal at 8:08, when Acolatse ripped home his sixth goal of the year on a one-time shot from the point. Brett Connolly and Marincin would get the assists, as the Cougars went up 5-2. Prince George would get a 5-on-3 power play of their own and capitalize, with Connolly banging home a rebound for his team leading 15th goal of the year. Acolatse would get his fourth point with another assist and Dobrowoski would get an assist, as well. Edmonton's St. Croix would round out the scoring with another power play goal at 13:54, but the Cougars get the 6-3 victory. The Cougars were out-shot in the game 41-39, but Rimmer's 38 saves gives him three wins in his first three starts for the Cougars in goal. Special teams were huge, with Prince George notching four goals on nine chances on the power play. Edmonton went 2-for-7. The Cougars, with a Vancouver Giants loss to Kelowna Friday by a 4-3 score, are now one point behind the Giants for first in the BC Division, also holding a game in hand on Vancouver. The Cougars will look for a double-header sweep of the Oil Kings Saturday, when the clubs collide again at CN Centre, starting at 7:00pm. Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at 250-564-5585
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